"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!!"

First off, I just want to get one thing out of the way. This game can also be found on both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, however, this review is only going to focus on the Wii version. All the menus and even the leveling system is handled very differently on the Wii version.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is one of the first games to take advantage of Nintendo’s latest peripheral, Wii Motion Plus. With the announcement of motion technology from both Microsoft and Sony at this year’s E3, Wii Motion Plus has a lot of impressing to do. Can it pull off the task?

The short answer is yes. Your fade and draw is determined by twisting your wrist left or right and your power is determined by the strength of your swing. During putting, your power is determined by both how far you move your arms back as well as how fast you move them forward.

When Wii Motion Plus is attached, all of this works both extremely well and with perfect consistency. For comparison’s sake, I tried the game without the attachment. The fade/draw was no longer performed with motion controls. Considering how poorly older iterations handled fade/draw without Motion Plus, this is probably for the best. Power seemed to work “OK”, but with much less precision than with the dongle. Putting, however, was atrocious. While the back swing had a lag to it that I could probably get accustomed to (had I not bought the Motion Plus bundle), the speed seemed almost random. If you are going to pick up this game, do yourself a favor and pay the extra ten bucks for the Wii Motion Plus bundle. After all, that just makes it the price of its HD counterpart, $60.

There are three different control difficulties to choose from. Standard, the default setting, is a great place to start. You are allowed to add fade/draw to your shot manually before actually taking the shot, you can add spin to the ball as it flies through the air, and you are equipped with one putt preview per stroke. I found that this setting is a great way to learn the ropes.

The Advanced setting increases the sensitivity, making a perfectly straight shot much less likely. I was happy to see the added variance, as my Standard mode shots lacked variety after practice. Advanced mode really adds to the immersion, removing arcade-style features like the manual fade/draw and the mid-air spin. In addition to this, there is no putt preview for the advanced setting. After getting the hang of everything, the Advanced setting increased my enjoyment of the game immensely.

The easiest setting is All Play. This is clearly designed for as much accessibility as possible. Your shot arc is visible at all times and so is your putt preview. Since the putt preview is always seen, the challenge for putting is solely in performing the shot rather than also planning the shot. This mode is designed with your grandma in mind.

The character creator, much like earlier entries in the series, has a disturbing amount of sliders to customize every facet of your face and body allowing you to create anything from your doppelganger to a hideous freak of nature. The equipment customization is no slouch either. You can customize your golf balls, clubs and even your grips. One of the features I enjoyed most was your ability to choose which 14 clubs you take with you. Sure, you can purchase different sets, but within those sets you will have a lot more than 14 clubs. The ability to fine tune your selection on that level of detail really helps you personalize your gameplay.

This is a game that will last you a long time. There are tons of course and game modes to keep you busy for both single-player and multiplayer. Thankfully, as with most golf games, a 4-player match can be played with one controller. Having only one Wii Motion Plus dongle will not impair your ability to play with others, unless of course you just don’t want to pass around the WiiMote.

Disc Golf is an interesting diversion. After picking up the disc with your disembodied hand by holding down the “B trigger”, you can really see the Wii Motion Plus shine. This looks and feels like true 1:1 control. It turns out, I am as bad at playing digital Frisbee as I am in real life. This mode really suffers if you don’t use the Plus attachment. Without the added sensitivity, your movements feel laggy and imprecise. Thankfully, Wii Motion Plus makes the experience feel like a technical marvel.

You can play online using EA accounts instead of friend codes. You can also compete in online tournaments. But the online feature I enjoy most of all is the real time weather. If enabled, all the courses you play on will have the weather conditions their real-life counterparts are actually experiencing at the time. It’s another nice step toward immersion.

Earlier, I wondered if Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10′s focus on being a true golf simulator would coexist or ultimately replace the arcade-style gameplay of We Love Golf. Honestly, I can’t see myself ever going back to We Love Golf after this. Tiger plays incredibly well and with the All Play setting, accessibility to casual players remains in tact. This is a golf game I simply cannot recommend enough.

Tags: EA, ea sports, golf, Nintendo, Tiger Woods 10, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, We Love Golf, Wii, wii motion +, Wii Motion Plus

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.