The marketing blurb says that Real World Golf will appeal to novices and seasoned golfers alike. Having never really got the hang of playing proper golf, we’re not really in a position to judge whether or not Real World Golf is much of an accurate simulation of the sport itself. Suffice to say it’s just as much fun for us as a whip around our local pitch and putt – the main difference being we don’t get chased away by the irate parkie for not paying our green fees.
The other minor gripe with Real World Golf would be that the multiplayer is a right fangle. Unless you have 2 Gametrak controllers, which is costly, or 2 pairs of Gametrak gloves, which you have to click the orange twine puppet-lines into (which is still a fangle, but it means you don’t share palm sweat with other players, which is best).
To sum up, it’s quite difficult to see who Real World Golf is going to appeal to. For gamers, I suspect they would see the Gametrak controller as something of a gimmick (after an initial ‘oooo look at this new thing’ honeymoon period), and plump for a solid, well-known franchise such as EA’s Tiger Woods. For golfers who have not played golf games before, and who are put off by standard keyboard or console-pad controls, Real World Golf may well be a godsend.
But whether or not there is a big enough market of these types of people out there and, more importantly, whether they would be willing to part with the price of a PS2 console and a Gametrak, remains to be seen. Perhaps a PS2 bundle aimed specifically at golfers would do the trick. First sales reports (admittedly from an In2Games press release) indicate that initial sales of the controller make it the ‘fastest-selling new control system in gaming history’. We suspect some clever use of numbers and a little statistical magic have been used to back up this claim. Real World Golf was fun, but for us it will soon be joining our Sega Bass Fishing rod at the bottom of our daft peripherals box.
The Gametrak technology is more exciting for the potential it offers for future control and gameplay innovations. For example, the Real World Golf feature which allows you to fly over the course you are playing like Superman, by simply extending your arms forward like, errr, Superman, makes you think about the possibilities for Superhero based games, where you could fly around cities and be, say, Superman. There are other Real World sports titles currently in development, including table tennis, basketball, baseball, air hockey and, most interestingly of all, bowling! Plus there are dancing games and FPS-action titles in development, so it will be interesting to see how In2Games develop the Gametrak hardware to cope with these style of games – most people we know who dance (ie girls) also like to make use of their legs, but we can’t really envisage a 4-way puppet style controller, so some kind of wireless technology seems inevitable here, which brings us onto our final observation.
Nintendo now threaten to steal In2Games thunder, with their recent announcements about the forthcoming Revolution controllers – which essentially promise to do the same type of thing as the Gametrak puppet-gloves machine does, but without all the gloves and strings and mucky muck all over the place. Which beggars the question, if there is a proven demand for games which use these types of controllers, and if games/technology such as Real World Golf/Gametrak help to grow this market, then surely somebody somewhere will want to develop these types of wireless controllers for Xbox 360 and PS3. Something the guys at In2Games might want to think about perhaps…
