Swing Away Golf

"Not Hot Shot Golf in many ways, but still fun"

If you are thinking about buying this game because you loved Hot Shot Golf, you should know some things.

GRAPHICS: I like the look of this game. There are not too many golf games that look this good. Clouds move in the sky in the same direction as the wind; trees sway in the breeze; bird fly about; waves crash against the rocks, the water looks great...good eye candy overall. The characters themselves are crisp and taller in shape than the squatty Hot Shot Golf type. I prefer this tall form much more. However some of the character could be a little more comical and goofy. The guys in this are kind of girly pretty boys. Some of the girl characters are good-cute but some are kind of barbee doll rejects. There's an old guy in this that should have been the type of goofy characters they could have had more of.

SOUND: A lot of critic really blast the sound track. I don't hate the sound track anymore than some of these bad tecmo or heavy medal you get with some games. But you can turn the music off...so there really is no problem with music here. The thing I do wish for is more nature sounds. I like to hear birds chirping and the trees, wind blowing. You do hear this a little sometimes, but only on a few courses.

GAME PLAY: This is where the most difference is between Hot Shot Golf and Swing away Golf. It subtle differences within the same mechanics. It is much, much easier to get par in this game. In HSG timing your shot was much tougher. Here its way too generous at times. But its just as complex if not more complex, in judging the distance and giving the right power. The wind and the elevation of the green are bigger factors here. Overall Swing away golf matches become about geting under PAR, which isn't a given. So there is still this good tension going for it. Not less of an experience than HSG for sure.

EXTRAS: What sold this game to me over everything is the create your own golf course. First this make this game limitless on replayability. A great feature, BUT I do wish it were more my hands on the customization. You really only set some guideline for each hole and the computer does the rest randomly within those guidelines. If you don't like the outcome you can can set the computer to reset it again. This works, but 100% the way I wanted it too.

This game also has caddies. I have the same critism for them as the characters. Not goofy or wild enough. Good idea but too cutesy doll. The annoying chinese caddie is the favorite one in my house because at least he's a wise @#!*

The story mode is another well done part of this game. I truely enjoy the on-going climb up the popularity/money ladder.

WISH LIST: More complex timing in the mechanics. More personalization of my created courses. And how about a charcter generator type thing.

LAST STATEMENT: This game gets played by everybody in my house. It,like HSG, is a great group activity game. It's slow paced...it's golf what do you expect...but it's a golf game that moves along fast enough to get 18 holes in after a long night of fighting/racing/sports games. Plus all the other mini games like close to the pin are neat fast pased extras. I'm happy I bought it. And play it fairly regularly.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/14/01, Updated 07/14/01