SimGolf: I eat my words ... it's FUN!

When I'm wrong, I admit it. From the very first announcement of SimGolf until yesterday when I got a crack at the game, I thought Sid was nuts to take so little part in Civ3 to go off and do a Sim Golf thing. Two things I hate:

Sim-anything and
Golf!

Lord. Just seeing the two words put together in SimGolf gave me stomach pains. I mean, this is Sid!

So since it is Sid, I gave it a try. Any other designer I would have ignored. As it turns out, the game has tons of character and just an overall sense that Sid really enjoyed making the game. From the perfectly chosen elevator-like music and splash screens to the amazingly intuitive interface ... fun!

And the graphics are quite nice. Tiny waves roll up the shore. Trees don't just get pasted in when you place them: They start bare and quickly pop in leaves. Various wildlife doesn't just start on your course: They fall out of the sky like tiny bombs when you create the right conditions.

Most importantly, the gameplay makes sense: You need to vary your hole designs otherwise golfers get bored. The various goodies that you can put on the course, things like benches and snackshops, all make sense and correlate well in the game world. Even the golfers react intelligently to the hole they are about to play: "Should I play this safe or try to shoot over the rocks?" -- things you wouldn't expect the comp to realize just from the design of the hole.

In other words, some massive attention to detail went into this thing. Add to it that you have your own golf-avatar that occasionally gets challenged to play on the very course that you designed (surprisingly, the fact that you don't control his putting or swing in any important way -- you just select the type of shot -- actually adds to the ease and fun of play, in pure Sid style), well, it's brilliant, actually.

Keep in mind that I doubt I'll ever consider the game revolutionary or anything, but I do have to say this: Sid took the absolute best of the Sim and golf ideas and created something so polished and so fun that after many years you can finally see what Sid can do when he enjoys his subject material.

Bravo, Sid! Honestly.

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