Mani Golf

An 18-hole golf course takes a surprisingly long time to complete.

That's why digital golf is so effortless and enjoyable - what takes a few hours in reality only demands a few scant minutes on your handset.

Gone are the walks between holes, time spent practising swings before a shot, and fishing for your clubs after throwing them in the pond after an aggravating par five.

Brevity can be a great thing, though in the case of Mani Golf it's an albatross.

In the time it takes to complete a few holes of the real thing, you can easily put to rest this simplistic golf game's two courses. The limited amount of content is compounded by equally basic mechanics that result in a lacklustre game.

It's not that Mani Golf is bad, but rather that it fails to be noteworthy in any regard. There's nothing to make it stand out in a crowded field. Colourful 2D courses aren't enough to differentiate it from the pack and the bare bones gameplay puts it at a disadvantage.

Swings are initiated by holding a finger to the screen to set the power and trajectory of a shot. Naturally, the farther you draw your finger away from the ball, the more power behind the shot. It works well for drives, but fails to adequately account for short distance and low-power shots.

Sinking the ball when you're a few feet from the hole is tricky because of the difficulty in pulling off a weak swing. Adding a putting option when close to the hole would help (in fact, the Flash game on which this version is based offers just that).

Absurd courses make the game feel more like pinball than golf. While there's some fun to be had in navigating the spine of a Tyrannosaurus rex, it's also annoying when the ball bounces into some ridiculous trap that effectively forces you to restart the hole. It's not maddening, because the game as a whole is quite easy, but it does nip at the game's appeal.

Ultimately, Mani Golf is nothing more than a mediocre golf game. It's inoffensive, yet given the high quality alternatives available for iPhone and iPod touch there's no reason to entertain this average effort.