Nintendo Touch Golf Birdie Challenge - DS/DSi

Golf games have long been a videogame staple, one of the few sports that can be played and enjoyed solo translating well to interactive entertainment. Nintendo have always looked to provide their handheld customers with a decent golf game ever since they launched Mario Golf on the first Game Boy.

They were beaten to the punch, or rather, pitch, on the DS though, by Electronic Arts, who were quick to spot that the machine’s stylus and touch screen offered some interesting new opportunities to one of gaming’s most hallowed genres. Tiger Woods, already blazing a trail on home consoles with a mechanic in which the analogue stick controls the swing, translated to the DS with your gold swing controlled by careful swiping of the stylus. Watch your golfer taking his swing on the top screen as you do so.

Nintendo’s Touch Golf: Birdie Challenge uses exactly the same principle, leaving it up to DS owners to decide whether they value increased development time over real world players and courses. Using the touch screen players can maximise the power of their golf swing by taking long, controlled strokes with the stylus, and can use the angle of their line to apply slice or fade to the ball. You get the benefit of Nintnedo’s years of experience in level design, with beautiful fairways and greens to master. It’s considered fashionable to be able to customise your player character these days, and Touch Golf duly obliges, with the option to choose what clothes your man will wear from a selection of the zany attire favoured by the golfing fraternity.

As well as the touch screen, the DS is famed for its wireless powers, and players are treated to an excellent four player mode to enjoy with other DS users. Best of all, only one cartridge is required for all of you to enjoy the round. Extremely generous, though you might well want to invest in your own copy to practise your skills in between these friendly rounds…
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