One of the great things about the Nintendo Wii, and there are several, is that it came bundled with Wii Sports a fun and entertaining set of mini sports games that has probably sold more systems than any other single factor.  (I personally know three people who went out and bought a system after playing Wii Sports at my house including my 69 year old mother.)  One of the games in Wii Sports is a version of golf.  It’s a rather basic version of the game with little finesse or strategy that makes the real game so enjoyable.  For those golf fanatics who want to take their virtual game up a knotch, EA has released Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘08 for the Wii.   Coming out less than half a year after the ’07 version there aren’t a lot of significant changes to the game, though people who missed that first commercial golf game for the Wii will want to bypass it for this slightly improved version.

Gameplay:

Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’08 has also been released on the other two next generation systems, but the big advantage that the Wii has over its high def counterparts is the motion sensitive control system.  There are three playing modes offered; Classic which uses the nunchuk and Wii Remote like a regular analog controller, Sitting Swing Mode, where you give the remote a good twist of the wrist to take a swing at the ball and Full Swing.  Playing this game in this last mode is pretty much a blast.  You hold your Wii Remote like a club and take a good swing at it, just as if you were really golfing.

The correlation between the golfer on screen and the actions of the player are very good.  If you stop half way through the swing, your virtual counterpart stops too.  The game also gives players a good amount of control over the ball.  You can purposely hook or slice the ball to get around obstacles by pressing the B button and twisting the remote before taking your swing.  You can also add spin to your ball by shaking the remote, and there are ways to do chip and flop shots as well as pitch the ball.  Learning all of the various techniques is easy due to the thorough in game tutorial.  Even if you’ve never held a golf club before, you’ll soon be playing like a pro.

The downside to the controls is that it won’t help you prefect your swing in real life.  Though it is easy to intentionally slice the ball, slicing due to a bad swing nearly never occurs.  You really have to mess up your swing to have adverse reactions occur on the screen.

Another aspect of the game that isn’t as good as it could be is putting.  There’s a putting preview that lets you see exactly where your ball will travel with the current aim and power.  Though there’s a limit to how many times you can use this feature, it makes putting way too easy and isn’t really realistic.

Unfortunately there is no online play in this game, but there is a multi-player mode that has a new fun feature:  taunting.  When playing with 2-4 total players, the other golfers can interfere with the player taking his shot by using their remotes.  Press the A button and shake in order to make the swinging player’s remote vibrate, pressing the B button and a direction on the D-pad adds wind.  The opponents can also add spin to the ball that’s in flight and cause a horn to sound in order to break a player’s concentration.  With the right group of people, this added feature makes the game a whole lot less serious, but also more fun.

In single player mode a lot of time can be spent in the career mode.  This lets players compete on the PGA tour, the Fed Ex playoffs, train, or take the Tiger Challenge.  This last feature pits players against other top golfers.  When you beat an opponent you earn money that can be used for new clubs as well as getting a boost in your skill rating.  The challenge is set out in a series of hexagons that players make their way though giving them some options as to which challenge to tackle next.

The multi-player modes include Stroke Play (a typical round of golf where each stroke counts), Match Play (where the player who wins the most holes wins the game), Bloodsome (Two-on-two with the opponents choosing the tee shot), Greensome (Two-on-two with the players choosing the tee shot) and Skins (players compete for the monetary value of each hole, which varies.)  Stableford awards points based on scores for each hole, Alternate Shot is a two-on-two games where players on a team alternate hitting the same ball.  Finally Best Ball and Four Ball awards the best score for each hole to the entire team.  The team with the best total stroke score or most holes won (respectively between the two modes) wins.

There are also some fun mini-games if you’re not up to a complete round.  Target has players trying to hit as many targets as they can with 20 balls, T-I-G-E-R is the golf equivalent to Horse.  Players alternate taking difficult shots and the person who can’t make a shot his opponent did gets a letter.  Who ever ends up spelling “Tiger” first loses.  Capture is a competitive game where players try to hit five targets first, and Target2Target asks players to hit bulls-eyes on computer selected targets.

Finally there are Arcade Games for some fast and exciting play, even if it is a bit less serious.  Elimination mode is for two teams of 2 to 8 players with players getting eliminated for losing holes and Battle Golf has players yanking clubs out of their opponent’s bag for losing holes.  One Ball has two players alternating shots with one ball, the one to sink it wins the hole, and Team One Ball is the same thing only with teams.  Finally Skills 18 requires players to hit the ball thought target rings while keeping the ball in play.

Given the many play options that are available, the lack on on-line support, while disappointing, isn’t a terminal flaw.  There’s enough here to keep golf fans entertained for a while.

Graphics:

The look of this game is definitely dated.  The graphics aren’t bad; they just look like something that would have been released for the PS2.  I was playing Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii in between rounds, and the differences in lighting, texture and overall appearance couldn’t have been more different.  (Granted Metroid wasn’t going for a realistic look like TW08, but this game didn’t make use of all the Wii has to offer as far as creating a pleasing image.)  It seems like EA took some short cuts with the presentation too.  The spectators are fairly few, and those that are present are poorly animated.  The golfers themselves, while they look okay, have a limited number of moves and you’ll soon find yourself anticipating what they’ll do after a shot.  There is no use of an individual’s Mii either, which would have been easy to do and is a bit disappointing.  Don’t get me wrong, the game doesn’t look horrible, it just doesn’t look as good as it could have.

Audio:

Like the video, the audio presentation isn’t anything to write home about.  This isn’t the type of game that will have a very active soundtrack, but it was still less than impressive.  While the announcer is clear and the clapping of the audience is at an appropriate level, there wasn’t much more to it.  One other thing:  Stop with Woods muttering his name to himself nearly every time a shot goes badly.  “Ti-gerrrr.”  He says it so many times that I can hear it in my sleep.

Conclusion:

While this is a fun golf game that is much more in depth than the version on Wii Sports, there’s not a lot of reason to upgrade if you already have Tiger Woods ’07.  There is a lot of variations of play that will keep fans of the sport busy for quite some time, and swinging the Wii Remote around is a lot of fun and adds an additional dimension to the game that the 360 and PS3 versions won’t have.  While the graphics could stand to be updated, they aren’t so bad as to cause the game’s overall rating to drop.  Recommended.