Cheap Golf

I didn't expect to spend an evening being psychologically prodded by an AI minigolf host, but here we are. Cheap Golf is Pixeljam doing what Pixeljam does best: wrapping something simple and immediately playable inside a layer of surreal, darkly comic strangeness that keeps you clicking "next level" well past when you meant to stop. The core mechanic couldn't be simpler: click to aim, release to fling your boop (yes, that's the ball), and sink it into the goal. No power meter, no spin dial, no elaborate swing physics. It's point-and-fling minigolf stripped to its bones, and the lo-fi low-poly visual style leans fully into that arcade simplicity. What makes it more than a casual time-waster is SUSAN, the AI bot who hosts the whole thing and delivers deadpan, fourth-wall-bending commentary between levels. The humor is dry, occasionally unsettling, and genuinely funny rather than "quirky indie game" funny, which is a much harder thing to pull off. The game ships with three episodes and over 140 levels, and the courses themselves escalate from straightforward holes to chaotic puzzle-adjacent layouts that push the simple fling mechanic further than you'd expect. A camera that occasionally pans or zooms while you're lining up a shot is the one recurring annoyance that reviewers have flagged, and it is a real annoyance rather than a charming quirk. For accessibility, Pixeljam added Story Mode after launch, which strips out par scoring and lets you progress freely without punishment. That's the right call for players who want SUSAN's narrative payoff without the friction of score-chasing. Speedrun Mode is the flip side for the other crowd: no cutscenes, full-episode timer, go. A level editor is also tucked away as a hidden feature, which is either endearingly coy or mildly annoying depending on your tolerance for that kind of thing. It extends the longevity meaningfully if you hunt it down. Fair warnings: this is a solo-only experience with no local multiplayer, no couch co-op, no split-screen. If you showed up hoping to pass the controller around with friends, this isn't it. Runtime is short, somewhere in the two-hour range for the main content at a relaxed pace, so the entertainment-per-pound calculation depends entirely on how much SUSAN's brand of creepy deadpan comedy lands for you. It landed hard for me. The audio design is genuinely strong, with retro-tinged sound effects that feel lifted from late-70s arcade hardware, and the soundtrack matches the strange mood perfectly. This is a game for people who like their minigolf with a side of ambient dread and an AI that might be learning from watching you play. Solo sessions only, but a very solid couple of evenings for the right player.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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