Golf Gang Preview – Extra crazy multiplayer minigolf

Time Stamp: April 11, 2022 4:00 AM

Another day, another golf game. Golf Gang might look like any number of indie minigolf games that have released over the last few years – and a part of the wider “what if X, but with golf?” trend that seems to be quietly putting away in the background – but this is by far the most chaotic example of the genre I’ve had the pleasure to play.

You see, Golf Gang isn’t just minigolf, it’s not just an attempt to reach the hole in the fewest strokes… you also want to race and get there first.

The key hook for Golf Gang is that both your stroke-play and your speed matter – arf! – and that you’re in direct, simultaneous competition with all the other players in the lobby. Everyone starts at the same time, not only having to contend with whatever the course is going to throw your way, but also with the likelihood that your balls are going to collide, almost certainly setting you back on your sprint to the hole.

The winner at the end of the course is still the person with the lowest score, but it’s calculated in a rather unique way. At the end of each hole, everyone’s number of strokes and time is ranked, and the position in both of these is then added to your score. Tie for fourth in number of strokes and get the third-best time, and that’s seven points added to your score.

Golf Gang multiplayer

Each player has an anthropomorphised golf ball, and there’s plenty of golf ball customisation options available to players to create some thoroughly daft looks, and it’s a simple case of pointing the camera in the direction you want, charging up your shot and letting loose. There’s a simple twist as you can get in successive hits while you’re still in motion, but harder shots will have a longer cooldown before you can repeat. This means that, with a little skill, thought and luck, you can skip parts of the levels, leaping up a ramp and then sending your ball in a completely different direction while it’s still in the air. It can also go completely wrong and end up with you in the drink…

The courses play into this, giving you relatively wide and straightforward looking arenas to navigate that allows the eight-player chaos to be the real focus – the minimalist polygonal art style helps with that too, though it’s rather plain in comparison to Golf It! and Golf With Your Friends. However, there’s regularly things like ramps, leaps, bounce balloons, rotating obstacles, and more to contend with. Easier said than done when everyone’s trying to go all at once.

Golf Gang Big Balls

Making things even more chaotic are the plethora of game modifiers that can be applied. The game we played had one modifier where every stroke increases the size of your ball, which can make it almost impossible to get past certain scenery if it gets too big, but alongside that we had a randomised second modifier than changed between holes. Explosive collisions, rubberised that bounce, a first-person mode, a car-like click to accelerate mode so that only your time matters, more vertical shots, jumping, alternately hitting forward and in reverse… the modifiers go on and on.

When there’s already plenty of well-established mini golf games out there, Golf Gang needed a hook to stand out from the crowd. With the all-out craziness of eight-player multiplayer and modifiers combined, it’s an absolute hoot, and I look forward to playing more when it comes out for PC on 22nd May.

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