Analysis of Cursed to Golf

Chuhai Laboratories, a Japanese independent game developer and publisher, has been struggling since its inception in 2020 to bring innovative and unique games to market. On this occasion, they surprise us with Cursed at golfa charismatic 2d independent golf title with mind roguelike which has been the most refreshing of this summer.

In Cursed at golf We have to face a multitude of tracks, each one more complicated, full of dangers and obstacles to get out of a golf course located in hell itself. You will have to be skilful and perceptive to fill in all the holes and thus return to the world of the living. But beware! If we fail in the attempt, we will have to start the whole course again from the beginning and each round will face us with totally different holes each time.

Put it in the hole to “get out of the hole”

The story of Cursed at golf There’s nothing exciting about it (pardon the irony) but it’s quite curious. We play the role of a professional golfer who is about to win the championship. At the last hole, before the final blow, a tragedy occurs that ends our lives and our soul remains. trapped in golf hell.

Confused and lost in the underworld, we’ll meet “The Scotsman”, the spirit of a legendary golfer who has been locked up there for ages. This sympathetic character, overwhelmed by our presence and surprised by our golfing skills, explains the situation to us and tells us that there is a way to get out of there and return to the world of the living. Our objective will be to complete the 18 holes of a cursed golf course guarded by a being called “The Guardian of the Green”. this evil character has the ability to change hole patterns at will and this will complicate the task of reaching the end. Each time we fail, we will have to start from the beginning of the course and face a completely different configuration of holes. Can we return to the world of the living?

Cursed to Golf: platformers, roguelikes and golf

The peculiarity of the game is that the holes have a platform game structurevery similar to that of any Mario Brothers. The scenarios are full of jumps, deadly traps, teleports, explosives and all kinds of dangers. As you can see, all the essential ingredients to create a great platform screen. However, the fundamental difference is that we must not reach the goal with our character, but with our ball through the most precise blows we can give.

To carry out such an enterprise, we will have to 3 different suits which will give us 3 shots of different kinds to overcome any kind of obstacle. On one side we have a Conduct, the longest and most powerful stick that will help us cover more meters with our ball. The blows are stronger but will go straighter. To raise the ball a little more and make shots from medium distance we have the The iron, with which we will do most of the shots located in the middle of the route. It has medium power and lift. Finally, we have the Cornerthe shortest club that will allow us to execute more precise and controlled shots, therefore less powerful.

Simple mechanic but improved with maps

The game of Cursed at golf It’s very basic but beautiful. To execute the blows, we will have to press a single button. Once the pitch has been inspected with the camera and our matching club has been chosen, we prepare to hit the ball. To do this, we will press a button that will automatically fill the blow power. Once selected, depending on whether the blow is going to be more or less powerful, a trajectory line that will go up and down. When the guide reaches our ideal point, we will have to press the same button again to deliver the blow and… pray that we don’t fall into a trap!

Since the scenarios are so convoluted, the good people of Chuhai has set up a system of special help by cards. These Ace Cards They will allow us to make really spectacular shots since they will allow us, among other things: to stop time, to change the trajectory of the ball in full flight, to divide it into three different balls, to freeze it or, if the shot got off to a bad start, we will be able to redo the launch. As you can see, it’s a whole demonstration of imagination that is available to us to arrive safely at the end of the hole. And it doesn’t stop here: at the end of each round we have to face a final boss This will complicate things for us. Fortunately, if we manage to defeat him, he will give us some kind of useful reward that will allow us to gain an ability or control point it allows us to continue from that moment when we die instead of having to start over from the beginning.

Cursed at golf: the Eterni-Tee shop

These letters are the key to Cursed at golf and we will get them when we cross the field (on some occasions we can choose the path to follow at the forks) or in the Eterni-Tee Shop

. In this place we can buy different card packs with the money we earn with each hole passed. These envelopes contain several surprise cards and the amount depends on the rarity of each envelope. I recommend that you buy as many as possible because you will need the help of the cards to overcome the adventure.

But in the store you can not only buy the cards, but we can also save the ones we already have in an album. It works like a file that allows us to store the cards that we want to keep for a next turn once we have been eliminated. It is a very good option for the most avant-garde players because, remember, every time we fail, we have to start a new game from scratch. In this new round we will only keep the cards that we have saved in the album and some special abilities that we have acquired during the game by defeating a boss.

Finally, it is the ideal place if you want change the appearance of our protagonist. If we get tired of its appearance, we can always choose new colors for it completely free of charge. There are some very curious color sets that reference certain characters from other video games. The bad thing is we won’t be able to change dressing roomsjust the colors. In this aspect I think that the study could have done something more since it remains in something purely anecdotal.

Destroy totems to avoid death

As we have already mentioned, your essence roguelike This means that each time we fail, we have to start the game over from the beginning (if we don’t have a feature that allows us to continue from another point). This can be very frustrating, especially for those new to this style of play.

how do you lose in Cursed at golf? Very simple. To complete each hole we have a total of 5 strokes, which are those that make up the pair of each hole. Due to the complexity of the scenarios, this number of moves will almost certainly be very short. One way to increase their numbers is to Ace Cards

which provide us with additional blows or destroy certain totems. These totems are scattered around the stage and as long as we destroy them with our ball, they will add new attempts to our counter. So. There are two types of figures: silver and gold. The first will give us two more hits and the second four. In this way, it seems almost essential that we spot some figures on the course in order to reach the hole in a safer way, give the game some strategy it feels good.

Very neat retro sound and graphics

The artistic style of Cursed at golf It’s beautiful, composed of a pixel art very nice 8 bit style and some very neat animations. It is true that the title does not make an overwhelming technical display, far from it, but the chosen style suits it like a glove.

However, the sound effects they are rare but very well made. The soundtrack is also quite catchy and the melodies are very well chosen. However, when you listen to it for a while, it can be somewhat repetitive and, if you get stuck in a hole more than necessary, it can “drill your brain”.

Cursed to Golf: a wolf in sheep’s clothing

Cursed at golf It’s a game we loved. It wastes the imagination on all four sides and its formula seemed very original to us, going a little out of the typical canons of games roguelike.

However, This is a very difficult game and it will not be suitable for all types of audience.. Those approaching the title for its apparent likability should know that it’s a tough game with a high level of challenge. Having to restart a game from the beginning after each failure can mean that abandonment of player out of desperation. This has a simple explanation: to develop a successful trick, we are going to have to think very carefully and execute each move, so we will consume considerable time. If after a few hours of preparation a hole gets stuck and you end up dying, the frustration will be so great that few people will have the strength and the desire to try again, the most common thing is to leave the next attempt for another day.

More xbox area we dare to recommend it to everyone, at least to try it and, above all, to golf lovers and roguelike look for a good challenge with a fresh and original formula.