The Wii and golf were meant to be. As such, Wii owners already have two entries to choose from, including the far too simplistic Wii Sports Golf and agonizingly slow Super Swing Golf. Enter Tiger Woods, who as usual, destroys all comers.
At its base, not much has been altered for this late-in-the-year Wii debut. Carry over features include the involving Game Face, Tiger Challenge where a series of matches can quickly build stats, and the PGA Tour Season. Multi-player sessions also keep the fun factor, including the dangerously addictive one ball. There’s a gaping hole in the feature set though, and that’s online play. Tiger’s not the same without it.
The obvious draw here is the control scheme. It’s obvious the development team have finely tuned the simplicity while keeping the features intact. The basics are as expected. Hold Wii Remote like a golf club, hold B, perform a backswing, and then swing forward. Assuming all goes well, the ball flies straight to its designated target. If desired, a Nunchuck analog swing is available, though it defeats the purpose of playing this version entirely.
Nuances in Tiger’s franchise, such as spin and power, are still included albeit in different form for the latter. There’s no need to button mash to build power boost. Instead, this becomes a timing challenge. With a full backswing and properly timed downswing, you’ll achieve 110% power. Any delay causes the power to drop.
Spin still occurs in the air after the ball is hit via the d-pad. The 1 button will change the type of shot pre-swing, and the Wii Remote offers nice flexibility when aiming. You can now drag the aiming marker to where you’re looking to hit the ball instead of fighting with a d-pad.
What Tiger 07 is desperate for is a power indicator. There is no help in the game to let the player know how far their shot will go. It’s brutally difficult to hit a soft shot if you’re, for example, stuck under a tree. Practice swings do give statistics, but finding the same power and timing during the real stroke is almost impossible. Also, constantly practicing to figure out the strength is tiring.
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