"Golf, Midway-style"

Midway has done a lot with sports games, and has made a plethora of moolah with said sports games. Take a look at what they'ved done with football, basketball, even hockey a little bit. Now, they're entering a realm even I didn't think they could do: golf. Particularly, the Skins game, that made-for-TV event where you gets ''skins'' for beating the opponent. Well, now Midway has turned that into one heck of a game.

''Skins Game'' is an eighteen hole journey through three real-life golf courses in Arizona, Illinois, and another one I haven't heard of before. You pay for every three holes, but you can just play one hole or two if you so desire. Five to six credits are needed to play all eighteen holes, and it's comporable to playing four quarters in NFL Blitz or NBA Showtime.

There are two modes: Competitive and Extreme, and there's not much different. Both involve a ''power'' button (what Midway sports game would be without a power/turbo button, huh?) which you can use on certain holes or after acculumating ten ''quickshots''. Thus, you can try to go for a hole-in-one on a par 5.

The real difference between competitive and extreme modes is that you can control the ball to spin up to four different ways in the extreme mode (top, bottom, left & right spins). Frankly, the left and right spins don't do much for me in the Extreme mode, but I've found the top and bottom spin to be very helpful indeed.

The most refreshing thing about ''Skins Game'' is the sanity of play. No unrealistic golf hole designs/placement. Wind is present, but it isn't totally unrealistic whip around every which way on each shot. And the specially designed joystick makes hooking, slicing, or just hitting the ball straight a breeze. In no time, even I, a mere arcade novice became a ''Skins Game'' pro in no-time.

Yes, there is a stat saving option much like in San Francisco Rush 2099 with a numeric keypad, which gives you a handicap after playing 72 holes. It also keeps a score of your birdies, eagles, and pars and doesn't even mention the number of double bogedies or higher you've hacked.

The keypad can also give you mulligan chances every once in a while, if you hit a bad shot. It'll cost you a credit, through.

OH, and I almost forgot about the Skins, the whole point of this Midway golf game. You get skins for birdies or higher (up to five for a hole-in-one on a par five, a.k.a. ''Golden Eagle''), skins for scoring par or better off a water or sand hazard. If you're playing with others (which is what this game is really geared for), you also get skins for the longest drive and getting the ball closest to pin on particular holes. You can really rack up the skins if you're really good, or lucky. It keeps the game really fun, even if you're out of it.

Once can play six different characters, three female, three male, including one Tiger Woods imitator, each with a range of reactions to putts. This gets old after awhile, but it is amusing to see the gallery to bow down and worship you if you're doing particularly well.

I'm usually not much of a golf fan because the tendancy is to make the game much more difficult in the arcade than it is in real life, so I'm am glad that Midway has certainly created a much more relaxing game than some of the others in the past. It's a real fun game to play, especially in a group.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/00, Updated 04/02/00