Wii Sports Club - Golf (Wii U) Review

While tennis and bowling are improved by the usage of Wii Motion Plus alone, golf also uses the GamePad in an excellent way and considerably enhances the overall experience. The GamePad is put on the floor and shows the player the ball and the terrain it's on while providing real-time feedback on where the club is in relation to the ball. This allows for finely tuned shots as the game recognises at which angle the ball is hit. It's some very impressive technology indeed but whether that's a blessing or a curse is entirely up to the player, as the tutorial only teaches the mere basics of the game and not how to properly play golf. There are some hints shown between sessions or on loading screens but it's still largely unexplained and certainly not suitable for impatient amateurs.

While the tutorial is quite lacking, the three practise modes offer a great environment to hone one's skills. Putter Madness provides 10 balls and 10 holes on the same green and awards points based on the length of each successful shot. Bingo Clubber turns the green into a bingo field and the goal is to land short to medium range shots on them to score points, with successful bingos providing bonus points. Finally, there's Target Shooter where long-range shots are tested by landing on a distant island in the water. Unlike Bingo Clubber, the spot where the ball first hit the ground is the one that actually counts. Points are awarded based on how close to the centre the ball landed and extra multipliers can be earned by successfully shooting through a target area that slowly expands.

Early attempts on the real golf courses will likely end with very poor scores but it's an extremely satisfying feeling to finally nail a Par or even a Birdie and then strive to consistently achieve them. Of course, there's always the lofty goal of scoring a legendary hole-in-one that causes even the most seasoned golf players to perform victory dances.

One thing that could use some refinement is the online mode. While the core gameplay works well, it's not clear how to re-calibrate the Wii Remote Plus if it starts acting up as the pause menu can't be accessed during online play. Putting it on the floor or a table during another player's turn seems to work well enough but there's no indication that it's possible and it makes it look like there is no way to re-calibrate in an online game. It's also impossible to manually leave a session, which means that anyone who wants to quit is forced to wait until a 30-second timer runs out and the game automatically disqualifies them.

There are two sets of nine holes, Classic and Lakeside. Classic is a remake of the courses in the original Wii Sports while Lakeside are new ones that can be quite devious and - as the name suggests - contain plenty of nasty water hazards. The main options are nine holes of either Classic or Lakeside, both of them in a row or finally courses with only three holes for shorter games.