True Golf Classics: Waialae Country Club
One of the most beautiful golf courses in the world has been recreated down to the last grain of sand in Waialae Country Club: True Golf Classics for the Nintendo 64. Golf physics have been modeled with the utmost care to make your stay in Hawaii a memorable one, without having to pay the outrageous green fees. The game allows you to customize the attributes of up to ten golfers, including power, putting, recovery and ability against the wind.
As you plan your approach, select a club, adjust your stance, read the wind and determine the point of impact for spin, draw or fade. Once you're ready to begin, a traditional arcing swing meter will allow you to estimate the amount of power in your stroke. Six modes of play include the Waialae Open, Tournament, Stroke, Skins, Match and Practice.
The first mode is the Waialae Open, the heart of the game, where you compete in four rounds of golf against 77 fictitious players. You'll have to play sharp in the first two rounds or you'll get cut, as only the top forty are allowed to continue. Tournament Play offers you the chance to jump right to the last day of the Waialae Open, while Stroke Play is the basic game of golf where the winner is the one with the fewest strokes after eighteen holes.
Match Play makes each hole a contest to see who can finish with the fewest strokes. The person who wins the most holes after one round (a round is eighteen holes) is considered the winner. One feature of note is that you can have the game calculate your handicap based on your performance (which will be saved for future competition) or set it yourself. The game also includes support for up to four players alternating turns, and statistics for each golfer can be saved directly to cartridge. Aloha! ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide
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Product Details
| UPC: | 045496870300 |
|---|---|
| Release Date: | July 1, 1998 |
| Platform: | Nintendo 64 |
| Genre: | Sports |
| Style: | Golf |
Review
If you're only going to include one course in a 1998 golf release, it had better have the most detailed, beautiful and memorable eighteen holes this side of the real thing. Unfortunately, Waialae isn't that special of a course -- at least not for a video game. The problem is that it is predominately flat, although there are a few deep bunkers here and there to make it interesting. Water doesn't play as big a role as I would've liked and it simply lacks the uniqueness of a course like Pebble Beach. This could be forgiven if the course were more dynamic, however. Why couldn't we have 3D trees swaying in the wind? What about waves crashing, flags flapping, or people who actually show movement? Even a bird or two would help create a more engaging atmosphere.While the water shows reflections and the sky has a neat lens flare (looking like you're staring into the sun), it's not nearly enough. The graphics could have been much, much better if they were designed from the ground-up and not merely a conversion of the developer's existing 3DO title -- one that was released four years prior to this game. And that's the game's biggest fault. It neither exploits the Nintendo 64's strengths nor does it significantly expand upon T&E Soft's previous releases.
Those who have played T&E Soft's earlier golf games know the drill: after going through a few menus to set up your shot, swings are performed using the traditional "triple-click" method to determine power and accuracy. A large digitized golfer will then swing smoothly using motion captured animation. Once you play a few rounds, however, the problems start becoming glaringly apparent. For starters, there are only four golfers to choose from and you can't customize their appearance. Moreover, while the course looks nice enough with vibrant colors and a deep blue sky, the movement on the clouds overhead seems choppy and unnatural.
On the flip side, skies will change color at random times, so you may see a gray sky at some point on the course (even rain!), or a gorgeous purple sky while the sun sets. The trees also look fine from a distance, but upon closer inspection you'll see that they are paper-thin and blurry. Thankfully, you won't cross their paths very often unless you severely hook or slice the ball. Another strange sight is the trees changing their "thickness" during some of the camera views, which is somewhat distracting if you're looking for it.
A different part of the scenery is just as flat and unsightly when viewed up close: the crowds "gathered" around the holes who are nothing more than blurry cardboard cut-outs. Now if there were multiple courses on the cartridge I could look past this, but since there is just one, every effort should have been made to make it the most graphically impressive game out there. Waialae is far from a bad title, but it's truly a disappointment to anyone looking for a new experience. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide
Credits
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| T&E Soft, Inc. | Developer |
| Nintendo of America, Inc. | Manufacturer/Publisher |
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