There are not many games on Live that are truly original, most as we all know are either remakes of old releases or the old versions themselves, however there are some gems on the service, and none more so that Golf: Tee it up from Activison.
Tee it up takes you and your friends onto the grass for a few rounds of Golf, the premise of the game is to keep things simple and this is accomplished by providing you with simple controls and fun gameplay. When you first start the game you are given the chance to customise your male or female character with the choice of different clothes and hairstyles as well as more bizarre things like bunny ears and monsters feet, of course there isn’t a huge range when it comes to customisation, however it is fairly decent.
The gameplay as mentioned is fairly simple, to tee off you click the A button, which causes the power bar to start moving, when you get the desired power you then click A again, this will cause the power bar to go in the opposite direction, you must then click A for a last time with the aim of lining up the power bar with the centre line, providing you do this correctly you will then hit a good straight shot, however should you miss the line your ball will curve to the left or right, depending on how badly you missed. Anyone who has ever played Everybody’s Golf will be familiar with this control system.
There are a few twists to the controls that can help and hinder you, the first of these is the use of the B button to add power to your shot, by tapping B before taking a shot you are able to hit the ball further, although you still need to be accurate when taking the shot otherwise you will pay more than usual. The other twist to the controls is focus, you can actually earn up to 12 seconds of this and it allows you to slow your ball should it be heading somewhere that you don’t want it to, such as in the water or rough. Similarly you can also use focus to turn your ball left or right during a putt, however you must be careful not to use it all up as once you do there will be no more until the next round. Focus is actually a really good idea and is a really good inclusion in the game, it works really well and helps players who are maybe not so good (or just having a bad day).
The hardest part of the game has got to be the putting, the slopes on the green are marked by flowing lines, showing whether the ball will be going uphill, downhill, left or right (or a combination of any of these). Because of this, it is really tough to get the perfect shot when putting, meaning that you will be left pulling your hair out a few times, however it is challenging and once you get the hang of it then it’s not so bad.
Apart from the single player challenges such as Cup, Stroke Play and Matchplay, the game also includes an offline co-op mode with the same modes and also an Xbox Live option which allows you to play ranked and unranked matches online. The online mode is fairly basic but unlike many Live games it at least gives you the option to play two vs. two, which is a great thing to have.
Graphically the game looks great, this is a nice cartoony feel (which is helped by the crazy customisation) and the courses all look fantastic, considering that this game is an Xbox Live one, it is hard not to be impressed by the presentation.
Golf: Tee it up really is fantastic value for money, you don’t even really need to be a golf fan to play because it’s very simple to pick up and very enjoyable. If there was one criticism then it would be that perhaps more customisation could have been added, however considering what you get for your points this is a game that should be hard for anyone to turn their nose up at.
