Drive Ahead! Minigolf is an augmented reality mini golf game that you can play on your iPhone or iPad everywhere you go. This is an ARKit AR game which means that it works on ARKit-enabled iPhone or iPad devices.
As a child, I had a minigolf place not too far from my house. I loved going there so much and it was a really fun experience. When I downloaded Drive Ahead! Minigolf (which is free BTW) I didn’t know what to expect but I wanted to see if it will bring some childhood memories back and if I enjoy playing it. Since then I never went to a minigolf place nor a gold one.
How is the AR Experience?
I’ve installed the game and the game asked me to scan the floor, so I did. It didn’t take too long and it allowed me to spawn a minigolf yard right in my living room—cool!
Drive Ahead! Minigolf gives you the option to rotate the track around, choose the appropriate the number of plays you want to play against (up to 4 players), the number of holes and the level size (small, medium, large, gigantic). I first start with the small track, and it was indeed pretty small and fits nicely in the small area of the living room. I could easily go around the track to position myself before hitting the ball. Even the what so-called “Gigantic” track isn’t that huge and I was able to play it as well without problem.
This is exactly what I expect to have in AR games, a fast and easy setup with no issues. I didn’t encounter any significant jittering but there were some. In the gameplay video you can see that the track overlapped the small table I had in the living room, but this is because it didn’t detect a surface there and the track was probably a bit too large for that area. In most part, the track just stayed in place and I can enjoy playing the game from that point on without thinking about AR technology issues or optimizations, I can just play. the game.
Gameplay
Playing Drive Ahead! Minigolf is really fun. It’s a very simple mini golf game. I mean, once the game starts, all you need to do is to press and hold the button of the golf club and move your iPhone or iPad in the direction you want to hit the ball. The thing is with these type of games that I thought it wouldn’t work well in AR because of the movement needed to mimic the same movement in real life. Just think about it, if you move you’re above your should as you hit the ball, how can you see what’s happening on the track, the camera of the iPad and iPhone had to point directly down to it.
The developer seems to solve it by applying a stronger force to the club when it hits the ball, so you don’t need to make a such a large arc to push the ball far, you can do a small movement like 10-15 inches and it will do.
Anyways it works flawlessly and hitting the ball with the club feels really nice. I’ve played it on my 9.7-inch iPad and it plays really nice. I don’t think the game would be that immersive on the iPhone due to its small display but I haven’t tried it.
One of the cool features of DA! Minigolf is that you can play against other players locally. There is no online multiplayer mode, each player needs to use that same device everyone is playing on, but each player plays in his own turn. It’s a nice game to bring up when you are doing a picnic with your neighbors outdoors, just bring up the kids and let them have fun.
The other thing I really liked about the game is the level design. The game like its name suggests is built like a racing track with many obstacles. It’s a minigolf game after all isn’t it, not a regular golf game. You need to carefully plan your shot to pass those obstacles. So for example, to make the ball move over the big wheel, I need to hit the ball hard so it passes in the center. There was a car moving back and forth, so I need to time my hit so it won’t get stuck between its wheels.
The game is also quite forgiving. I had the ball stack underneath an obstacle, but when I hit it with the bet, it pushed the ball out, although there wasn’t an option for the bat to actually hit it. I think this was done to prevent the ball from getting stuck.
Other things worth mentioning
If I am not mistaken, the game features procedurally generated minigolf courses. In the game’s description on the App Store, the developer wrote and I quote: “Endless number tracks available”. I went to the app to try it out. Each time I clicked small track I got a different track with different types of obstacles. This is really cool because you probably never going to play the same track.
Other nice features include seeing e replay of the last hole and the option to share instant replayed with friends.
Immersion and Replay Value
The graphics are nice and simple, not realistic but cartoony. You might like or don’t but I didn’t find any problem with it, it looks really nice.
I would have liked to see more cool particle effects or animations, something that will make this game scream, kind of more arcady if you know what I mean. Maybe the developer should add more complex courses as well.
The game just felt not too exciting after a few games. I also think that adding some sort of trophies, challenges, unlockable content or local and global high-score can really make the game appeal to more people and give it a much higher replay value. Adding many different styles of tracks is a great way to reduce burden, but is it enough?
I also think that adding a haptic feedback like applying a vibration (if it’s part of the SDK) so you feel that you are hitting the ball.
Conclusion
Overall, Drive Ahead! Minigolf is fun to play in augmented reality and I didn’t encounter any significant issues while playing it, it worked smoothly most of the time. That being said I did feel that it lacks some features that can really make it a better game, like having rewarding achievements, a global leaderboard, the option to buy skins for your golf with experience points that you earn, etc.
At the end, the game didn’t bring back those exciting childhood memories that thought I’ll experience. It’s a solid and fun AR experience overall and I do recommend playing it.