Walkabout Mini Golf
Year: 2020
Rating: E
Time Played: 4+ hours
It’s funny how Virtual Reality (VR) can encapsulate both the most banal things (a la Job Simulator) and the most fantastic (a la Moss) almost in the same breath. The prime example of this fusion is in Walkabout Mini Golf. Most people have played mini golf, but few have done so on a space station or in a haunted castle. Sure, some better real-world courses work hard to bring that sense of fantasy, but rarely for more than a hole or two.
In Walkabout Mini Golf, the gameplay feels fantastic. Mini golf in VR like this is fun, even if you have to sit through an entire course worth of holes in a particular theme (like a Pirate Island or Arizona). Sometimes, the physics might feel a little frustrating when trying to get a precise shot; but overall, the golf doesn’t feel any worse than the golf mini-game from Wii Sports—which is a compliment. Finding the secret balls for each hole is also fun when they’re easy to spot and maddening when they’re well hidden. If they did not lock only parts of the game behind finding these elusive balls, then I’d be fine with it.
VR is still one of those video game mediums where it pays to have more party games than first-person experiences. I think Walkabout Mini Golf solves both problems by having a huge amount of content for one person to play (with some neat Downloadable Content for those who are interested) while also showing the unique ability of VR to transport players of all types to fantastical places to play a simple game of miniature golf. I’d almost say this is a must-have for any owner of an Oculus headset.
Engaging mini golf in fantastical VR worlds, I give Walkabout Mini Golf 4.0 stars out of 5.
