Competitors can come and go on consoles, but for the time being, Tiger Woods is the king of console gaming golf. That might have remained true had Vijay Singh not signed on the dotted line to lend his name to mobile gaming. In the cell phone realm, Tiger is slaughtered by the competition.
It’s probably not surprising then that Pro Golf borrows much of Tiger’s key features. The career mode is amazingly robust, far beyond typical standards for cell phones. While you cannot create a character, adding stat boosts via new equipment and training is the titles addictive hook.
Three separate courses provide their own set of unlockable challenges. Many are short, perfect for those quick sessions while the final championship is an 18-hole tournament. Each has a sizeable prize waiting for the winner to claim, while other unlockables such as new golfers can be earned for use in quick play.
Admittedly, the courses are the key limitations. While the graphics are superb, many holes are reused, flipped horizontally usually to hide that fact. Multi-player cannot be done over your network and remains local by passing the phone around.
Those minor gripes are overshadowed by a nicely conceived game play system. Using a traditional three-click swing to determine accuracy and power, Pro Golf steals a few more concepts from Tiger. Extra power can be added by timing a button press during the backswing. Also, spin is handled once the ball has taken off. Both are familiar for Tiger Woods fans.
The game is overly forgiving, and the difficulty ramp only makes the swing meter move faster. You’re still given the exact distance of your shot in an overhead view with lie and height already factored in. This makes the title accessible for a wide audience, though the number of non-golf fans downloading this has to be minute at best.
Article comments
1 - Mobile Phones
As a serious fan of Tiger’s EA series, I will definitely have to check this game out. It is curious that there’s no Tiger mobile, but in their defense, they do produce an amazing console product. Maybe they just don’t have the time to spare. I have a few questions about the Vijay version. Does it allow you to customize your character the way recent console versions of Tiger do? I really can’t imagine that a cell’s memory would allow for that, but I thought I’d ask anyway. Additionally, is there any list of phones that are compatible with it? Finally, does this signal the possibility Vijay may be putting out a console game to compete with Tiger’s? Given the similarities to Tiger that you mention in the mobile version, it seems like such a game would have little chance of success, but again, I thought it might be worth asking.
2 - Mobile Phones
What will be truly spectacular will be playing this on a new Iphone. The biggest problem with mobile games is the screen size (something you mention in talking about putting), and any improvement is sure to improve things. In their ads, Mac is certainly pushing the size of the screen as one of this phone’s key components. This has always been the big question for me about the many forecasts that argue cells will eventually replace laptops and PCs. Those prophets who predict this shift point to the rise of mobile use in Asian markets, where apparently more people actually use their cells to connect to the internet than use computers. Yet it’s hard for me to understand how the infinitely smaller screens allow for such a change. I’m not saying that a handheld game can’t bring hours of entertainment, but ultimately it pales in comparison to the experience of playing on a full-size television.
3 - Ken Edwards
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I seriously doubt you will see many games on the iPhone. I sure hope I am wrong, but considering the rather lame selection of games on the iPod, I have to wonder about games on the iPhone.
I have Pro Golf 3D 2007 Featuring Vijay Singh (different game) on my Samsung u740, which uses the landscape mode to play games. This is much better, especially for this golf game. Plus, its in 3D!
4 - Geoff
Does anyone know how to get past the first 3 holes? I'm new to this game lark and can't get past them.
5 - Mark Ryan
Have this game, love it!