Infinite Minigolf Review – Oddly Addictive and Delightful

Infinite Minigolf Review

For many people, playing video games is the ideal way to de-stress after a long day. For most people that involves shooting zombies in the face, exploring alien worlds, or driving expensive cars in a dangerous and haphazard manner. For some, it can simply be to play a relaxing game of golf. Zen Studios has taken the comical and heartwarming approach of lovable games like Hot Shots and turned up the adorable sweetness to create an enjoyable and oddly addictive game in Infinite Minigolf.

Zen Studios is, of course, most known for the Zen Pinball game with a whole host of licensed pinball tables, so ball physics and trick shots aren’t exactly new to them. Infinite Minigolf is just what you would expect from the trailer: it’s simple putting with power-ups and odd hazards to stop you from reaching the hole. There are three base themes with the game: Giant Home, Nightmare Mansion, and Santa’s Factory. Each theme has its own set of four tournaments, each comprised of ten courses, and each with three levels of difficulty. The tournaments have a themed mascot to the levels as well who can interact with your shot if conditions are right: the Elves in Santa’s Factory will pick up your ball and throw it at another elf to get you closer to the hole, the Mouse from Giant Home will nonchalantly hit a button on an elevator and move your ball along, etc.

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“Players can make some truly unique and punishing courses to play on, as well as a few “gimme” holes to get your score up.”

There is also an easy to use course editor for each of the worlds. Players can make some truly unique and punishing courses to play on, as well as a few “gimme” holes to get your score up. Quick Play feels like it’s where most players will spend their time. Featuring all of the communities created stages, Quick Play functions as a way to easily get some practice and complete the necessary challenges to unlock more gear and levels. It is simple and easy to use with almost no load time: consider it like an endless play mode, because the community is going to absolutely pack this game with creative stages.

Players have two goals: Earn coins to buy gear for their character, and level up so they can equip the better gear that comes later on. Players are assigned five tasks to complete before they can level up, some as simple as collecting orbs or getting a few hole-in- ones, and some requiring you successfully use a certain number of power ups. The various customizable items you can equip will require you reach a certain level and some of the high-level items look fantastic – who doesn’t want to use a baseball bat or an anchor to putt?

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“Despite having 120 tournament courses and hundreds of Quick Play matches, the game still feels a bit small.”

There are also three rotating challenges, and completing them will earn you coins. Unlike daily challenges that require you wait a day, claiming your reward will replace the challenge with a new one, so you can focus on racking up coins if you want to unlock gear. Coins are used to buy card packs, and card packs are actually the currency to buy items. Winning tournaments or getting high scores in Quick Play will earn you random cards, and there are cards for each category: hair, shirt, pants, shoes, ball, club, accessory, and belt. If you want a new ball, it costs 25 ball cards; a belt requires 5 belt cards, and so on. It may sound confusing but it’s pretty straight forward when you see it.

I was a little saddened after seeing the game’s trailer to realize I could only play as a normal human, as the games art depicts so many interesting characters. As much as the player can be customized, it would be very cool to see a variety of playable creatures as well, given the themes available. Despite having 120 tournament courses and hundreds of Quick Play matches, the game still feels a bit small. Hopefully, Zen Studio’s has plans to add more worlds to the game in the future – a method familiar to them with the Zen Pinball series – because as it stands, for as charming as the game is, it just needs more to it.

Infinite Minigolf is a lovable, lighthearted game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and will definitely be supported heavily by its community and their created stages. With a lot to unlock and plenty to do, this makes for a great way to unwind either playing solo, online or side by side with a friend as you out-putt each other to victory. While the game offers great design and mechanics, the limit of three worlds with four tournaments each makes the game feel small, and hopefully, in the future, they will add new worlds to play in.

***A PS4 review code was provided by the publisher***