"I guess beauty is in the Eye of the Tiger?"

Tiger Woods' PGA Tour games have almost completely taken over the golf-game market. It was no surprise when they announced a tiger woods game for the new Nintendo handheld, taking advantage over the DS's touch screen capabilities. It just came down to how much effort EA was willing to put into it. And they've shown that they really don't care much at all.

Gameplay: 5

The touch screen concept was a step in the right direction. It really was. But you could tell that the development team was rushed for this game. The tee shot is actually a great deal of fun, swinging with your stylus to the middle of the fairway. From there on, it's a slippery slope. Your approach shot will be confusing, and it's very hard to determine how much power to put behind your shot. When you finally do make it onto the green, you'll be very disappointed with the putting. The only way to judge the greens is by a little “caddy tip”. That really takes almost all the fun out of it. The best part about putting was reading the slops, judging the weight, and sinking that sweet 20 footer when no believed you could. The controls in general for this Tiger Woods installment are wacky. The shot meter is fairly sensitive, and just the slightest angle off will cause a massive slice or hook. Getting the right power is even more frustrating, and often you'll find yourself over the green, or 20 yards short of it. It just doesn't feel like I'm playing golf.

Graphics : 5

Disappointing, even for one who doesn't usually care about graphics. The character models are jagged, and out of proportion. The customization is minimal; a few hats, a few shirts, a few faces, they all look the same in the end. The courses don't have much going on for them. The trees look fine, but the textures on the fairways, rough and green are terrible. The rough just looks like a dark green fairway. The bunkers are laughable. I understand that this was one of the first sports ventures onto the DS, but they could have put much more time into this.

Sound: 5

“Chirp Chrip. Oooh! Aaahh! *sporadic applause*” You better get used to those three sounds, because that's all that's happening, sound-wise in this game. For every questionable shot, you get a random “ohhh” from the crowd. For every good shot, you get a bit “ohhh” from the crowd. It just gets so annoying, you'll find that you've turned the sound off completely.

Replay/Multiplayer: 6

Well, there's not a whole lot to do when you've finished everything, but thankfully it would take you a long, long time. There are plenty of challenges and tournaments to play in Tiger Woods DS and you won't be running out of things to do anytime soon. The multiplayer is mediocre; it's just the single player taking twice as long, which can't be anything good. However, just having someone beside you seems to make the game more fun.

Overall (Not an average):5

The first DS golf game has set a foundation for games to come to improve on and build upon. It's not utter trash, it's just not something I would want to play. If EA decided to spend just a little more time to try and improve the actual game of golf, and not adding so many pointless extra features, this game might have worked out.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/06