Droid Mini Golf - PRO

I'm not a golf fan, but I enjoy a game of mini golf a few times a year and mini golf seems like a game that would translate particularly well to a touch screen device. So when I saw Droid Mini Golf - PRO from Patchwork Games for a buck I figured I'd give it a try.

In mini golf, just like in real golf, you have 18 holes to play and in each hole there are a predetermined number of shots that it 'should' take to complete if you are competent. This essentially allows you to play against the hole itself in attempt to get a better, lower score versus playing another player. It also lets you know just how bad of a player you are. Each hole also has obstacles to bounce off of or avoid and in mini golf Pro there are sand traps to slow the ball down, water traps which give a one stroke penalty, and metal 'boxes' which you bounce off of with a 'clink' sound.

Mini Golf Pro features 3 different courses for extended playability and also offers online tournaments and rankings so you can see how you compare against the rest of the world. The graphics are mediocre at best and the sound non-existent with the exception of the occasional 'click' off of a metal obstacle.

The controls basically work ok. You drag your finger across the screen (anywhere... not even across the ball) at a given speed to create a vector that determines where you ball goes. You can also hold down on the screen for an extended time to zoom out and see the whole course in the event that it doesn't fit on the screen. Unfortunately, I suspect these two occasionally get confused as I've had some accidental shots while trying to zoom and some zooms while trying to shoot. I might recommend changing this to a button on the size of the screen if I'm correct and the code is occasionally confusing the two actions. Furthermore, there have been several times where the program and myself apparently completely disagree as to how I swiped by finger. This might happen 1 in 20 times, but it's enough to be aggravating. One final bug, and I can't reproduce it, is the time my ball flew off the course and out into space (the black background) as the side of the course failed to contain the ball. I know a shot can be so powerful that this happens in real mini golf, but in real mini golf the ball is also position back on course whereas here it just sat in space. The game has no problem letting me hit the ball back onto the course, though, and finish the hole.

I've also had some issues where it seems like if my device is anything less that cleanly booted that the game hangs on the startup screen refusing to let me click on the buttons that start the game. Killing all of my existing apps fixes the problem, but still... I shouldn't have to do that and that will scare others that try this game out away.

How do I like it? Despite my complaints, I'm very positive on this $.99 game and I've played through the "Original Course" many times and continue to enjoy it despite the quirks. As anticipated the touch screen controls (usually) work great. I hope the author is able to address my issues with upcoming releases and continues to add new courses to the game. And I hope the Android community that has interest in this type of game will buy it and allow this developer to become big enough to be able to afford a decent website.