Old Man's Drive: Infinite Galactic Golf

Golf is not one of the most exciting sports out there, at least not if you are a spectator, but it does require quite a bit of skill and patience. Not only that, but it’s also a pretty expensive activity, especially when it comes to equipment and the fee you have to pay in order to enter a course. Even so, it’s a surprisingly popular sport, despite its apparent flaws.

Old Man's Drive: Infinite Galactic Golf is not your typical game of golf, but it can keep you just as busy if you are not pretentious when it comes to gameplay and graphics. Thus, the whole thing is designed to look like something from the 80s, yet it still manages to be incredibly addictive. Granted, there are limits to its replayability, but it’s a pretty well-polished game overall.

To begin with, the first thing you have to know is that you are free to pick one of the many available planets and land on it right away in order to start playing. Each planet has a different course, although the term “different” is relative in this case. The color theme of the planets varies every now and again, but don’t expect to be dazzled by it, which is a bit of a bummer.

Each planet has a different hole par, usually between three and six, which means that the distance to the green is pretty long. The classic power bar allows you to go for a strong or a weak shot, but it’s worth mentioning that you can easily get to each hole by striking as hard as you can every time. When you get close enough, the perspective changes and you get to make the shot from a top-down view, which is quite helpful.

The road between each shot is littered with obstacles and aliens, which can be avoided using your mouse. It’s also possible to shoot the aliens if you haven’t got enough time to avoid them, but it’s usually easier to pick a simpler path between them. Your ship has a shield value that decreases if you happen to hit something, and you get a few freebies along the way.

In the end, Old Man's Drive: Infinite Galactic Golf is quite the exceptional little game, even if it lacks diversity. Thus, it might bet boring rather quickly, but then again it’s a pretty simple concept to begin with.