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Golf: Tee it Up! on Game and Player
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Golf: Tee it Up!

Matthew Theroux  //  July 14, 2008


It's a pretty fun play.

G

olf: Tee it Up!, recently released on Xbox Live Arcade, adds a little to the standard golf formula. It's very fast-moving — truly an arcade game, and unlikely to bore. The courses are very well designed, with a great amount of detail to them. Colors are vibrant — the fairways practically glow — so there's no mistaking one part of the course for another.



Add a little spin, if you like.
Character selection is limited to a default male/female character, but there is a decent amount of customization options available so you can still make the character of your choice. There isn't much to say about the music; it comes up only in a few areas (main menu, hole map) but stays airy and lighthearted which perfectly suits Tee it Up's style.

Game mechanics are fairly straightforward. Tee it Up uses the three-button method, similar to many other golf games, which allows the player to change the point of impact on the ball and add spin. What Tee It Up brings to the mix is a Focus meter. Focus builds up after each hole and works in a manner similar to "bullet-time."

With Focus engaged, you can alter the direction of your ball or view the path of your putts. It can also be used to power-up your shots for longer drives. Use of Focus can be a real lifesaver for your game, and makes competing with others all the more challenging.

What's also different is how the designers have gone about displaying slope on the greens. They forgo a grid system and instead opt for using waves to indicate the slope direction. While different it is still an effective tool. My only issue with the core mechanics of the game is that I feel that the power slider moves too fast, which makes is difficult to make your shots as accurate as possible. It doesn't take long to get used to but can be particularly offsetting if you are used to the slider in other golf games.



Highly detailed courses,
if only there are two of them.
Online play maintains the emphasis on speedy play. All players golf at the same time, their location on the hole indicated by a colored marker. Doing this prevents issues of lag and keeps a fast pace of game. The only drawback to this is that I wasn't able to find a lot of people playing online in a game focused on multiplayer.

The game falls short twice. First, with the camera. A player has absolutely no control over it; this can make using Focus during high-lobbing shots more difficult than it really should be. Second, the number of courses: only two, the easy Caribbean course and the much harder Parkland course. This seriously hampers replay, though it also opens the door for downloadable content. This could be a boon or a curse depending on how add-ons would be priced.

Still, a pretty fun play. If you're curious, go ahead and give the demo a try.





Golf: Tee it Up!

System


Developer

Housemarque


Publisher

Activision


NA Release

July 9, 2008


Genre

Play Mode


ESRB Rating


In Favor

  • No slow, boring golf here
  • Focus: interesting, skill-building

Against

  • Lack of camera control
  • Only two courses

G&P Rating

Articles by Matthew Theroux

July 29, 2009



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July 1, 2011



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