"An average golf game..."

Like most Golf games, Awesome Golf is nothing more, nothing less than your run of the mill golf game in which you take a player and run him through one of three different courses. One of the most interesting features that the game has to offer is the fact that you can link up three other players to your Lynx and play through the game in a multiplayer format! Other than that, all you have is your simple game options that really have no effect on the game aside from how many holes of golf you play and which of the different courses that you’re going to play through. If you’re into golf games, and you have a Lynx, then you’ll find that Awesome Golf is about as good as it gets without going too far overboard.

Now, with most golf games, you’ll find that there isn’t too much to them, and in this game you’ll find that there really isn’t anything to it that will impress you to the point of calling it the best golf game ever. However, there is the multiplayer option in which you can throw in some extra human players and get them to really compete with you. Once you’ve gotten into the game that far, time will fly and you’ll find that there is plenty in that aspect that will keep you busy enough until you move onto the next game for the Lynx system!

The game play itself is divided up into a couple of different games in which you have to choose just how many holes you’re going to play {9 or 18} and just where you’re going to play them. Like other golf games, you have to take into effect the terrain and the wind as well as what club you’re going to use for your start off drive. Once you’ve selected all of your options and started playing, the point of the game is just to get from hole 1 to hole 18 {assuming you picked 18 holes} and get there underneath the par for the course. Playing through the game is little more than just timing and practice with a little bit of strategy thrown in for good measure!

Once you’ve started play, you can select from several different clubs which will allow you to hit the ball a little harder at each passing style of the club. Usually, the strategy that you find in the game comes with being able to remember just what clubs do what, and once you’ve gotten into the game, or you’ve played other golf games, you can get the game play down to a science. Other than that, the game really doesn’t get too much more exciting unless you’re playing through with a couple of other players in the multiplayer feature, so be prepared for a rather uneventful game!

Control really isn’t too hard to learn and understand, so you’ll just have to read the instruction booklet to get the finer points of the game down. Learning to use the wind to your advantage is yet another part of the control function, and if you’ve gotten a good handle on what it is that you can do, using the wind, then everything else is a piece of cake. Beginners to the game shouldn’t have a problem learning just what the controls do and how to use the power meter to perform the swings, so if you’re a veteran of the golf games, then this shouldn’t be too hard to understand! Multiplayer doesn’t affect the overall handling of the game, so linking up several players shouldn’t be too big of a deal.

Visually, the game doesn’t offer all that much other than a slight scrolling feature in which you can watch the ball go and not miss much else. The golfers that you run into really don’t have too much detailing to them and even the different courses don’t have enough variation that will set them all apart. The actual layout of the courses are nice to look at, but once you’ve seen the game the first time through, you won’t find anything new in the game that will impress you. For a golf game, the Lynx does offer you some decent visuals and you’ll find that if you’re not expecting too much like in Cyber Tiger for Play Station, then you have a game that is visually pleasing to the eye!

Audio wise, you can’t expect too much from a golf game and you really don’t have much of a soundtrack to listen to. The sound effects throughout the game is what takes the most precedence and even those aren’t enough to really make up a sound section. The character voice is a little on the high pitched side, and you won’t find too many other sound effects throughout the game, so be prepared to have very little to listen to in the process. Like most golf games, you really can’t expect too much in the way of exceptional rock tunes or anything else to flow along with the game, so you’ll just have to deal with the near silence that Awesome Golf has to offer!

Awesome Golf is just what you would expect it to be, without going too far over the line in terms of exceptional visuals and overbearing audio to go along with it. The premise of the game really isn’t for anything or anyone else other than golf gamers who enjoy this type of game. For me it was a simple game selection that I picked because the game was something that I could buy and play for the Lynx at the time. With the multiplayer option that you have available, you may find that the game has enough to offer you if you can find some other people who have a Lynx system, then you’re pretty much set and you can have some pretty interesting game play!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/17/02, Updated 01/17/02