Dangerous Golf – Review – Explosion under par

Do you think golf is a little boring? Does it ruin a good walk for you? Do you wish you didn’t have to go hunting for the ball each time it strays from the designated path? Well, I bet you love explosions, don’t you? So what if I told you that science has found a way to combine the two into a video game!? I can only imagine the incredulity on your face right now as you try to imagine Dangerous Golf in your brain box. To save you the trouble of giving your imagination a workout, there are pictures and words just under this paragraph that tell you why this game is all about.

Dangerous Golf is a single-player or multiplayer game of firing golf balls at objects to score points before lining up and blazing the ball into the hole. It’s full of insane trick shots, damage bills that’ll make you sweat, and importantly, explosions. Everything in Dangerous Golf is turned up to the maximum as you and your little white friend tear your way across each carefully constructed level trying to cause as much havoc as possible before you run out of steam.

This leads to an exciting, yet subtle, risk-reward system. You need to get your ball in the hole at the end to reap the maximum number of points, so where your ball ends up is important. However, that never gets in the way of the fun of destruction. That’s because you have a remarkable amount of control over your golf ball as you nudge it left and right trying to destroy one last object before the timer runs out. And even then, if you end up on the other end of the course from the hole, you might still make it through some insane trickshot or shinanigans. There’s never a moment when you feel like you can’t pull off something amazing and win the day.

And I say win the day because, while Dangerous Golf has a single-player mode it shines when played with a friend. The entire campaign is playable in co-op and your scores are added together to determine whether you’ve unlocked more levels. This means that if you have a bad round and only do a meagre amount of destruction but your buddy can ride in to save the day by going nuclear. At the same time though, you can compete for first place. This means you get a competitive and cooperative experience at the same time, which is how all good co-op games should work.

And going back to the gameplay loop of blowing things up then shooting for goal, it keeps you always wanting one more attempt. When you tee off (golf talk for whack the ball for the first time), you build up Smash Breaker energy for everything you break and once it hits maximum your golf ball explodes into flames. At this point, you gain far more control over your ball and cause even more destruction as it leaps across the level. And when your fireball eventually burns out and it’s time for some putting you get one final explosion as you throw the ball down and launch it forwards with a trail of sparks in its wake. So even when the fun of destroying things ends, you get one last hurrah as you attempt to keep all those hard-earned points. It’s some of the most fun you can have with a golf ball.

And then there is Party Mode which goes up to four players offline and eight online, to add even more people to the fray. Dangerous Golf makes a great addition to my party game selection and the co-op World Tour (campaign) was a blast to play through. If you aren’t a big golfer, don’t let that put you off in any way from enjoying Dangerous Golf.

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Thanks for reading. If you want to check out some of our other reviews, then head over here for one about the visual novel Coffee Talk or over there for our take on the 2019 MediEvil remake.

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