Golf Peaks (Switch) Review

As a fan of golf, this game piqued my interest when I saw it in the upcoming section of the eShop. The good news is though, that even if you’re not a fan of golf or even know how to play there’s still a chill little puzzler for you here.

Golf Peaks is an isometric puzzler, and instead of choosing to hit the golf ball into the hole in the traditional manner you’re given a selection of cards to pick from with different moves on them. The cards move the ball a certain number of blocks either along the ground or as a chip shot. It’s up to you to use these cards to get the ball in the hole.

Sound easy, and to begin with it is. Over the game’s nine worlds the first couple of levels are – but they’re also there to introduce you to a new obstacle for that world. Once you’re introduced to sand traps, water hazards and quicksand the levels generally get harder. There are a couple of bonus stages in each world with harder challenges to tackle as well. Overall there is more than 100 puzzles in the game, some of them will take minutes, the others seconds.

The thing with a lot of puzzlers it can take a while to reset after you fail or start over if you get in a terrible position on the board. With Golf Peaks you can either quickly reset the stage or just jump back one move, a lot of the puzzles are just trial and error, and to be able to do that quickly is great. There’s no punishment for this either, the game is too chill for that, there’s also no leaderboards, rankings or scores – just put the ball in the hole.

The game has been transported from mobile to the Switch with a simple and easy interface. The subtle HD rumble controls help you make precise moves, and everything is on the screen so you know what you’re doing. Playing the game handheld and want to use the touch screen? You can do that too and plays more or less as it does on mobile.

Probably the one thing that has been lost in translation to console is the context in which you would play the game. Well maybe for some, if you’re playing this at home and not on the go it might be possible to burn through the game in just a couple of hours. If you’re on the go you might take a while longer as you bite a few stages off at a time. Whatever way you play it this is a game that doesn’t take long to complete, more so when you’re sitting in front of a TV.

The games chilled nature also comes across in its graphics and sound design. The game is clean looking and unassuming. The games simple soundtrack and polite noises are perfect and fit the chilled out theme.

Golf Peaks is a great little experience for a couple of hours, think of it as like a movie or book you read, enjoy and maybe pick up another time in the future. Once you’ve nailed the mechanics of the game (which they introduce so well), you’ll breeze through the game in no time at all. A great chill out game.

Rating: 4/5