Pangya Golf is an anime-styled golf game, originating from the PC realms and now making its debut on the Nintendo Wii. The game presents itself as a casual golf game with a kiddy/anime punch. One of the contrasting factors between Pangya Golf and its competitors is the points reward system; players are rewarded with 'pang' points, in addition to hitting a well timed shot which adds up as the round progress. It is unique because the points could ultimately decide the winner of a match if competed drawn. This new feature, not seen in other golf games, definitely adds a new dimension to the game and gives it some sort of an edge over its rivals. Pangya Golf is a fresh new take on the sport for many of us who would rather watch paint dry than to see a full round of golf on TV.

You start the game with a choice of characters to play. You can chose between Scout or Pipen, boy and girl. The menu offers five options: Tournament mode, which is for one player; Versus mode; a shop to dress your golfer up; options and tutorials. The five options may seem like your average short third party game, but don’t let it fool you. This game is enormous! The amount of content is quite unbelievable in terms of levels, characters, and items. The levels seem endless, and the difficulty setting is surprisingly challenging. If you’re a casual golfer this game might get a little frustrating because you might find yourself stuck playing the same stages over and over. On the bright side, there are numerous great courses to be played. Mini games like balloon pop can certainly be entertaining.

The gameplay overall is pretty solid. There are a few major elements to the game that one has to come to terms with before they truly get the hang of Pangya Golf. Firstly the swing: you swing the wiimote as you would with a golf club, and if you hook the wiimote the sensor will pick it up and your shot will be portrayed as a hook. Secondly, timing is important. A well timed shot will increase the accuracy and distance of the shot made by the golfer, also adding a larger curve to the shot and/or a spin on the ball. Curving the ball is extremely important, and being able to watch your ball sail around large helicopters and landing on the green is definitely satisfying. This technique is particularly useful in order cut your number of strokes down and is often the best part of later courses. It is challenging, but when mastered it rewards the golfer greatly.

The last but most important element of the game play is the putting. The putting for Pangya Golf takes a little while to get use to because it is very easy to under or over hit. This problem occurs because there’s no system for you to read the pitch of the green in terms of front to back slopes. This is very frustrating, where easy birdies turn into pars and pars into bogeys. But other than that the system works well and skill does ultimately prevail.

Another controversial feature with Pangya Golf is the swing meter. The developers have kept the same system for the online series, so obviously it worked previously. However it is a love it or hate it system. Instead of letting your swing determine power, you can just tilt the wiimote back, lock on the power meter with the A then just swing away with a fixed power gauge. This swing system kills the purpose of a check swing which could put a lot of true golf junkies off the game. On the other hand it will force players to emphasis the direction, angle, timing, curves and spins. On the bright side, the swing system works wonders when attempting putts. Other golf games such as Wii Golf and Tiger Woods had a terrible putting system. Mostly due to the unpredictability of the Wii’s motion sensing abilities, Pangya Golf challenges players to focus on their decision making based on the pitch and swing speed.

As far as storyline goes, Pangya Golf pretty much fails. The developers have tried to create a fantasy world where golfers actually interact with each other, however all this becomes frustration when the game takes hours to play and in the middle of rounds you have to read some pointless dialogue between characters. The game’s storyline did not have to be there, but on the other hand might motivate certain players who like games with interactions between characters.

From the outset you’ll realise the game is not trying to achieve the realism of games on other formats. So how does it compare with its predecessors? Well… not a whole lot better. Most of the objects in the game look very bland and ugly. The shading is awful, details are minuscule and the whole package doesn’t spell “next generation graphics” by any means. The sound and audio of the game isn’t too flash either, there is hardly a sound track among the courses. There is a single tune that is played for each type of course. A few special effects here and there if you hit a super swing, or if it happens to go out of bounds; nothing to motivate the players.

As you can tell I have mixed feelings about the game. Although it’s simply quite entertaining in some aspects, it also fails to impress in others. The game itself can get very frustrating and feel like a chore to play through. However it’s colourful, the amount of unlockables will drive certain players who like to collect items and the stats system also adds depth. The content for a golf game can be quite overwhelming at times, and the repetitiveness in single player does become some what boring. On the other side multiplayer is great, the pang bonus adds a new dimension to golf games. One factor that lets the game down from its online versions is the fact that this game cannot be played online. So for those of you older Pangya golf fans, this may be a very big disappointment for you personally.