I’m a huge fan of miniature golf, both in real-life and in video games when done properly, and boy am I here to tell you that Walkabout Mini Golf is properly perfect. This probably comes as no surprise to the thousands of you who have been enjoying this game since it launched more than three years ago, but for whatever reason this game only appeared on my “radar” about a week ago when it was being cross promoted with a VR game I do actively follow, Synth Riders. After that, it was only a short download, shorter tutorial, and a few holes into my first course and I was in love.
My adoration for Walkabout Mini Golf is nearly beyond words but let me throw a few out there. There is a certain level of simplicity to the overall look and presentation of the game that belies the surprisingly realistic physics driving what is easily one of the best motion-controlled golf games I have ever played. This was one of the first games I played on my new Quest 3, so I’m sure I was seeing the game in its purest form yet, and it was spectacular with all the standard mini-golf tropes taken to extreme proportions with fun twists on courses set in the tropics, a pirate cove, cliffside, medieval dungeon, and even outer space.
Coming into Walkabout Mini Golf a bit late I was able to immediately enjoy the newly added driving range and practice green, but the main clubhouse serves as your menu for all the available courses, a news hub, and options to tweak your profile and customized your avatar before heading to a local solo game or head online for 1v1 quick match or a private game with up to eight players. Each course has an easy and hard mode that can be unlocked by completing certain objectives, and every hole in the game has a hidden ball. That’s 188 literal “easter eggs” to hunt down just in the base game, not to mention treasure hunts for special putters.
A big part of the charm in Walkabout Mini Golf is the simplicity of its controls. You are free to walk (or fly) around the entire course. Admittedly, once you have found all the lost balls the motivation for sightseeing is limited, but a quick pull of the trigger will center you over your ball for the next shot. This part of the game took some tweaking in the options to get my default distance and angle to address the ball correct, and even now I still have random situations where I have to teleport instead of just pulling the trigger. Making the shot feels so good. Once you have everything lined up you squeeze the grip (optional but I have it turned on) to make the putter solid and swing with the same motion and force you would make on a real mini-golf course. I can’t stress that enough; it’s a one for one motion and follow-through you would do in real-life, and I can only imagine how much strapping your controller to a real putter would add to the immersion.
And that’s basically it. Walkabout Mini Golf is pretty much a by the books miniature golf game with some of the most imaginative courses available and more coming soon from the looks of it. Those looking to totally commit may want to check out the Whole in One Bundle that has the main game and all the currently available DLC courses. There are countless hours of intense putting action and collectible exploration, and that’s even before you head online to socialize and compete with friends in your own private golf outing. Online games are usually full of chatter, so make sure that when playing alone you take a moment to enjoy the pleasing tunes specific to each course as well as the ambient sounds of the wind and nature, the crashing of the surf, the creaking of a windmill or the rush of a waterfall that spills over your putting green. And who doesn’t enjoy a smattering of golf claps and cheers from invisible spectators when you finally sink that putt?
I still don’t know how I missed Walkabout Mini Golf when it released in 2020, or the three years since, but I have a lot of catching up to do. I’m still working on those initial eight courses, and finding all the lost balls, and then I will start my exploration of the DLC courses. This is going to become my go-to game for VR in 2024. You can knockout a round in around thirty minutes, so it’s not a huge time commitment, but the game does save your progress if you do need to stop, or more likely, you get a Low Battery Warning, because once you start exploring the wonderful world of Walkabout Mini Golf the only thing holding you back is your battery, otherwise I would never stop playing.
