Windows Phone Central's Roundup of Golf Games
The Open Championship is this week in sunny Lancashire, England. The Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club is hosting the Open and in honor of the Championship, this week's round-up is dialed into golf games for your Windows Phone.
We've got an Xbox Live title, a few miniature golf courses, a pirate and for good measure we toss in a golf app that should be on every duffer's Windows Phone. As always, if a title doesn't make it to the roundup it shouldn't reflect poorly on things. If we missed one, chime in below in the comments and let us know.
Salty Jim's Putt Putt Island (free trial/$.99): Every year my family vacations on the Gulf Coast and every year my daughter and I play a round of putt putt at the Pirate Island Putt Putt golf course. Salty Jim's Putt Putt reminds me a little of that experience just without the little pirate flags you get when you finish the course.
Game controls are simple with Salty Jim's Putt Putt in that you orient the screen by touch to line up your shot. Once you have things lined up, just tap the click to putt bar to start the power meter, then tap it a second time to take the shot. The holes are challenging enough but the problem is that you really need a directional arrow to help line things up.
There is a free trial version available for Salty Jim's (lets you play four holes) with the full version running $.99. You can find Salty Jim's Putt Putt here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Lets Golf 2 (free trial/$4.99): It was a coin toss between two Xbox Live golfing titles, Lets Golf 2 and Fable Coin Golf. Lets Golf 2 won out because it had more golf action.
Lets Golf 2 offers eight golfers to choose from, 108 holes of golf to tackle, and tons of gear and achievements to earn. You can pursue a career, play a shoot out round or just pick up a practice round on the go. Controls are your traditional three tap mode; tap to start your back swing, tap to start your downswing and tap to strike the ball. You can adjust your aim by touch and a nice selection wheel sits on the lower left corner to make club selection simple.
Lets Play Golf 2 does have a free trial with the full version running $4.99. The price may seem a little steep but Lets Golf 2 is a really nice Windows Phone golf game. You can tee it up here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Mini Golf: Hole in One (free): Mini Golf: Hole in One is an odd little golf game for your Windows Phone. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Mini Golf is a two dimensional golf game played from the profile view. You have directional arrows to aim your shot and a GO button (a.k.a. swing button) where you start your swing and apply power.
Mini Golf: Hole in One plays more like a multi-level game more than it does a round of golf. You have a limited number of strokes to sink your ball in the cup. If you don't make par or better, you have to replay the hole.
Game play was alright and Mini Golf does grow on you. I do wish the time between shots was shorter (the ball seems to creep along forever) and playing a course that is multi-tiered is interesting and full of challenges. Mini Golf: Hole in One is a free game that you can find here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
The Caddie (free): Okay... so The Caddie isn't a golf game but if you're going to talk golf and your Windows Phone, it's gotta be included. Consider it a bonus title for this roundup.
The Caddie is one of the most comprehensive golf apps you can find. It has a huge golf course database, GPS functionality to give you hole range distances, satellite views of the course and an easy to use score card for your golf rounds. If you play golf, The Caddie is a must have app for your Windows Phone. It's a free app and you can find The Caddie here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
If you happened to be using a Nokia Lumia Windows Phone, install The Caddie+ from the Nokia Collection in the Marketplace (here's the link if you're following along on a Lumia Windows Phone). Nokia partnered with the developers to bring a few additional features to the Lumia version of The Caddie such as Golfscope (augmented reality visualization), Lumia themes, Tourney Scoring, and Live Scoring to share your golf scores live as you play your round.
Pocket Golf (free): Pocket Golf is very similar to Mini Golf: Hole in One in that you play the game from the profile view. Game controls are similar as well with directional arrows in the lower left and your swing button in the lower right. From there, the similarities between these two golf games start to drift.
As with Mini Golf, Pocket Golf has multi-tiered holes but you lack the stroke limit. If you go over par, you move on to the next hole and hope your score doesn't go too high. The graphics are a little cleaner and game play is quicker. Pocket Golf has 72 holes of golf across 8 courses, powerups, and two game modes (free play and campaign). Pocket Golf is a nice time waster of a game for your Windows Phone.
Pocket Golf is a free, ad supported game that you can find here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Putt in Golf (free trial/$.99): Here's another miniature golf game for your Windows Phone that is nicely animated and a nice time waster. Putt in Golf has 18 courses that will challenge your putting skills and three game modes. Normal mode is a straight up game of putt-putt, Obstacle mode throws a few obstacles (stationary and moving) to overcome on the course and Trophy Mode has a collection of trophies you have to collect as you navigate each hole.
Controls for Putt in Golf are simple and nice in that you can change your perspective by touch and shots are taken by tapping on the ball, pulling back, lining up the directional arrow, then releasing your tap. Game play moves along nicely with no big delays between shots.
There is a free trial available for Putt in Golf (lets you play two holes in each game mode) and the full version will run you $.99. You can find Putt in Golf here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.
So there you go, our roundup of golf games (and app) for your Windows Phone. While the Marketplace seems to be lacking of in golf games involving the full 18 hole courses, there's plenty of the miniature or putt-putt courses to choose from. We are still looking for Tiger Woods PGA Tour to hit the Marketplace but a Windows Phone version of Golden Tee wouldn't be a bad option either.
If you've stumbled upon a golf game (or app) for your Windows Phone that we've overlooked, feel free to add it in the comments.
