From IGN (and fixed now!)
http://wii.ign.com/articles/841/841278p1.html
December 12, 2007 - Getting all excited and exclaiming to a Wii owner "There's a new golf game out!" is like telling an Xbox 360 owner, "Wow, look at that new FPS!".
Yeah, well what if that FPS were made by Bungie?
No, We Love Golf wasn't made be the makers of Halo. But it was made by the studio responsible for a number of titles that could be called the Halo of golf games, Camelot. So, despite having too many golf games in the IGN Wii library already, we did not hesitate to pick up We Love Golf when it hit Japanese retail on Thursday.
We Love Golf is a golf game where you use the Wiimote as a virtual golf club. Okay, so that's not much of a surprise. We were pleasantly surprised by the feel of the controls, though. The game does a good job of accurately capturing your swings. Like the best waggle-ready titles, it gets you to assume a proper golfer's stance even though you could probably get away with playing while seated.
The basic swing mechanics are so simple that you'll be able to quickly turn off the god-awful annoying animated Wiimote navigator (his name is Mr. Remote Control, and he likes to abuse the Wiimote's built in speaker). To take a swing, you hold down A and swing the Wiimote just like a golf club. You can also hold down the 1 and 2 buttons while pressing A to get, respectively, topspin and backspin; this button choice actually works well because your right thumb ends up in that very position. By angling the Wiimote left or right you can force draw or fade shots.
The game displays a power meter with a marker indicating how far back you should swing to achieve your desired shot strength. This meter is updated in realtime to note the current position of your Wiimote, so you'll know exactly where to stop. You're free to ignore the marker in order to perform a weaker or stronger shot.
All the requisite options have been included. You can quickly cycle through a set of golf clubs with the plus and minus buttons. To change the aim of your shot, you simply aim the Wiimote up at the screen and point away. You can even take practice air swings by holding down the B trigger instead of the A button as you swing.
You'll find a good number of ways to put the control scheme to the test thanks to the variety of modes Camelot has included. In addition to stroke, tournament, and versus CPU play, solo players can look forward to a target golf mode, where you collect points by hitting your ball into a target range, and the ring shot mode, where you attempt to make your shots pass through rings while also getting par or better. Stroke play can also be played by up to four players, as can a mode where players attempt to get as close to the hole as possible through one shot. Multiplayer modes can be played with a single Wiimote for those lacking sufficient numbers of controllers.
Camelot can already be thought of as a pioneer in "fun golf" games, but We Love Golf takes the concept to a new level. The included courses are a bit on the fantastic side compared to other "fun golf" games like Hot Shots Golf. The Treasure Shot Island course, for instance, has a pirate theme, with a few vertical obstacles getting in the way. One course is set in a forest with candy-shaped landscaping, providing some odd terrain that you'll have to work around. The wacky effect of these courses is heightened by the bouncy music in the background; it's a bit more energetic than most golf games.
There seems to be a good deal waiting to be unlocked for those who play further. While you start off with two characters, each with four clothing styles, the instruction manual mentions four additional characters. Add that to full integration with your Mii collection, and you have a sizable lineup of in-game personas from whom to choose. Costumes await those who clear tournaments, with some designs based off classic Capcom characters like Chun Li and Jill Valentine.
On top of all this variety, Camelot has put together an interface that would make its former publishing partner Nintendo proud (Capcom is doing the honors as publisher this time). Everything runs nice and smooth in We Love Golf, with zero loading between scenes, and easy access to menus, both using pointer controls and buttons. Camelot even went so far as to include a mode for lefties, which reverses the layout of the control meter for the right-challenged among us.
Camelot clearly spent a lot of time polishing the game's interface -- a good thing considering the general appeal We Love Golf should have. Seeing as how a number of third parties haven't been as good as Nintendo with creating solid user interfaces for the Wiimote, they should be commended.
It's a bit premature to say with conviction that we definitely love We Love Golf, but we're certainly liking it, a lot. We'll have a full review closer to the international release some time next year, but to hold you over, we've got some direct video grabs from the final Japanese version.
Wii Code 3456 7941 4060 2924
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