Today I’ve bought and downloaded the game Mammoth Mini Golf AR.The reason I’ve downloaded it is because I wanted to see how different devs approach the same type game, in this case a mini golf game. I’ve already reviewed a Mini golf augmented reality (AR) game called Drive Ahead! Minigolf. I wanted to see how the two compared. In this review, I’ll obviously give more attention for Mammoth Mini Golf but I’ll also talk a bit about the differences between the two, and there are differences.
What is Mammoth Mini Golf AR?
Mammoth Mini Golf AR is a Mini Golf augmented reality game for iOS 11 running on ARKit-enabled devices. It’s a game for the whole family that both adult and kids can enjoy. The game takes place in a wacky caveman theme worlds.
The game was designed to be played and render beautifully both indoors and outdoors, you can spawn it small like a tabletop size or up to a full room size.
Mammoth Mini Golf AR can be played alone or with up to 4 players, each one takes his own turn. It offers two game modes available: 9 Holes (shoot your lowest score over 9 holes) and Endless Par (How many pars can you score in a row?).
Drive Ahead! Minigolf vs Mammoth Mini Golf AF
Before I move on talking more about Mammoth, let’s me talk about the differences between the two games, Drive Ahead! Minigolf and this one.
In Drive Ahead! Minigolf you play a mini golf game like in real life, in a way that you control the club using your iPhone or iPad device. You aim and move the phone to hit the ball. Mammoth (I’ll call it like that just to keep things short) plays using on-screen buttons. You can rotate the arrow which shows the direction of the ball and press the power button to release the ball. It calls a power button because you can decide the amount of power to use.
I found DA! Minigolf to be more immersive yet Mammoth to be easier and more comfortable to play, especially at home. I could just sit on the floor and play it, whether DA! Minigolf requires standing and lots of repositioning and movement.
I live it to that for now. To find out more about DA! Minigolf, I recommend reading my review.
Things that I Liked About the Game
I really liked the caveman theme that Ezone.com has chosen for this game. I enjoyed just watching those lovely cavemen and ancient creatures coming to life in my living room. The theme includes ice area, rocky mountains with molten lava and crazy looking creatures jumping around the level. Those creatures were put there in purpose not just for the fun of it, but has obstacles to make it harder for you to put the ball in the hole.
The other thing that I really liked is that there isn’t any surface to the level, so it shows the surface of the real world. So for example, if you are playing on a grass in the backyard, you are going to see those animals running on the grass itself.
There is a setting like a fencing of stones around the lot, trees, lava pools and more, but the lower area that you see is the one that you see in the real world where you play the game on.
Shadows look beautifully in this game and I think there importance is sometimes overlooked. I was really surprised that a game like Lila’s Take: Stealth didn’t have shadows for its characters in the game. The reason why having shadows is very important because they help to seamlessly blend the virtual with the real world. Without it, virtual objects just seem to float on the surface, not being part of it or attached to it. The thing that is so cool about augmented reality is that it should look like the virtual is part of the world, not like an overlayed unrelated digital object. In ARKit Apple made sure that the characters also inherit the lighting of the real world, for that same exact reason.
I also liked the characters in the game they are really cute and lovely and it’s cool seeing them cheering you up when you put the ball in the hole or just dancing alongside the music. Both the music, ambient sound and sound effects are really good in this game and that just pull you into the game.
My Augmented Reality Experience
The AR works well. I did have some problems spawning the golf course on tables in a well-lit room for some reason, but I was able to easily spawn the level on the floor. It took me around 20 seconds for the app to scan the room and find a proper surface to put the level on. Not so fast but not too slow either. I know this is the most annoying part of the game and usually, developers add some sort of an interesting game-related interactivity so people won’t be annoyed by the initial scanning procedure.
I really liked the fact that I can put the golf course in a very tight place and still be able to play and enjoy the game. This is one advantage that this game has over other AR games that require movement. Not every time I feel like playing while standing on my feet, sometimes I just want to sit down on the floor, pet my cat and play. The game is even better once you spawn the level in a very large open space in full-room size so I do recommend trying it out as well.
There was some jittering when I tried putting the level on the table. It allowed me to do it once, but it just didn’t stick and was just following my iPad wherever I went.
Overall, very enjoyable augmented reality experience without any annoying issues like I found int some other ARKit games that I’ve played and review his week on AR Critic.
Things I Liked to See added or Improved
Mammoth Mini Golf AR is a really fun game. There is a good selection of tracks and those are played randomly in both modes. That said, it’s a simple game, probably too simple. I think that adding some challenges, unique trophies, and some unlockable content can add added replay value and make players want to come back for more.
There is a global and local leaderboard where you can see how you compare to your friends and other players around the world. You can sort it by Day, Month or All time. The presentation of the leaderboard isn’t nice, it’s the one tight to Apple’s Game Center and this is why it looks like a standard IOS app UI then a game’s one.
For example, if I developed the game, I would make trophies a wide variety of achievements. For example, for making 3 straight hole-in-one shots or saving the best streak. Maybe a trophy for passing level 50 in the endless mode, etc.
Conclusion
Mammoth Mini Golf AR is a cool-looking AR mini golf game that is a lot of fun to play. I had really good AR experience with it and like how easy it is to play the game at home in a tight area, as well play it in super large scale outdoors for a really amazing gameplay experience.
It’s a good introductory game to AR and I think most people will get a good AR experience out of it, It’s like a taking a cool mini golf course right in your pocket. It’s not as immersive as Drive Ahead! Minigolf but I liked the endless mode and the presentation is excellent.
Summing things up, I recommend getting this game. It’s not free as Drive Ahead! Minigolf unfortunately but in my opinion t’s worth the asking price so check it out on Apple.com.