Mini golf is usually a very approachable and accessible fun sport that is often pitched at the easier end of the sporting spectrum. Up To Par has a different idea though – taking an accessible and simple control scheme and placing a tough and tricky roguelite structure around it. It is tough yet rewarding but you’ll need to get good to see the best of the game.
I’d recommend starting off with solo mode when playing Up To Par as the game starts you off with the bare basics. You are given the forest course set up and simple course designs to get used to the controls and physics. You can use controller, mouse or keyboard to aim your shot and then you press a button and let go to set your power. It isn’t quite as strict as other timing based golf games but you will need a bit of timing to get it right. The terrain is sticky and so you’ll often need more power than you initially think you might need to get the ball in the cup. Courses are generated from various pieces of course so you’ll see familiar patterns and that helps you understand how critical wall bouncing and ricocheting is. Without it you’ll never survive because Up To Par doesn’t hold back on its challenge.
Taking cues from Cursed To Golf, Up To Par starts you off with three shots to get your ball in the cup for the first hole of a six hole course. If you get the ball in the cup in two shots, your third shot carries over to the next hole where you’ll now have four shots, as each hole gives you three new shots to complete the hole in. For the first few holes, you’ll likely gain additional shots but as each course and its hole set gets more complex and lengthy, you’ll soon need perfect aims, exacting power and some RNG luck on the course generation to ensure you stay alive.
If you survive six holes for a course, you’ll reach the Pro Shop. Any additional shots you’ve saved during that 6 hole run can be spent on unlocking (and then using) permanent of run specific upgrades or traits. Run specific upgrades include not losing a shot if your ball flies out of bounds, increasing your shot power or giving the second wall hit a new boost of power. Permanent upgrades include permanently unlocking run specific slots to have more than one upgrade at one time, unlocking random shop discounts or unlocking the ability to choose your next course. You can also unlock ball skins too but they all handle the same so its for visual appeal only. Some of the upgrades are very helpful whilst others are more context specific. There is no use having a more power drive shot or a second wind blast when you are on the pond or sea environments as they’ll often blast you into the water. As you don’t know what’s coming next most of the time, consumable run-specific upgrades are sometimes a shot in the dark. You can also spend two shots saved from your previous course to start the next course with an additional shot. So if you have four shots left over, you can convert them to two bonus shots and start the next course with five shots instead of three. I found myself doing this a lot.
One of the most interesting elements of Up To Par is how it handles difficulty and course generation. When playing solo mode, you’ll be given a new high score to aim to for each run and if you reach it, you’ll unlock a new piece of mini golf kit that gets added to the course generation. These elements include windmills, bridges, turnstiles, magnets, rising platforms, new course environments, dips, hills and corner slopes. The more you unlock, the more varied the courses and Up To Par becomes infinitely more fun, interesting and engaging to play. The flipside of this is that simple, flat, straight forward course designs begin to reduce down. What was a simple dogleg course now has a ramp and a jump to get over with maybe a magnet to pull you into the water if you get it wrong. By seeing more of the game, you have to get better at it. As you get better at it, the game gets harder to match you, whilst rewarding you with more variety. It is a neat way to keep a well seasoned player challenged and interested over a long time and I found it was thoughtfully designed.
Once you’ve unlocked a fair bit of mini golf pieces, then I’d recommend local multiplayer. Up to four players can take part in co-op mode, where you all share a shot counter to make it to the hole together, or versus mode, which is more focused on being better than the rest. For both modes everyone’s ball will start in a slightly different place and sometimes that gives unfair advantages to players who are lucky in their positioning. One of the permanent upgrades you can unlock in solo mode is the ability to turn on player balls affecting each other or not which adds some extra chaos. If you revel in the chaos, you can take Up To Par online for up to 16 players battling it out. I wasn’t able to test this mode for pre-release but setting up a room was simple.
Where I did enjoy my online experience was with the Weekly Challenge. This gives everyone a set course to tackle with specific upgrades to grab if you want them. With everyone doing the same course, you’ll be ranked on how many holes you completed before you ran out of shots and then by who reached that hole fastest. I found it compelling and addictive, returning back to better my score as I slid down the leaderboard over the week.
Simple controls and a clean visual design hide the biting difficulty of getting to grips with Up To Par. Sometimes the camera can play tricks on you or hide a crucial kink in the wall behind scenery. The game never lets a ball on the rim of the cup just drop in either. Sometimes the air physics on jumps feel unpredictable and the course generator sometimes feels unfair. When you get a good run going it is incredibly rewarding and enjoyable to play but it will take you time to get there. As such, versus mode is really the best way to take Up To Par if you are looking for a party game. All the other modes require a lot of skill to get anywhere with. That’s not a bad thing, its just different. I really appreciated that the further into the game I went, the more I was rewarded for doing well. I’d just like it to have been a little more forgiving in the early game phase so it didn’t slap you down so much, so early during the first few hours.
Review copy provided by publisher. Up To Par is out on Steam.
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