Ah, crazy golf. It reminds me of family holidays to Bournemouth, heading out in the fading light with my parents, taking a leisurely walk into the park and to the crazy golf, grabbing a club and ball and making our way around the eighteen holes before heading back to the hotel… ah, happy days! Anyway, now I've done my bit for the Bournemouth Tourist Board (will there be a cheque in the post?) I should get on with this review. As a fan of crazy golf, I was eager to pick up and play King of Clubs, a game based around the British tradition that should be up there with fish and chips and wet Saturday afternoons (just don't write in to tell me that it's Scottish in origin with multiple worldwide influences). So how have Oxygen Interactive done with representing the game?

Firstly, and the thing that hits you most from reading the booklet, watching the intro movie, seeing the trailer or visiting the website, is that it's been created with a great sense of humour. From the movie trailer spoof to the language options of the website (available in 'American', 'Nearly American' (English), 'Not American' and 'Everyone Else Gets American'), everything has a refreshing tongue-in-cheek humour to it, which is very welcome. After the aforementioned intro movie, the game jumps into the main menu which, like so many games that are on multiple platforms, doesn't utilise the motion of the Wii remote, so it's the plain old d-pad for navigating around.

The single player mode is made up of three sections; in Tournament you play through each set of nine holes, trying to get the lowest score possible, Speed Golf is all about how quickly you can play each hole and Practice gives you a chance to get to know the courses. There are ten different sets of nine holes, with two sets for each of the five themes on offer; dinosaurs, Egypt, Medieval times, the tropics and the future. As you complete each set in the Tournament mode you unlock the next in all the modes, including multiplayer for up to four people, which offers its own modes of Versus, Grand Prix (where you pick the number of holes to play and the choice is randomly selected), Speed Golf, Party (a multiplayer practice mode) and Golf Warriors, which assigns you with random courses, balls and clubs.

So now we know what's on offer, the all-important question is how does the game play? Thankfully the answer is very well actually, and not too distant from its Wii Sports cousin. You hold the Wiimote like a golf club, using the d-pad to move the club direction left and right or the camera up and down. You can see an overhead view by pressing 2 and using the d-pad to move around or press the 2 button again to get a scrolling look over the course, like you get as you start a hole. You can press the 1 button for the menu and the - and + buttons to change your club and ball selection accordingly. To putt, you press the A button to make a bar appear that shows the strength of your shot. Moving the Wiimote backwards increases the power and holding down the A button holds it, or pressing B cancels it. Moving the Wiimote forward then completes the putt.

As with Wii Sports, a white line is projected from the club (but on this game all the time), showing you the direction of the ball when you hit it. Sadly, the game doesn't have any connection between the power bar and the line like in Wii Sports, so at times it's difficult to judge your power. Other than this omission, the gameplay is fun and easy enough to get to grips with, while the Wii controls have been, for the most part, implemented successfully - but the gameplay isn't just about the golf, as there's plenty to collect and unlock too.

Scattered around each hole are various pick-ups, including power-ups and money. Money is used to buy upgrades such as new clubs, balls and rewards that let you retake a shot or shave a shot off your score. Also, less usefully, you can pay to change the colour of your ball or the trail, or even sound sets. Action figures are also available for purchase, which save you money depending on your course and character. Some of the purchases, such as the balls, are very handy and enhance your game, making your ball faster or giving you a rubber ball for instance, but even the less useful ones add a nice spin to the gameplay. Aside from money, other pickups include penalties for opposing players that you can buy or pick up on the holes and while I found that it could be distracting trying to hit rewards with your ball instead of going for the hole, this is "crazy" golf after all! All of these options are tied up to one of four profiles where you can choose a particular character and re-name it, though I had issues with the game saving everything but my altered profile name. Weird.

Graphically, King of Clubs isn't massively impressive and is no better than the usual PS2 offering, with some dodgy design decisions such as white text on a yellow background. However, where it does pick up points is in its hole designs, capturing the real-world look of crazy golf courses, recreated with dinosaurs on pieces of wood moving around on motors and hazards such as flames that are clearly made out of something that would be possible in real life. The sound is the same standard, the music and sound effects adding to the atmosphere in a way that is neither annoying nor anything special.

Where King of Clubs really excels is in its humour and lifespan. Naturally the game is going to be compared to the golf game from Wii Sports, so how does it stand up? Well, it's a deeper game and less serious than the full-blown courses of the Sports pack, but just as enjoyable. Though the single player won't take long to complete, improving your performance is addictive and will take a while, plus the addition of speed golf and the multiplayer mode make this a fun title to pull off the shelf for a quick session on a regular basis, especially when a couple of friends come round. It's let down a little by the occasional problem with predicting the distance of your shots, the general PS2 feel to the game and the occasional lengthy loading times, but the humour, collectables and appeal of the gameplay shine through. It might not be enough to replace evenings on a real crazy golf course, but it's one of the best console recreations of the 'sport' to date - definitely above par!

Reviewed by Philip Lickley for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).