Amju Super Golf Review

Written by: David Laprad Published: October 8, 2004 It's your day off, you're in the mood for a round of golf, but it's raining. Even worse, your children are whining about having nothing to do. What to do? One possible solution is playing Amju Super Golf. Amju Super Golf is a third-person arcade game for one or two players starring a young girl named Amju. She and her sister exist in a bright, colorful 3D world that recalls the glory days of the Nintendo 64. To advance from one hole to the next, Amju must putt and chip her way to the cup and sink the ball with a final stroke. Amju Super Golf contains 36 holes across two courses. The controls are so simple, a child should be able to pick them up in a jiffy. To take a swing, the player clicks on the ball, pulls back on the mouse to adjust the power, moves left or right to aim and lets go. As you pull back on the mouse and aim in different directions, an arc of red dots shows you where the ball will land on the first bounce. Amju's skills improve as she plays more holes, allowing her swing with more power and putt with additional accuracy. Two tools help Amju get her bearings. The first is a pair of binoculars that does a fly-through of the path from the cup to Amju's location. The second is an adjustable camera that allows the player to pull back to get a larger view of the game world. The player can aim and swing in camera mode, too. While all of this sounds straightforward, you've never played a game like Amju Super Golf. Unlike any course you'd encounter in real life, Amju's world features locked gates, moving platforms and spinning surfaces. On the first hole, Amju must chip the ball into a small crescent moon suspended above the surface; when she hits it, a gate lowers, providing access to the next section of the hole. Things get interesting later on, when Amju has to raise several sections of one hole to form steps and time her drives to hit mobile platforms. Some holes even contain multiple paths to the cup. The courses are suspended in space, so the ball can drop off the edge if you swing too hard or aim poorly. When this happens, you lose one ball and are shuttled back to the start of the hole. This makes for fun two-player action as each player takes a turn hitting his or her ball. The first participant to sink their ball wins the hole. In the single-player game, you compete for the top position on the high score board. Like any good arcade game, Amju Super Golf has bonuses. The first of these are hearts, which you collect by hitting them with the ball. Gathering a heart awards points; collect all of the hearts on a map and you'll get an extra ball. You can also earn more "lives" by knocking down sheds that contain small animals. Once the creatures are set loose, you can smack them with the ball to make a star appear; hit the star and you get an extra ball. There's a "freeze bean" bonus that stops the animals in their tracks for a few seconds, although one has to wonder if a snowflake would've made more sense than a bean. The bonuses enabled the developer to make non-linear holes in which the most enticing goodies are off the main path to the cup. The game's physics are very basic, so it's easy to predict where the drive or putt will land. After a couple of bounces, the ball usually comes to a stop and Amju automatically moves to the new location. This makes Amju Super Golf accessible to casual players as well as people who've never played golf. Amju Super Golf contains a number of wrinkles that its creator plans to iron out from future versions. For starters, the interface uses the Windows mouse cursor instead of a custom one. There's also no way to exit the game other than close the window in which it runs. Amju Super Golf could use a way to adjust the sensitivity of the mouse, too, since it uses the settings for Windows. Another surprising omission is any means of uninstalling the program. None of the holes have a par, so you can hit a hole-in-one or rack up two dozen strokes and get the same number of points. The challenge in the single-player game, therefore, is surviving long enough to get the highest score. There are plenty of extra lives available, though, so you shouldn't have any trouble reaching the 18th hole on each course. This makes Amju Super Golf's single-player mode more or less practice for when you have a friend or family member at your side. The aiming controls take getting used to, but are easy to utilize once you spend a little time playing the game. The camera mode, however, only allows you to awkwardly zoom out from Amju's position or spin the view around her. Being able to slide the camera in any direction and tilt it would be a welcome addition. (The on-screen instructions tell you to drag the mouse to move the camera, but you've got to both click and drag the mouse.) While the visuals are attractive overall, the characters are fairly blocky. Also, the game will only run in a window. Better artwork and a full screen option would be welcome additions to Amju Super Golf. Despite these quirks, Amju Super Golf is a delight to play, especially with another person. So tee-up and give it your best shot! [Try Amju Super Golf]