Those that have listened to our podcast know that I have a deep appreciation for the game Golf with Your Friends. When I heard that it was officially launching and also making its way to new platforms, I was excited. However, after taking some time with the Nintendo Switch version, I found myself disappointed at the lack of features and overall watered-down feel while gaining an increased appreciation for the original PC version.
For those that haven’t had the pleasure of playing Golf With Your Friends on PC, it is a chaotic and silly party game that has you playing larger than life mini-golf courses. The game allows for up to twelve players with everyone putting at the same time while going through courses containing over the top additions such as wormholes, jetpacks, portals, and more.
The PC Version has a course creator and is linked to the steam workshop, which allows for downloading and playing courses made by the community. All of these features really make Golf With Your Friends a lot of fun, which is why I was so disappointed with the Nintendo Switch release.
Golf with Your Friends on Nintendo Switch feels like a watered-down generic version of its PC counterpart. One of the biggest appeals of the PC version is that you can play a potentially unlimited number of courses thanks to its course creation tool that lets you share creations on the Steam Workshop.
Unfortunately, the Switch version does not have this feature, and it really makes the experience feel limited. While the game does have a decent number of courses out of the box, there will be a point in which those courses will get stale. Even if more courses get added down the line for the Switch version, it will still lack a lot of replayability when compared to the PC version.
Additionally, Golf With Your Friends, as its name suggests, is meant to be played with your friends. This is the case for any version of the game since I found that matches in the lobby tend to be password protected, and quickplay queue times were exceptionally lengthy. This means that it is essential for your friends also to own the game.
This becomes a problem I feel since the ease of access for Golf With Your Friends on Switch is much more complicated than the PC version. Communicating through in-game chat is harder, voice chat requires the Nintendo Switch App, and it just seems complicated to be able to play the game with other people in general.
For those unable to play online with people, Golf with Your Friends also offers local offline play. This mode allows players to play on a single Switch. However, due to the nature of this mode, players take their turns one after another while passing a single controller back and forth amongst themselves.
This slows the game down immensely since a lot of the enjoyment of the game comes from everyone being able to take their turns simultaneously. Even with just two players, taking turns feels slow, and considering that each lobby allows for up to 12 players, I can’t see any situation where anyone would have the patience. On top of that seeing, other player’s strategies give a significant disadvantage for the first person taking the turn.
Golf With Your Friends on Switch is probably the worst way to experience this game. When compared to the PC version, you are missing a lot of value for your dollar. The game costs $20 on Switch while it only costs $10 on Steam. For twice the price, you are getting half the game, and honestly, that makes this version not worth it. However, I still highly recommend Golf With Your Friends, just make sure you get the PC version.
