UFO 50 Retrospective Part 31 - Pingolf
Y'ALL WANNA ROCK?
It is mid 1987, and UFO Soft has moved fully into its new offices! These new offices have a LOT of nice ammenities, including an indoor minigolf course, and a bunch of pinball machines. The new boss, Mr. Nemura, is really into collecting games it seems, so he has a bunch of old ones for the in-office arcade. Cool! Inspired by these, the team made Pingolf, a kind of combination of Pinball and Golf.
Pingolf is a cyber futuristic-esque golf game for a big tournament with a bunch of robo-people, but it’s also… a carnival? It’s weird, I don’t really like the vibe or aesthetic much. The music is fine though. It’s a side to side pinball game, just choose the angle and the power, and let her rip. You can also dunk the ball, which will SLAM the ball downwards, often at an angle if it’s moving forward. Do 18 holes and win the tournament!
It’s not very complex of a game. Compared to some of the recent games, in fact, it’s SHOCKINGLY simple. Very short, even, this can take you like, 10 minutes. Getting GOOD though, that will take you a while. The holes are the same every time, you learning a route, where and when to dunk, that’s gonna take you a bit longer. The cherry is to get under par. The AI is actually pretty damn bad at this, so like, just getting under par means you win handidly.
That’s it! I didn’t like this game very much when I first played it tbh, but it’s… alright. I think it’s just okay. A little too simple for its own good, and a bit frustrating as you try and learn it, cause your ball bounces all over the mother fucking place, and dunking is hard to really grok. The best thing about this game is that using a code you can play as Waldorf. Hell yea, Waldorf.
6.5/10