Cursed to Golf

by Aethyna Aug 19, 2022 | 1 Votes | 34 Played | 0 Reviews

9 rate

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Sports

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Labels:

Adventure , Roguelike/roguelite , Golf , Platformer

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Thunderful Publishing Cursed to Golf is a challenging golf-based platformer-roguelike where you play as a golf champion who was just about to win the Eternal Golf Championship before getting struck by lightning right down into Golf Purgatory. Now, you’ll need win all 18 holes and get a chance to ascend back into life. Will you be able to do it? Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

Cursed to Golf is a challenging golf-based platformer-roguelike where you play as a golf champion who was so close to winning the Eternal Golf Championship and sealing your rightfully-deserved title as the Greatest Golfer of All Time before lightning struck you down into hell… well, Golf Purgatory, to be exact. Now, you’ll need to rely on your golfing skills to get yourself through all 18 holes in Golf Purgatory, each of them more difficult than the next, and win a chance to ascend back into life. Will you be able to do it?

Plotline

The crowds are roaring and you are just moments from winning the Eternal Golf Championship and sealing your rightfully-deserved title as the Greatest Golfer of All Time, but then the thunder clouds started rolling in.

Against your better judgement, you’ve decided to play on – you were, after all, oh so close to victory!

Then, lightning struck and it hit your metal golf club just as you’re about to hit the golf ball into the hole. Roughly five billion joules of electricity coursed through your body within miliseconds and well, you died.

As your soul tumbled down through the many levels of hell, you found yourself trapped in an oddly un-hellish place called the “Golf Purgatory”. Managed by an entity known only as the Greenskeeper, the Golf Purgatory seems to offer you a way to get your life back, at least that’s what the Scotsman, another fellow golfer who is stuck in the purgatory for much longer than you have. And oh, he apparently runs the golf shop there called the Eterni-Tee.

However, to do so, you’ll need to clear all 18 holes without losing. Seems like an easy enough task for someone like you, don’t you think? Well, maybe you should think again!

Gameplay

Cursed to Golf, at its core, is a 2D golf game but with lots of fun twists. As a golf game, the goal is to sink your ball into the hole within the par count given. You’ll start with only 5 par count per course, and every shot you make will lower that count by 1.

Naturally, there are ways you can get some extra par counts since some courses in this game can be very convoluted. There are idols scattered across each course that you can smash your golf ball into to get extra par count, namely 2 for each silver idol and 4 for every gold idol. There are Ace Cards – yes, the game shares a little similarity with Golfie – that can grant you extra par counts when used as well (more on this later).

Nevertheless, getting more par count is one way of making sure you have enough hits to get to the hole, but it’s also equally important for you to make every shot count by making use of the various mechanisms in the environment and avoiding the obstacles as much as possible.

As with any golf game, there are obstacles that will hamper you such as the bunker, the rough, spikes, and pools of water, so you’ll want to aim for the fairway or the greens. Matching the theme, it also has a graveyard that works like quicksand and will penalize you by deducting one more from your par count by swallowing your ball into the ground.

Using the right clubs at the right time, in addition to getting the power of your strike and the angle of your hit right, is also an important part of the gameplay. If you want more range, you’ll want to use the driver, while if you need to get your ball to a higher platform, you’ll want to use the wedge instead. However, take note that hitting some obstacles will block off the option to use certain clubs. For example, landing in the rough will prevents you from using your driver while getting into the bunker will only allow you to use the wedge.

I should also point out another super useful tool that you can use in this game to help you gauge where your ball will likely land and to plan ahead as to which path to the hole you’d like to take. It’s called the Birdie Eye mode. You see, the game doesn’t really let you zoom out very far so you are limited as to how far ahead you can see. With the Birdie Eye mode though, you can freely move the camera, allowing you to plan routes and get heads-up on potential obstacles and shortcuts.

Cursed to Golf also has plenty of fun yet challenging mechanics that strongly reminds me of Golftopia. There are, for instance, teleports that can zip you that much closer to the hole, or fans that can help softly land your ball or to propel it to a safe landing area.

There are TNTs that usually block access to shortcuts that you can use as well. To detonate it, you can either use an Ace Card that will give you a free golf ball that can explode or you could simply hit the TNT with your golf ball! Of course, you can augment that with Ace Cards as well so as to save on some par counts.

Now, what are Ace Cards? As mentioned, it’s a card-based system that’s similar to Golfie. These cards, most of them anyway, serve to augment your shots, allowing you to perform miracle hits like stopping your ball mid-flight and dropping it down to the fairway or having the ability to change the direction of your ball mid-flight. These cards are very important if you want to do well in this game. Learn how to use them and you’ll find yourself clearing the holes in this game more easily.

After failing your first run, as we all will eventually, the game subsequently introduces you to a new mechanic – Spin! In this game, you can charge up your Spin power by clicking repeatedly while your ball in in flight. You can then use your Spin power when the ball lands by moving it left or right… or even both if needed. As the Scotsman said in-game, mastering this skill will prove to be very useful since it will allow you to tip the ball towards where you want it to be without having to waste another shot.

Now, besides the normal holes that you can play, there are also Cursed holes that spice things up a whole lot more with… well, curses! There are many types of curses here in this game. There’s a curse called Zoom that narrows down your range f sight, while the Upside-down curse turns the entire golf course upside down. There’s also a curse that locks your Ace cards preventing you from using them and another that makes your ball super bouncy. The curse you get changes at intervals – as the skull meter charges up with every shot you make – and you’ll just have to make the most of it as you try to win the level.

At the end of every run, you’ll then have to challenge a golfer, which in the first map is the Scotsman, and be the first to reach the hole. This “Boss hole” – sounds weird, doesn’t it? – is definitely a lot harder than even the Cursed hole mainly because it doesn’t seem like the Boss in this course is restricted by par count as you will. Plus, the AI controlling this boss makes incredible and flawless shots almost every single time. This means that you’ll need to be clever and make full use of the many shortcuts that you can find, allowing you to quickly surpass the boss himself and reach the hole first. Even with shortcuts, spin, and Ace cards, it’s not at all an easy feat. Expect to fail many, many times!

Once you’ve completed an entire run by defeating the boss will you be able to unlock a new map with new challenges and mechanics.

As a roguelike, you’ll get to choose the path you take leading right up the boss level. Some path will lead you to a prize chest or an Ace card chest while others will put you directly on the path to a Cursed hole. You’ll really need to plan your moves just so you can make it to the end in one piece. For instance, if you’ve got a ton of cash, you might want to risk getting a Cursed hole and head to the shop for a pitstop to buy Ace card packs. Note that you can also change your golfer’s appearance there and to save Ace cards for future runs.

Obviously, Cursed to Golf isn’t exactly a game that you can complete within a single run, unless you are both very good and very lucky. Most of us will have to do reruns before we could even get close to the boss level. The game changes up the golf courses that you play every time a new run is started, so although some course may look a bit familiar, you can rest assured that the Greenskeeper has used the RNG generator to mix up parts of the course.

As fun (and frustrating) as the game is, I couldn’t figure out how to save the Ace cards I have in the binder for future runs. There’s no way to open my “deck” and clicking on the binder itself doesn’t allow me to choose the cards that I want to save. Might be a “me” problem or a bug – I can’t say for certain. This is a crucial part of the progression in this game, allowing you to start a new run with a much better footing than before, and it’s just not working for me.

Graphics/ Sound

Cursed to Golf feature gorgeous pixel graphics that beautifully set the scene for each hole you play. The Ace cards have some nice art on them as well. There are also tons of cute outfits that you can change your golfer into for free – no unlocks needed! In terms of sound, if you enjoy retro music or chiptunes, you’ll definitely love the music in this game. Personally, I really liked the one with an Irish/Scottish twist. It’s just such a bop!

Conclusion

Cursed to Golf is the kind of game you’d love to play if you’re a hardcore fan of 2D golf games, or even mini-golf games, and just can’t get enough of platformer-style roguelikes as well. The game flawlessly integrates both game genres into a solid and very addictive game. The skill ceiling can be a bit high for players who aren’t good at precision golfing, but the game does provide a ton of tools, like the Ace cards, to help you out. However, if you’re anything like me, you can expect to get infuriated by the game, rage quit, and then return minutes later for another round.

New Game Added: Cursed to Golf

by Aethyna Aug 19, 2022

Cursed to Golf is a challenging golf-based platformer-roguelike where you play as a golf champion who was just about to win the Eternal Golf Championship before getting struck by lightning right down into Golf Purgatory. Now, you’ll need win all 18 holes and get a chance to ascend back into life. Will you be able to do it?