But that’s not the entirety of it. Really it’s just the start. Because in Cursed to Golf you’re dead - is it a spoiler to say you die halfway through the tutorial? - and your mission is to play your way out of golfing purgatory. This is a clever game, I reckon. A spin on a platformer that feels nothing like a platformer. It turns out that purgatory golf holes are tough. They zig-zag up and down, so the fairway you want to land on with your first shot might be below you. Or it might be blocked off by TNT. Or a fan might push the ball out of the way. In the recent Steam demo I had a chance to try all of this out. I navigated the hurdles as best I could, starting at a tee off that was high, high above the hole I was aiming for. I had five shots to get there, but it wasn’t possible. Instead I could earn more shots by knocking over little Oscar statuettes as I went. Helping out in other ways were a selection of cards I could play. One of them stopped time, which meant that when I played it I could stop the ball mid-flight and just drop it straight down - useful when navigating water. Another allowed me to send the ball to blow up packs of TNT, opening potentially useful pathways. Yet another allowed me to fire a practice shot, that would not affect my shot count, and would also not mean that I moved to where the ball landed. Perfect for hitting out of the way statuettes to pick up more overall shots. I think the greatness of Cursed to Golf lies in the fact that while all this clever stuff is going on, it’s still a pretty good game of golf. Clubs are simplified but you still need to know when to use a driver and when to use a wedge. Aiming is simplified but you still need to get the right power and the right angle. Cursed to Golf is out fairly soon by the looks of it - the polish is already obvious. It will be fun to get back on to these blasted links.
