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MiniGolf and All American Game Hunter
October 10, 2002
I don’t have any screenshots to show you, as for some reason these programs would not work with my usual capture utility, but you can see some on the Global Star website (see below).Mini Golf is a surprisingly fun little game that is controlled entirely by your stylus. The application includes a choice of five different courses, including garden, golf club, desert, moon, and Mars. The graphics in each one are quite nice, and appropriate for the locale, but be advised that this not a hi res application. (If you have a Sony Clie, you must turn off Hi Res assist in order to run the program.) You can also choose in the game preferences whether you want the sound effects to be off, on, or system dependent, which is a nice choice. The sound effects aren’t awe-inspiring, but then again that’s true of most Palm OS games anyway.
Once you choose a course, it’s easy to start. Tap your stylus on the screen in order to set where you’re going to aim, and then tap the Shoot button at the top of the screen to actually take your shot. The longer you hold down that button, the harder you’ll shoot. That can be a good thing if your ball is able to bank off one of the borders, or it could mean that you completely overshoot the hole. This becomes even more important as you progress through each course—there’s a water hazard on the tenth hole of the garden course, for example. There are windmills and hills to navigate around as well. On the golf club course, there’s even a rotating magnet that alternately attracts and repels your ball from the border, and some nasty sand traps starting at the eleventh hole. Don’t worry about getting too frustrated though, as there is a maximum of seven shots per hole before you move on to the next one.
All in all I really enjoy Mini Golf, and highly recommend it. It has earned a permanent spot on my Clie, along with all of my other favorites. It’s challenging, unique, and has a lot of replay value. I find myself trying all of the courses over and over to see if I can improve my score!
All American Game Hunter is a hunting game, of course. Use the stylus to aim, and your device buttons to shoot and reload. The objective of the game is to get enough points to advance to the next round, within a time limit, by “shooting” the appropriate animals— bucks, badgers, wolves, etc. There are penalties for hitting ineligible targets, such as other people or domestic pets, and there is no opportunity to gain extra ammunition within each round, so conservation is very important.
The graphics are pretty good, especially the backgrounds. But unfortunately that’s the only good thing I have to say about this game. The controls are very difficult to use, since you aim with your stylus and then use the hard buttons on your device to shot or reload. It’s just too much to think about and try to do all at once. It would have made more sense if the hard button commands could have been temporarily mapped to the calculator and find buttons on the Graffiti area, for example. The game is also simply too hard. Even on the beginner level I was unable to progress past the second round. The animals moved way too fast (except for the badgers), and I found the bucks to be impossible— they required two shots, and were off the screen before I could ever catch one. The sound effects weren’t that great either.
In other words, All American Game Hunter is not a game that I can recommend enthusiastically. If you’re a big hunting fan, you might be able to get past the game’s shortcomings and really enjoy it. But if you’re simply looking for a different kind of chanllenge, BangBang! from Astraware is far superior. It provides much better game play, easier to use controls (stylus only), and doesn’t have any of the thematic issues possibly associated with All American Game Hunter. You shoot targets, cans, and bottles, with cats being fair game only if you set that preference in the menu (some people love cats, some can’t stand them at all, and I appreciate the fact that BangBang! gives you a choice.)
If you would like either one of these games, you should be able to find them in your favorite retail electronics or office supply store, or you may order them directly from the Global Star Software web site for $14.99 each.
PocketGoddess rating for Mini Golf: 
PocketGoddess rating for All American Game Hunter: 
