Mini Mini Golf Golf Steam Charts & Stats

what is more human than escaping into a game when the present reality is too much to bear? what is more human than spending time while playing thinking about how avoiding reality could maybe be the solution to those unbearable realities? it provides a cathartic release of acknowledging the cognitive dissonance of the player, while never giving you a real escape. i still wish for it, crave it, even now. it's minigolf

[Note- light spoilers are alluded to] A very interesting game! Picked it up and played essentially blind, and enjoyed the experience quite a bit. Overall I think this is a very neat game! The visual of minigolf is a unique visual language of storytelling and I like a lot of the little details it allowed. The text following behind hits was interesting, and I took the time to read it all. I also really liked that the mini golf was tied to Vanya's character, which makes it more compelling as a mechanic. The overall idea of us diving into their coping mechanism and playing the game wrong in the right places to go deeper into the hidden areas is cool. Honestly, I really love the notion that our gateways to their formative moments in life are the game levels they happened to be playing at those moments. There's something real to that. The talk show on the tv signals was also fun, the notion of finding secrets hidden in the phrases, and the strange way the show, our reality, and the game seems to intersect was really neat and I enjoyed that a lot. The talk show communicates a lot of the themes and even sci-fi concepts and that's cool! Alongside the positives, there are some criticisms to be had as well unfortunately: Some have mentioned bugginess, and I ran into that as well, even getting trapped in a menu loop of open-close when I went back to check a detail before writing this review. I also had a lot of issues with changing resolution and the game not remembering my difficulty settings. In terms of game design, it is a very linear game. Honestly that isn't a flaw in itself, but the game being so eager to tell you the answers to fairly simple puzzles + the lack of engaging mechanics beyond moving the ball forward can be a source of frustration, and while I enjoyed the game as presented, I do think more gameplay depth would have done incredible wonders for it. I did try to adjust the settings, but it never saved. I'm a big proponent for accessibility so 100% good features to have, but it probably shouldn't be default to show you the answers so fast. Additionally, I think the game had a habit of long-windedness. A lot of speaking segments on the tv, notably several of the talk-show episodes and the broadcast announcing the dissolving of world leadership especially, really suffered from a sense of redundancy. It was hard to keep focus when I felt I was being told the same thing over and over. It made the game feel like it dragged more than needed. Brevity would have given these segments much more punch as opposed to a sense of impatience. Which on that note, I think the opening of the game is overwhelming, partially because of getting to see all the talk show episodes at once. If someone is thorough like myself, they'll spend the first hour just watching the talk show and taking notes- only to get hit with an initially confusing golf game interface that changes quickly when you hit the glitch and starts showing you the talk show again. The statistics seem to indicate most people drop off after starting the glitch levels, and I wonder if overwhelm/confusion is a factor. (I admit to playing this exhausted with a headache, and the initial experience almost made me put it down for later). All the eps being available up front was definitely too much. I think for simplicity as well as pacing sake, they should've been revealed one by one as the game is played- the talk show eps revealing once relevant for a section. The game would feel much smoother and unified. (personally I think waiting to let us see the glitch levels until we played a bit of normal golf would have also helped onboard new players and even the pacing as well, while giving us a chance to learn the mechanics of the ball) Despite the criticisms i listed, I do think this game is really cool and very worth playing! I I liked watching the character stories unfold, I liked seeing the sci-fi be built up, it was fun watching the actors play out the scenarios and talk show, the aesthetic is neat, and I can't think of another experience quite like it.