Real World Golf

It's always a risky proposition to release a game that requires a special peripheral. Too often that combination results in a higher price and increased difficulty in selling it. On top of that, quality can be very uneven. It doesn't matter how good the game is if the peripheral required to play it is an unreliable piece of crap. Steel Battalion on the Xbox is the perfect example of an awesome game with awesome gear, and the combo of Super Glove Ball and the Power Glove for the original Nintendo is at the other end of the spectrum. Real World Golf and its GameTrak controller are smack dab in the middle.

The GameTrak is a weird-looking device that connects to one of the rarely-used USB ports on the PlayStation 2. The sizeable hunk of plastic has two cables with finger-less gloves at the end and a foot pedal to serve as the "accept" button. The device reads hand movement based on tension on the cables. Unfortunately, unlike most Wii games that depend on motion controls, there is no way to calibrate the GameTrak for different heights or playing positions. That results in WAY too many misreadings for your shots. I lost count how many times the game thought I was pausing because my hands went down too low or sliced a shot because I was an inch too far back. The occasional time I made par was always miraculous because of those technical issues.

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It's a shame the GameTrak was so problematic because the game itself is really good. The visuals, while rather simple compared to other PlayStation 2 golf games, do the job well enough with impressive animation to boot. The character customizer may not make an accurate sim of you, but it has a decent number of options. The game supports four-player hotseat, but I shudder when I think of how much time it would take for people to take turns with the GameTrak. There are ten courses available, and the difficulty curve is smooth when going to each new one. There are tournaments available for each course. There are also a bunch of party games which are a blast in their own right from hitting parked cars to shooting through hoops.

I can't help but be disappointed by Real World Golf overall. When the GameTrak worked the way it was supposed to, I felt exhilarated when I pulled off an awesome drive or sank a great putt. That's definitely better than the track record for golf games on the Wii, most of which didn't work at all. The problem was that the technical annoyances added up quickly to the point that it drove me nuts. It's a shame because, if the GameTrak got a bit more refinement, this would've been a great way to practice without having to head to the driving range all the time.