Golf Squared HD Review

Two-dimensional golf game fans have another entry in the genre to enjoy, with Golf Squared. The courses are all horizontally scrolling, and aiming works in angles like most artillery-style games, or something akin to Super Stickman Golf and Angry Birds. Then, players hold down on the power button to set the swing power. The goal is to get the ball in the hole at or under par, with star ratings for par, birdie, and eagle scores.

The controls for aiming work really well; setting the perfect angle is extremely easy. As well, unlike Super Stickman Golf, the characters are actually animated characters, and they celebrate and get flustered when appropriate. A golfer who almost tries to throw his club down when he hits a shot in the water? Very realistic! I don’t know why the game comes in a separate iPhone version and a universal HD version that launched at the same price, but hey, power to the people.

The problem with Golf Squared is that there’s just a lack of content for the moment; there’s only one course of 18 holes at launch. The challenge level largely comes from trying to master the mechanics, where measuring how far a shot can go can be go is really the difficult thing. But, the courses aren’t really that hard, and each hole can be completed individually (and restarted at will), so it shouldn’t take very long to get 3 stars on each hole. A greater quantity of more challenging courses would really help this game get interesting.

Golf Squared is a decent start to a 2D golf game, one that’s more restrained than its genre-mate Super Stickman Golf, but also hampered by said restraint. The core mechanics are not necessarily as fun, and there’s not a lot to really hook players yet. Maybe down the road, this might really be worth it. It’s a silly thing to say about a 99-cent game, but such is the warped economy of the App Store.