True Swing Golf Review

The DS has two golf games: EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour that was released near the launch of the system, and True Swing Golf, published by Nintendo about a year later. Although Tiger Woods PGA Tour showed potential for golf games on the DS, True Swing Golf worked everything from the ground up rather than follow Tiger’s system. Was the result a total bomb, or a game to be enjoyed by golf fans everywhere? Read on to find out.

Graphically, True Swing Golf is far superior to Tiger Woods PGA Tour, but it came out over a year later and was a first-party game, so that is to be expected. Everything looks as realistic as the DS is capable of. The courses look appropriate for the environments that they are supposed to be in, and the golfers look pretty well like real people. Overall, the graphics in this game are very good.

On the sound front, the sound effects are pretty appropriate for a golf game. The oohs and ahhs, and the clapping regarding putts and other shots that land close to the hole are appropriate, but are a little more subdued than in Tiger Woods PGA Tour. That, however, is not a bad thing. There is actually music while you’re setting up your shot, and each course has its own melody. The music isn’t overly memorable, but each melody is appropriate for a golf game and also for the environment that the course is set in. So, the sound in this game is pretty good.

So far as gameplay is concerned, this game has a lot more to offer than Tiger Woods in terms of variety. It has roughly twice as many courses as Tiger Woods has. I’m not sure if they’re real courses or not, but even if they’re made up, they are laid out well and are fun to play through. They are in a variety of environments and are of various levels of difficulty, so there’s pretty much something here for every golf fan from the most casual to the most hardcore.

In terms of the shot system, the system in this game is even more intuitive than the one in Tiger Woods. Instead of coming down from the side and then up, you go straight down and straight up to hit the ball. When you do this, your shot type is determined by where you hit the ball, at what angle you hit the ball, and even how fast the stylus is moving when you hit the ball. The system is as realistic as was possible before the release of the Wii, but, at the same time, it’s forgiving enough to not be too difficult to use.

The putting system is also drastically different. Instead of having a caddy tell you where to aim and then trying to hit the right spot, each square around the hole will have an arrow to show you how the ground is sloped, and you have to figure it out from there. Admittedly, this system isn’t the easiest, and may take some time to get used to, but it does seem to be forgiving, especially if your are putting from near the hole.

The set of game modes is pretty standards. You can play through any course in stroke or match play, or you can engage in a free round. You can also play multiplayer with up to four people using either a game card for every system or just one game card. The main mode is laid out very close to the one in Tiger Woods, with a series of tournaments, and it seems to be lengthy enough to last a while. So overall, the game will last a long time if you care to do everything.

Overall, this game is good aesthetically. The gameplay works well, and the replay value is fairly high. What then is the conclusion? If you are a golf fan, whether casual or hardcore, you should consider trying this game.