Golf Peaks turns mini-golf into a map-based puzzle game

It can be difficult to find the time to complete a video game, especially if you only have a few hours a week. In our biweekly column Short game, we suggest video games that can be started and ended a weekend.

One thing about abstract puzzle games is that they often have no themes. Games like Tetris, Wipe off, or sudokus are not designed to look like something in particular. Nothing about them can be compared to an badog of the real world. However, games that use good themes use them to help players better understand what they are capable of doing. Resynth, for example, mimics the looks and sounds of a music synthesizer to turn a puzzle game into a block puzzle into something where you can make music, and you understand how you're doing it shoot according to the sound of the music.

Golf peaks is a shining example of using themes because it largely explains how the game works to the player even before he starts playing. In this case, it uses your prior knowledge of miniature golf. Describing this as a miniature golf game where you use cards to determine how well you hit the ball should be gross enough to let you know how to play the game.

In the puzzle of the game, you must try to find out how to use the limited moves you have, depending on the specific cards you have received for that hole, in order to finish it. Each card tells you how many squares the ball will go through, while indicating if it will move on the ground or in the air. After choosing your card, you want to use it to choose one of the four directions in which you want the ball to move. The ball then moves in that direction, regardless of the indication of the card or until it encounters an obstacle or danger.

This is usually what you expect from a mini-golf course: walls that bounce your ball like at the beginning, slopes that roll down and sand traps that stop all the dynamics of your ball. Although it lacks some of the craziest accessories such as windmills or giant animals, as the game progresses, the dangers become more and more eccentric with the likes of quicksand, ice and treadmills. Each of the nine sections of the game is based on a specific danger, the first holes explaining its operation while becoming more complex as you complete each section.

Although there is no text in the game, it does a great job teaching through the game. While this type of trial and error teaching method can often be frustrating, Golf peaks Allows you to easily restart a hole or cancel a movement almost instantly. Experimenting with new mechanisms and obstacles is actually a fun thing to do because there is no negative repercussion for just trying something. This not only helps you learn new behaviors, but sometimes it allows you to finish the holes in a way that the cards never wanted.

Even if Golf peaks does not have randomly generated levels, the game is probably something I would play on my travels if I had an iPhone. The puzzles are well crafted and the game is so relaxing that I do not want to stop myself. In mobile form, eliminating a few holes seems to be a great way to relax after work, especially when you only have a free hand in the subway.

The golf peaks were created by Afterburn. You can get it for the Nintendo Switch for $ 4.99, Windows and Mac on Itch.io or Steam for $ 4.99, or on the iOS App Store for $ 2.99. It can take about four hours.