To say What the Golf? subverted every single expectation I had going into the title would be a colossal understatement. Even now, as I sit here typing up this review, I’m finding it difficult to accurately sum up what this game even is. Developer Triband has taken the core principles of golf and pushed them to their absolute limit here, with results both bewildering and hilariously entertaining at the same time.



One moment you’ll be nailing an unassuming hole-in-one, and then BAM. Suddenly, you’re not playing anything resembling the sport anymore. You’re hurtling through space, you’re launching furniture into the back of a moving truck, you’re firing arrows at a target, or you’re racing a sheep to the flag. By this point, the word “golf” has faded into nothingness and every subsequent level raises more and more questions. And you can’t help but love every second of it.



Originally released for iOS and Apple Arcade in 2019, the PS5 has finally received its own What the Golf? port 5 years later, opening the gateway to golf-inspired shenanigans for the entire Sony userbase to enjoy. The control set-up is about as simple as it gets - aim with the left stick and hold down the X button to adjust the intensity of your swing, or forward momentum/propulsion in the cases where you’re not in control of a ball. Which, funnily enough, is most of the time. As you might expect from an iOS title, the gameplay structure and loop stick closely to the style present in other prominent mobile apps, as does the user interface, with its assortment of huge, colourful buttons ripe for the prodding.

One moment you’ll be nailing an unassuming hole-in-one, and then BAM. Suddenly, you’re not playing anything resembling the sport anymore.

Even the in-game map or level selection screen is reminiscent of something like Candy Crush or Peggle Blast. We’ve got a surprisingly large overworld to putt through, (as a golf ball, of course) with various scattered flagpoles serving as portals to each level, and a selection of characters and computer terminals that offer up lines of appropriately humorous dialogue when bumped into – sometimes hinting at a larger overarching narrative.



The map is broken up into several themed sections, each level within usually adhering to a specific topic or gameplay style. One area might focus primarily on soccer-oriented challenges, while another could instead revolve around competing in a series of athletic events or see you knocking down a bunch of pins using a bowling ball. And, if you let your curiosity take over, you might even come across a few secret areas as well.

Throughout the vast majority of levels, your objective is simply to make contact with the flagpole at the end of the area using whatever object, person, or animal the game provides for you. As a result, you never know what manner of chaos the next scenario will drop you into, and that ever-present element of unpredictability and genuinely clever level design is what’ll keep you truly hooked as you instinctively zip from minigame to minigame.



In addition to the earlier challenge examples I threw out, some sections delve into the realm of parody, overtly referencing and recreating the gameplay of popular titles like Super Mario Bros., Super Meat Boy, Portal, Katamari Damacy, and (believe it or not) Superhot. Completing a level unlocks two additional bonus challenges for you to tackle with different victory criteria, awarding you a celebratory trophy and a crown for finishing all three. These crowns are used to unlock further areas of the map down the line, so you might as well save yourself the time and just crown every level as you come across them.

Some sections delve into the realm of parody, overtly referencing and recreating the gameplay of popular titles like Super Mario Bros., Super Meat Boy, Portal, Katamari Damacy, and (believe it or not) Superhot.

While some tasks are certainly trickier than others, like the levels that have a “stroke” limit, the difficulty never reaches anything I’d call particularly challenging. Considering the overall relaxed and laid-back nature of the game’s design, this approach makes perfect sense, and you’ll likely find yourself breezing through the sizeable amount of content available to you at a speedy pace – including the extra series of “Episodes” that serve as bonus mini-chapters, separate from the main campaign.



Despite all the fun and creativity on display within the toybox of What the Golf?, I found myself preferring to stick to shorter play sessions, after the initial wonder of the first couple dozen levels had run its course. Sure, the game is equal parts deliciously wacky and charming, but when you boil it down to its core elements, you’re still ultimately doing the same thing over and over again with a change of scenery or an added gimmick thrown in to shake things up. This title works exceptionally well as one of those games you play while sitting in your local physician’s waiting room to pass the time, wondering what those three-year old issues of Time magazine are doing on the edge of the coffee table to your right – and that’s totally fine.

Game performance was decent most of the time, with a few frame drops occurring every now and then while rolling around the overworld. The trophy room, on the other hand, seemed to be hit pretty heavily with frame rate problems for whatever reason. There was also an occasion where repeatedly talking to a chicken NPC, a completely normal statement to make as far as What the Golf? is concerned, caused a crash. Thankfully, the actual challenges and levels play just fine, which is the most important thing here.



If at any point while reading this you’ve subconsciously scratched your head in mild confusion, I think it’s safe to say that What the Golf? has done the job it was created to do. This is one of those games that needs to be physically played to be fully understood and appreciated, and I can almost guarantee you’ll have a grand time with it if you go ahead and decide to pick up a copy. It’s a title that appeals to people of all ages, shining at its very brightest when experienced with others or used to unwind at the end of a particularly stressful day.

*PS5 Review code provided by Triband | Reviewed by Ryan Pretorius