![]() ![]() Super Swing Golf’s courses are easily its highlight, but equally, they are to some extent designed for showing off - in single-player, there are no real competitors or ostentatious players to goad you into taking that enormously risky shot, and there’s no taunting or heckling to prevent you from playing over-conservatively. These courses have been played thousands of times online, and consequently they are extraordinarily well-tailored to the player, full of clever shortcuts and get-arounds that reward risks with super-long runs, advantageous lies and, of course, the all-important Pang Points. The courses are pleasingly varied, littered with obstacles from windmill blades to ice floes and cannons to strategically-placed signs designed to mess up particularly risky shots. Demonstrably, this lacks imagination, but the setting amply makes up for it. The single-player modes consist of Pangya Festa, which is an enjoyably nonsensical story mode, and straightforward Match and Stroke against the AI. Of course, all people ever do online is dress this little cutie up in disturbingly revealing costumes. Birdies, decent shots and risky chip-ins are rewarded with Pang Points, which are used to buy stat-boosting equipment in the shop, which enjoys a constant influx of new items - but unlike in PC Pangya, the only way to test out your souped-up character is against the AI, which is considerably less rewarding to beat than another human player. You have to swing like a golfer (albeit a rather slow one), with a consistent and even swing at a 45 degree angle, in order to hit a perfect shot it takes quite some getting used to, but impatient killjoys can always switch to button control. Super Swing Golf, by contrast, strips away all of the online aspects and most of the character customization, leaving us with what would be a really very normal golf game were it not for the extreme silliness of the setting - and, of course, its as-yet-unique control system. ![]() Pangya is all about making your character your own, and the actual game of golf itself becomes almost secondary - essentially, playing the courses becomes little more than a way to earn in-game currency, which can be used to pay off caddies or buy some of the more mundane items. Want to stop losing so embarrassingly often? Better buy yourself a better character, then, or a nicer hat, or prettier gloves, or more advanced equipment, or a caddy, and so on and so on until you’re sitting there in your socks and underpants having sold all your worldy possessions in order to kit out a cutesy virtual golfer, whose incessant V-popping (the peace sign, not Viagra) and gleeful dancing soon begin to take on an air of mockery. Pangya is freely downloadable and free to play on the PC, but they sucker you out of your money by plunging you into an insanely bright, colourful world populated entirely by people who are much, much better than you. Super Swing Golf is an adaptation of a fantasy golf MMO called Albatross18 (or Pangya in Japan and Korea) - a game to which I have been harbouring a substantial addiction for the better part of six months. Though there are four episodes, you can't advance past the first until you've beaten it with all eight characters! It's far too repetitive and laborious for a game with such a light, user-friendly tone.I must begin, in the manner of Dave McCarthy, by declaring an interest. While it adds some much needed interest, the career structure is hugely flawed. At times, it finds amusment, like when my golfer (a policeman that resembled a cross between the cop from the Village People and John Goodman's character from The Big Lebowski), developed a fervid desire for mass amounts of fried chicken. The only unique element it offers is the lengthy cutscenes and myriad characters offered in the story mode. If all this sounds like a by-the-book golf game, you're absolutely right. You can also buff your stats by buying new clubs, balls, and items with Pang, the game's internal currency (which is awarded for accurate shot making). ![]() As you progress, you can learn new skills like power shots and top spin, which give you an added boost after your ball is done rolling. The courses balance solid layouts with more fantastical elements like precarious islands and icebound bunkers. The swing works on the three-click mechanic, which feels accurate while still maintaining a degree of challenge for veteran players. Pangya: Fantasy Golf makes a name for itself in the world of video game golf by combining the familiar gameplay and item collection-based formula of Hot Shots Golf with a strange, anime-style story mode.Īnyone familiar with old school, pre-analog swing golf will be right at home with Pangya's gameplay. ![]()
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