Introduction: King of Clubs puts you in the place of a new competitor to a crazy golf centre near to Vegas, run by an Elvis style character, and several other themed characters, including a caveman and a knight. As I started the game up, I was mildly impressed. The games boast of a 'hole in none' available on every track, and a fairly competent opening sequence, and so I was looking forward to how it played. Boy was I disappointed.

GamePlay: It's a fairly simple premise - go through a bunch of courses to unlock a new, slightly different bunch of courses. Beat a bunch of them, and you'll unlock a different themed bunch of courses, and so on and so on. Are you yawning yet? I was bored after the first set of dull, poorly imagined simple holes, so after playing through each stage, I think I'd rather watch paint dry than play another set. The hole in one/none offer is pretty ridiculous as well. For some of the levels it could have been quite interesting, using your skill to knock the ball through some crazy obstacles, like going over the back of a dinosaur rather than around it, or the forever immortal windmill. Instead, it's pretty much a case of collecting tons of money and then spending it on the special balls and power ups. One of the power ups even takes one off of your score, making a hole in one a hole in none. That takes some serious skill, selecting a power up!

Beating the owners of each track is a fairly one dimensional affair as well. You pretty much just play it as you would normally, except this time if you don't get a good enough score you'll lose. There's no difference in the course or the challenges you'll face, making this game mode equally dull. There are a few interesting moments during the courses. For example, during one of the early courses you're given the opportunity to go over a dinosaur's body rather than follow the conventional route. I thought that was a pretty nice touch, but when I got to it, I realised that it was so hard to get the ball in the right position that any lead I might have gained by using this shortcut I had already lost. Then, when I finally managed to get the ball over it, it just seemed to go straight through the dinosaur, rather than over it in a spectacular leap. To top this, none of the gameplay challenges Wii Sports offering, and in the end the free version does everything better.

Control: Playing the levels themselves is also very simple. Move the guide around, and it'll tell you pretty much exactly where the ball will go, so there's an element of skill gone out of it. Press a button, pull the Wii Remote back until the power gauge is one slot away from maximum, press the button again and swing. Rinse and repeat until you get near the hole, then use a tinsy winsy bit of power at a time until you finish. The movement controls work fairly well, neither un-reactive or over sensitive, but it gets repetitive and boring after a while to move the remote forwards and backwards, and I kind of wanted to sit down.

Graphics: To be brutally honest, the graphics look like they've been scribbled by a child. I know that the park is meant to be made without much money, but everything in the game shows a lack of attention to detail and boring images. I was amused by some of the actions in the theme park, for example when a cardboard dinosaur popped out from behind a tree, it did remind me of that crazy golf. However, seeing a dinosaur pop out of a tree throughout every single prehistoric set just made me yawn.

Sound & Music: This is quite possibly the worst bit of this game, far more awful than any gameplay problem could ever be. Each stage has one piece of music, usually around 10 seconds long that loops continuously no matter what you're doing. Not only is this mind numbingly repetitive and boring, it's also awful, and to top all that it'll be stuck in your head for weeks afterwards. In fact, as I am writing these very words, I keep on humming the offending 'do doodle do do do' to myself. The sound effects are also, unsurprisingly, dull and uninspired.

Final Comments: This is a really awful game, which an adamant fan of crazy golf might just about enjoy. Everyone else should just leave this well alone. If you really want a final reason not to buy this game, it's that Wii Sport, the game that you get free with the console, contains a far better golf game. Why pay money for something worse than what you already have?

Pro: Lots and lots of levels and collectables. Controls work fairly well.
Con: Boring and repetitive No depth Worse than Wii Sports version.
Final Score: 3.0

Reviewed by: Douglas Andrews