Pocket Mini Golf – Nintendo Switch Review

Pocket Mini Golf was originally released on Google Play and the Apple Appstore back in 2019. The game has since been ported by QubicGames onto the Nintendo Switch. Recently, Pocket Mini Golf has been appearing in the “Great Deals” section of the Switch’s eShop which led me to become interested in writing this review.

Before we dive into gameplay, it’s important to mention that because this game was ported from a mobile version, it has an in-game currency called “gems”. Even though these gems are not being sold as a micro-transaction in the Switch version of the game, they still interfere with the game itself and muddy the overall experience. More on this later.

Pocket Mini Golf is what you would expect from a mobile mini golf styled game. It has simple gameplay and controls. Players may either pull back on the joystick and release to shoot the ball, or swipe their finger to place their shot. Both options allow players to determine at what speed and angle they will make their shots. By pulling back at an angle, players can add a bit of spin to their shot for trickier moves. The game also features multiplayer for up to 4 players locally on the same console.

If you’re expecting a next level mini golf style game here, this unfortunately isn’t the game for you. Pocket Mini Golf is nothing spectacular. The 50 available courses that you play on are all very similar and have a basic flat looking design. The graphics aren’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but they are also highly simplistic and do nothing in terms of innovation. The music in the game is also subpar and all of the jams are easily forgotten.

While this mini golf game isn’t anything extraordinary, the gameplay is honestly not bad. It controls well and overall the controls feel well developed. The main issue with this game’s design though is the lack of control that players have over their play through. You can’t select which level you want to play and if you happen to mess up and not get par on a particular hole, you need to have enough gems in your inventory to try again or else its back to the very first hole for you. This is extremely frustrating and feels like a poor choice. In mobile games, this is known as a “gacha mechanic”, one which developers implement, trying to put players in a predicament where they are incentivized to spend real world money for in-game currency.

As mentioned earlier in this review, even though the Switch version doesn’t contain in-app purchases, the gameplay being designed around this mechanic negatively effects the player’s experience.

Pocket Mini Golf is a mobile game through and through. At the time of writing this review, this game is current priced on the Nintendo eShop at $0.99 and normally goes for $1.99. At such a cheap price point, it can seem tempting to bite the bullet and give it a shot. While it may be an alright distraction for short periods of time, the replayability here is lacking and the frustrations that players experience from the game’s F2P mobile game style design make this one a pass for me.