As a golf game fan, but not necessarily a fan of golf itself, EA’s DS interpretation of Tiger Woods PGA Tour was standing head and shoulders above Mario 64 DS and WarioWare Touched! as the game I was desperate to get my hands on when the DS launched. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t expect the game to convert to a pair of small screens particularly well, and I was dubious about the touch screen swing controls, but I was more than happy to give it a shot.
First off, a description of that touch screen swing control system is in order. Recently, the trend towards using the more player-reliant analogue swing system in console golf games has seen the demise of the old three-button shuffle, but Tiger DS strikes a happy medium between the two. The touch screen contains a picture of a ball with an arc coming out of its base, and a set of arrows originating from its top. The arc represents your swing power, and is divided up into twelve sections. The arrows represent your accuracy and how much draw or fade you have added (accidentally or otherwise) to your shot. The stylus is placed two-thirds of the way up the arc for a 75% power swing, at the top for a full 100% swing and so on, and is then dragged down around the arc, through the ball and hopefully, straight upwards to provide the cleanest shot. The less accurate you are with your stylus, the clumsier the swing and the less precise your shot is.The system works, despite feeling a little bit chunky at times, and when you do manage to get that “Perfect Swing!” message appearing on the screen as you strike the ball, that good old feeling of accomplishment rears its head and drives you to play on. The same can’t be said of the putting system, which is strange to say the least. When the time comes to sink the ball, your “Pocket Caddy” thinks for a while and will tell you where to aim your shot to compensate for the rise and fall of the green, and of course – the left/right break. In theory, this should work without problems, but using your shot marker with any degree of accuracy (again, placing the shot with the stylus) is frustrating for the most part, given that the marker either doesn’t move at all when you try to shuffle it to the left a few inches, or just swings out by a couple of feet. Either is not good enough, since you’ll almost certainly miss the shot. I suppose the argument could be that this adds some skill to an otherwise detached putting system, but I’m not buying it. The shot marker should be way more controllable than it is, and the ability to zoom in and out of the green to provide more accuracy would be a bonus. Also, having the pocket caddy coming up with “Shot tips unavailable” when the shot is a complex one is not great, especially when the green isn’t anywhere clear enough to judge the shot manually.
As it stands, you can learn to compensate for the quirks of putting, and as I mentioned, the swing system is easy as pie to pick up. I will add that for the first time in many-a-review, I found the instruction manual to be invaluable in explaining the little nuances of the game and how to play properly, and I would urge you to read it before playing if you decide to pick the game up.
As far as game modes go, the Legends Tour is what you’ll play most here. In this mode, you create a golfer and head out as a rookie to compete one-on-one against golfing legends (past and present) for the opportunity to take on the Tiger, with success here leading to your promotion to an Amateur. Then you do the same again to become a Pro, and this is where the challenge really begins. Tiger Woods PGA Tour for DS won’t be one of those games that you pick up, play for a spell and then never come back to. Indeed, the Legends Tour will make you want to play again and again until you’ve beaten everyone and are a legend yourself. The CPU opposition provides a stiff challenge across the licensed courses, and you’ll find that many rounds will have to be played a couple of times in order for you to get the win.
Graphically, the game also holds up very well. Despite a few glitches with player animation and some horrible slowdown whilst the pocket caddy calculates the requirements for your next putt, everything is as solid as you could wish for. Sonically, there are problems. The sound of club on ball and the odd bird tweeting is all fair enough, but when you’re playing at St. Andrew’s and your ball lands next to a very tiny and shallow brook, for example, the game plays the sound of a tidal wave crashing on rocks over and over again until you’ve putted out. This happens on every course that involves water, and to be honest it just sounds like white noise being spewed out of the system’s tiny speakers. Not good.
All in all, Tiger Woods PGA Tour is a very solid golf game. Despite some putting issues that can be worked around and the fact that the “spin” system just doesn’t seem to work 90% of the time, the game holds up well and provides an involving experience that suits the system down to the ground. A little more polish on the look of the overlays and the putting system wouldn’t go amiss for any sequel, but I can’t say that I’ve played a more engaging portable golf game in a long while.
