While on the surface Planet Minigolf looks like your typical run of the mill golf game, once you dive into the game, you soon realize that there is more to this experience than simply putting a ball into the hole.

With the latest update to Planet Minigolf comes the ability to use Sony’s PlayStation Move controller and PlayStation Eye to control the game. You point the Move controller down towards the ground as if you are holding a golf club. You can hold down the Move button in order to shift and/or rotate your stance for a better shot. Once your shot is set, you let go of the Move button and hold down the T button on the bottom of the Move controller. You then proceed to pull the Move controller back in to prep you swing and then let it rip. The fast your swing is, the harder the ball will be hit and the further it will go.

Zen Studios opted not to go with a realistic presentation when they created Planet Minigolf. This game gives you an arcade feel with wacky characters, insane minigolf holes and course, and the ability to use power-ups in order to get out of sticky situations or simply to get the upper hand on the competition. Looking at the different landscapes from each island, you can clearly see that Zen Studios made sure to utilize every color imaginable to make sure that their environments were bright and lively. The character models are nicely details and are very fluid when it comes to swinging that putter.

The Play, Create, & Share moniker that Sony has adopted with several of its titles holds true with Planet Minigolf. For the Play aspect of Planet Minigolf, players can expect 144 holes of minigolf where no two holes are the same. Zen Studios wisely divided up the action among four courses; each with four different tours: Warm-Up, Pro, Extreme and Wacky. If you have never played minigolf in life, let alone as a video game, starting out on the Warm-Up courses will help you adjust to the game quickly. It’s on these courses that you get your putting squared away and learn the early stages of performing trick shots. As you progress to the Pro, Extreme and Wacky tours, the action is intensified requiring you to survey the course with the camera before making your first putt to ensure your ball doesn’t go off the edge or gets stuck in a precarious situation.

Starting out the game, you are given a default character, which you can change from the main menu of the game. From this starting point, you can customize your character, although you’ll need to earn keys in the game to do so.  As you win each tour of golf on the four islands, you are awarded with varying levels of keys: bronze, silver and gold. There are also badges you can acquire for performing various trick shots while on the course.  For example, pulling off a hole in one from far away nets an award; performing a bank shot to get the ball into the hole will also net you a special badge. These badges add to the style points you accumulate from playing each tour. At the end of the tour, once you acquired your keys, you hop out to the main menu to gain access to the shop to look at new clothing, clubs, balls and various accessories to personalize your player.

The Create and Share aspect of Planet Minigolf comes in the form of creating your holes or courses and uploading them to the network for others to experience; expanding the Planet Minigolf universe. As of writing this review, there are more than 30,865 holes and more than 1,876 courses available to play online. Zen Studios has given players tools necessary to create their own world of minigolf and share it with anyone and everyone who is connect to the PlayStation Network.  Creative types can easily spend dozens of hours within this mode of the game creating, editing and playing various holes and courses, leaving no time for anything else.

Whether playing online or offline, you and a group of your friends can get together and battle it out to see who the best virtual minigolf player is. Though this mode is not as in-depth as a Tiger Woods game is, it still provides enough options for a group of friends, family members or total stranger to come together and try to one up one another through trick shots and utilizing various power-ups.

Though a little late to the party, Planet Minigolf is an enjoyable experience to be had whether you are heavily into the golf/minigolf culture or simply looking for a title to help direct your creative juices a flowing. Whether it is diverse cast of characters, 144 holes of gold, the ability to create and share your holes online or playing with a group of people, Planet Minigolf is an experience that will be around for a long time. With the price point of $9.99, you can’t go wrong with purchasing this title.

**Many thanks to GamingEvolution.info, one of our partners, for their help in compiling information for this Report Card.  To read their full impressions please visit http://gamingevolution.info/?id=11366.**