Tee up in Golf Clash (app review)

Overview

Golf Clash is an arcade-style multiplayer golf game. The game is focused around online play where you’ll be playing 1v1 against a random opponent or against a friend. Rather than playing 18 holes, each game is just one hole. The player to get the ball in the hole in the least amount of turns win the round. Each victory will reward the winner with gold and a treasure chest. Treasure chests will randomly award you equipment upgrades and new clubs.

There are are 11 different tours you can choose from. Each tour needs to be unlocked with trophies that are earned after each victory. The higher the tour number you choose, the higher the stakes. There is an entry fee for playing each game that increases based on the tour number. Tour 1 has a measly entry fee of 50 gold, while Tour 5 has an entry fee of 10,000 gold. These higher stake games will reward a victory with much more gold. The prize money will always be twice the entry fee.

Gameplay

The main goal of the game is to sink your ball in the least amount of strokes. If you tie, which happens 75% of the time, you’ll go into a sudden death round. Each player will have only one shot to get their ball as close to the pin as possible. The golfer with the closest ball wins the match.

Golf Clash employs simple gesture-based controls. To hit the golf ball, simply pull the golf ball back to the center of the blue circle. A bulls-eye target will appear along with a moving arrow. The closer the arrow is to the bulls-eye, the more accurate your shot will be. You can overpower shots by pulling the golf ball back past the blue circle. The moving arrow will move faster, making overpowered shot much more difficult to hit straight.

More advanced controls, such as backspin, topspin, and side spin can be done as well. Different clubs and golf balls will allow you to put more spin on your golf shot. Golf clubs that allow more spin and power can only be found by unlocking the later tours. Golf clubs can also be upgraded by collecting enough upgrade cards and gold. The upgrade system is very similar to Clash Royale, where you’ll need to collect a certain amount of cards to upgrade a unit.

Each tour has three courses that is randomly selected when challenging an opponent. The courses get much more difficult in the later tours.

The reward system is uncannily similar to the reward system seen in Clash Royale. The game even has the word “clash” in the title of the game. Winning eight games, will unlock a pin chest similar to the 10 trophy chest in Clash Royale. The game’s major currency is gold, which is earned by winning rounds and opening chests. There are different tiers of chests that take longer to open based on the tier. Gems are a rarer currency that can only be earned through opening chests. Gems can be used to speed up opening chests or be exchanged for more gold.

Impressions

I had a blast playing Golf Clash. The arcade-like visuals and gameplay brought about nostalgic memories of playing Mario Golf when I was younger. I really wished that Golf Clash took a page from Mario Golf and let you play 18 hole rounds against computers. The only reason is that it is easy to lose all your gold and not have any coins to play even the cheapest course. This happened to me frequently because I’m a big risk-taker and like to gamble all my gold in one match.

The biggest gripe I had about the game is the turn system. There is a huge advantage of going second because it lets you see your opponent’s shot. This advantage lets you make adjustments to your shot based on the previous shot. This advantage is even more exacerbated in sudden death mode, where you only have one shot to win the round.

It is also extremely difficult to get to Tour 6 and above. Tour 6 costs 60,000 gold, while Tour 11 costs a whopping 10,000,000 gold. Could you imagine spending 10,000,000 gold, only to have it all disappear when you lose because you went first. I would smash my iPad on the ground. This is another game where you can pay money to get gold. However, the ridiculous pay to win advantage doesn’t seem as bad in Golf Clash compared to other games.

Overall

Golf Clash is simple, arcade-style golf game where you have only one round to beat your opponent. If both players tie, there is a sudden death round where each player only has one shot to get closest to the hole. Golf Clash is multiplayer only, which means you will need access to Wi-Fi. I really wish there was an offline play mode where you can practice or play against the computer. Regardless, this game is highly addictive and will keep you entertained for months.