TL;DR – Dangerous Golf is an enjoyable little time-waster, although the game is in a weird spot. It’s a puzzle game masquerading as a brainless destructo-thon, it’s a game about golf that has almost nothing to do with golf and a game that feels stylistically similar to Burnout despite lacking any real sense of speed. To be exceedingly clear, Dangerous Golf isn’t a bad game by any stretch of the imagination it’s just an odd duck and one that doesn’t seem to have gone down well. Not only were the reviews underwhelming on release, but it’s also got truly pitiful Steam completion stats with only around 1 in 40 buyers actually finishing the game – which takes around 5 hours. I’m not personally sure as to whether this is “unfair” or not as the game definitely has some issues, but it’s enjoyable enough that I’d give it a tepid recommendation especially if you need a co-op game in a pinch. Yet I find it’s simultaneously too simple and yet too finicky to really recommend in earnest, so I can see why a lot of people were somewhat disappointed.
Quick Note – As of the Nvidia 2000 series of graphics cards, this game will crash after a single level with near 100% consistency if you have “Flux” enabled. This physics simulation therefore needs to be turned OFF on modern machines.
Dangerous Golf is a game I don’t remember buying, but which came in a $1 bundle wayyy back in 2016. Considering that this game came out in… 2016 I think it’s safe to say that it didn’t meet with a huge amount of commercial success straight off the bat, quite possibly because of the largely critical reviews it received with an average below 60%. Which is kind of a shame, because for an indie game Dangerous Golf has a decent amount of polish and genuinely decent graphics alongside a pretty good presentation. For those who don’t know (a phrase I seem to trot out every week) the game itself is a puzzle game centred around trying to smash as many items as possible with your golf ball. You get a standard shot, which if it destroys enough things will turn into a Smashbreaker shot and then once that’s done you generally get a putting shot with which to sink the ball into the hole. Everything I’ve just said can vary from level to level, but generally speaking that’s the way the cookie crumbles. You’ll want to smash a bunch of stuff on your first shot, use the Smashbreaker to make your way to the hole and then sink it in. If you fail to get the ball in the hole, then you don’t automatically fail but your score is halved. And this game is entirely about scoring, with each level having bronze/silver/gold/platinum medals which are granted solely on the basis of score – with a failure to get even a bronze medal resulting in failure and the game refusing to unlock any new “courses” to play.
To go into more detail about how Dangerous Golf actually operates, there are actually a few types of course in which you’ll be playing. Generally you’ll be able to shoot the ball as per normal, will be able to unlock Smashbreaker shots and will be highly recommended to sink the ball into the hole which is visible at all times. Sometimes you’re playing on a course where you can’t unlock the Smashbreaker shots and sometimes you won’t be able to see the flag until you’ve gathered up enough score with your previous shot. Sometimes the flag will be visible but is in an area which you can only access by breaking through a door, or by utilising a warp-hole. Occasionally you’ll have a glue effect applied, which means that shots stick to walls (but not the floor) and that you can fire as many balls as you like until you run out of glue shots. Often these glue courses also let you place bombs, or automatically place bombs wherever the ball sticks. To reiterate, the key point of this game is to smash items (the dollar value of this damage constituting your score) and to try to smash specified objects which will give you a bonus should all items of that type be destroyed (e.g. 2 Pianos or 14 Vases). Sometimes the game will automatically fail your attempt for entering a certain area or hitting certain objects which are designated as hazards. Finally at the end of each “tour” which the game uses to refer to each batch of 10 levels, you’ll enter a putting challenge in which there are myriad flags that you need to put your balls into. On these courses you only get a few missed shots, before your attempt automatically ends. Oh and I almost forget that sometimes Dangerous Golf applies a somewhat strict time limit, or the fact that you can occasionally “drop” your ball into a bucket or trolley so as to let you take another bonus Smashbreaker shot. Oh and there are sometimes bonus flags which give you an extra putt shot plus a score bonus, alongside the ability to get another normal shot if your smash-shot lands too close to the final flag.
Have I made myself clear? No? Well fortunately the game is actually pretty simple to understand which you might not believe after the game starts with a near 5 minute long tutorial video which has 0 interactive elements. Thankfully most courses are pretty obvious, and the real challenge is just figuring out which thing to hit first so that you can bounce your ball into the right area to smash enough things to unlock a “Smashbreaker” shot. These Smashbreaker shots let you control the ball as it bounces around, up and down, in a flaming inferno and smashes almost everything it touches. Due to the combination of ball control and the fact that it becomes considerably bouncier, you can then farm up those last targets that you’d missed. Ideally you’ll also get the ball near the final flag for your putt shot. Basically the whole game is just smashing things, so you can bounce around so you can then be near the final flag. Which is fine, because the occasional twists work around this gameplay and are generally done well enough that the game feels fairly varied. As a bonus the game is pretty snappy to play and has a decent level of visual polish, so it’s a pleasant enough little diversion. Yet there are still a few aspects which are kind of annoying and which I believe are the real reason that this game has received such a kicking post-launch. The first of which is that the difference between a GREAT shot and a totally rubbish one can be pretty subtle and so it’s very easy to just miss a shot you needed which can then kill your run dead. Then you need to watch your ball fail, then rack up your score, then get told to retry, then wait a bit to reload the level, so that you can watch the overview of the course, so you can take your next shot but slightly to the left. It’s not a huge issue, but I found myself sometimes baffled as to why a shot failed to work on occasion and considering this is a game all about the final score (with most of the game’s depth being in your attempt to get the max score for each of the 100 levels) it’s a bit of a concern.
There are also some oddities with the game’s camera angle which can be especially grating on the “glue” stages, as you’ll find yourself stuck unable to see the ball will take or have what should be a perfectly valid shot bounce off something that you thought you’d be clear of. Generally the bronze score requirements aren’t massively challenging, but the system can be a pain to deal with. Then there is a weird bug related to the game’s physics engine which will cause a guaranteed crash on Nvidia 2000/3000/4000+ series cards due to software that hasn’t been updated in the game, alongside the fact that the scoreboards and leaderboards have already gone offline. The main issue with the game however is that the core gameplay system, in spite of the variety is a bit one-note and therefore a lot of players lose interest in a fairly brief period of time. From the Steam achievements; 88.5% of players started up the game, 19.2% finished the 10th level and 2.3% finished all 100 levels. Perhaps it’s just me, but personally I felt that some of my best shots were total accidents and that some of my failed shots were frankly “unfair” (boohoo). I think the real issue with the game is that it tends to have a narrow margin for error, even though the physics can feel a bit rough around the edges. This then conflicts with the overall tone of the game being one of fast paced FUN, even though every course starts with a slow overview and in spite of the fact that each shot has to be planned with some care lest you miss.
And there really isn’t too much else to say, as while the game itself is enjoyable enough it always feels a touch at odds with itself. It’s presentation leans into the fast paced nature, but it’s actually a relatively methodical game. It wants to see very silly and fun but at it’s heart it’s a puzzle game. It’s overall a fun little puzzle destruction game, but still quite a weird game to describe. There’s a decent amount of variation but most courses boil down to the same thing, namely aiming for the targetted objects while avoiding the hazards and ultimately trying to get into the final hole. Whether you’ve got the ability to stick to walls, use buckets to gain extra Supersmash shots, can see the flag or need to reveal the flag everything is pretty much the same albeit with various gimmicks in play. As such Dangerous Golf is a game that would probably be fun as a lazy couch co-op game, but is hard to earnestly recommend unless you really like destruction physics or are interested in a light hearted puzzle game. I had an alright time playing it, although I’d be lying if I didn’t confess that I found my mind wandering a bit between stages.