We Love Golf

It's easy to understand that some Wii owners might be a bit wary of shelling out on a new golf game, when Wii Sports has a perfectly good version of the sport bundled free with the console. However, We Love Golf shows how much more Nintendo could have done with their offering by throwing tons of fun features and an improved swinging system into the mix.

Starting out, you can only select one course — the highlands — and four golfers. After a bit of play though, you will unlock tons of new courses from windy coastal venues to expansive fields of flowers. Being a Wii game means that all of these courses has plenty of retina-burning colour. Each of the many courses are lush and have shades of green you probably didn't know existed.

There are a fair few modes here, including a main tournament option, player challenge (where you play one-on-one games against new characters to unlock them), ring shot (where you must make par while smacking the ball through hoops on the way), and tee shot (closest one to the hole in one shot wins). Simple and fun.

The swing mechanic is where the game excels. You really will feel in control of what you're doing, much more so than in Wii Sports. If you are just starting out, you can hit practice shots to your heart's content by holding the B trigger, or hold A to swing for real. To begin your action, swing the remote back along the power gauge until it matches a club symbol, determining the suggested strength.

Quickly bring it back and let go of A when the icon matches the curve symbol at the bottom to determine how straight your shot is. Holding 1 adds topspin and 2 applies backspin. It's such a painfully simple system that it will feel natural to you in a few shots. Putting is pulled off the same way, with helpful contour lines highlighting the shape of the green so you can aim better.

Add this clever dynamic in with a host of quirky and charming golfers and this is a winning formula. Kids will love it and adults will get a real kick out of the harder difficulty settings. Perhaps most fun is unlocking a range of guest golfers from the Capcom back catalogue of games from the cool to the downright absurd. This will have retro fans leaping bounds of joy.

If there is one criticism, then it is that the shot guide can be a little misleading. For example, the game will suggest a club and power for each shot, showing you where the ball will end up if you swing correctly. Often you will nail the suggestion spot on, and still end up chipping the ball way past the hole or not far enough due to some often-zany backspin.

You will work out these nuances in time, however, and learn how to aim for yourself without the guide. It's great to see a control system on Wii done right which is responsive and easy for all gamers — regardless of previous experience — to understand.