Wonder Classic

In the late 90s and early 2000s, Hot Shots Golf was still very much the model for how to make a golf game that can appeal to everybody. There's a reason it was called Everybody's Golf everywhere else in the world. Apparently Namco Bandai was taking careful notes because they followed Sony's design philosophy to the letter when they made Wonder Classic for the WonderSwan Color, and by God, did they nail it!

Wonder Classic checks just about all the boxes for making a golf game the Hot Shots way. There are four full courses plus a nine-hole par-3 only course, and they are all fun to play on. The first one is unlocked at the beginning, and the others are unlocked by winning in Tour mode. The difficulty ramps up at an acceptable pace so that, by the time you get to the hardest course, you're hooked. On top of that, there are twenty-two characters to choose from, most of which are unlocked by beating them in Vs. mode. Also various bits of gear can be unlocked for the characters that, when equipped, can boost stats. There is plenty of reason to come back to this one. Unfortunately, the game doesn't have multiplayer at all. There is a mode to download Tour scores of the internet for indirect competition, but it's not the same.

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The mechanics are fantastic. The three-click mechanics work flawlessly, and there are plenty of assists like power shots and approach options to make the game a cinch to play. The only real issue is that the controls do take some time to get used to. With the system in the vertical orientation (a smart move as I said when I looked at Nice On), gameplay uses the two d-pads. For some reason, the aiming and club selection was mapped to the d-pad on the right when, in other games, aiming would always be on the left. There were plenty of times I accidentally shot when I was trying to aim.

The game looks and sounds excellent. The game just pops with bright colors, and the scrolling is silky smooth. The swing animation is a little jerky but not enough to be an issue. The music is a little generic but it works. The only real issue is that a translation guide is required for navigating the menus if you can't read Japanese.

Wonder Classic can easily compete with Awesome Golf on the Lynx as the best portable golf game. It's bright, colorful, easy to pick up, and VERY hard to put down. Only the lack of multiplayer is a significant enough issue, but don't let that stop you. If you have a WonderSwan (or, better, a WonderSwan Color), get this game. It easily scored a Double Eagle.