Mobilegamer: Tiger Wood PGA Tour 09

Tee off with Tiger right from your phone in EA and Hasboro’s news golf game for mobile gamers. Tiger Wood’s PGA Tour 09 players can now live the excitement of being a professional golfer competing on an elite tournament all from the convenience of your cell phone.

As the title suggests, players can Tiger Woods, or download option as well to play as Vijah Singh, Annikah Sorenstam, Retief Goosen, and John Daly. In a particularly surprising function, only previously expected on games made for a console like the Xbox360, Playstation, or Wii; players can also create their own custom character as well.

The quickest way to start playing is to simply jump right into the action by selecting Quick Start from the main menu. I recommend it for at least few strokes and learning how the line up the range, improved swing mechanics, and how far you can really hit from a full backswing.

There is also a Challenge mode where you practice shots on greens of progressive difficulty and design. You will probably benefit from honing your skills here before moving on to the tournament mode. On some versions of the game there is even a Golf Party mini-game mode that allows you to take on family players.

You start out at a location of Pebble Beach with distant mountain surrounded by water, with clear blue skies just perfect for a day on the course. There are other locations and backgrounds such as, Bay Hill, which can be downloaded. Downloading, while no extra charge for the game, does entail connecting with your provider’s server, so additional charges can be incurred on your monthly billing invoice depending on your plan.

The game’s menu takes some getting used to, if you are using a touch screen device, you have to regulate yourself only the specified onscreen controls and not the actual options you wish to select. I found this frustrating and a little tedious when trying to scroll through the menu for example. The player image is lifelike and impressive. Unfortunately there are no face shots in play, and there is a noticeable absence of competitors or even fans on the scene.

In addition the game has the same putt shot that it reverts to within five feet or so from the hole. You can adjust the putt to fit the circumstances of the play such as distance to the hole and slope of the green, however, all the successful shot seem to take place on the same screen which quickly becomes redundant.

The clear strength of Tiger Wood PGA Tour 09 is definitely the full swings. It is an impressive sight watching the ball sail across the distance while sending long distance shots to the green from the fairway. This plays favorably with the clouds in the background. Sadly, this just does not happen often enough to capture much attention.

Although the content is definitely child friendly, the slow pace and detailed technique of the game is probably not in none but the most patient of tend and adolescences. This game is definitely for golf enthusiasts. Non-golfers may quickly tire of the game and the background graphics could have been better.

You can change the difficulty level based on your skills or comfort level to amateur, pro, legend. I honestly did not notice a significant bit of difference between the levels. The most interesting thing I found about the game is that each shot automatically selects the best club for the situation. This could potentially give some professional tips to a novice golfer.

In fact, most of the appeal of this game is in the actual golfing. The game is extremely detailed in the scoring, and the irons being used, however, that is about where the big budget ends. The remaining graphics on detailed surrounding and realism are just not up to (pardon my pun) par. In future versions I hope to see EA attract players by adding more detail on the graphics and scenery. This game title holds a lot of potential to be blockbuster with more follow through in the production studio.

My official rating for this game is: 2 and a half out of 5 joysticks.