Infinite Minigolf

I'll be straight with you: this is not a game I'd normally load up on a Friday night after queuing ranked. But I spent a couple of sessions in Infinite Minigolf with a full couch, and the hook is real in short doses. Zen Studios knows physics engines - they've been doing it with pinball tables for years - and that expertise transfers here. The ball rolls, bounces, and reads angles exactly the way you expect, which sounds boring until you're trying to bank a shot off a giant oversized chair leg in the Giant Home theme just to hit a gem collector on the way to the hole for a score multiplier. The moment-to-moment control is simple: aim, pull back the right stick to set power, release. No three-click system, no swing meter minigame. Clean. There are three built-in themed environments - Giant Home, Nightmare Mansion, and Santa's Factory - each with four tournaments spread across Casual, Normal, and Hard difficulty. That structured content runs dry faster than you'd want, but the actual draw is the course library. The community has uploaded well over 50,000 holes since launch, which means the "infinite" in the title isn't entirely marketing noise. The catch, and it's a real one, is quality control. Random quickplay will serve you flat single-tile corridors with a hole at the end because nothing stops anyone from publishing garbage. Some reviewers flagged this at launch and the problem has never been fully solved. When you hit a genuinely crafted community course with themed obstacles, NPC redirectors, speed-boost power-ups, and gem routes that reward risk, the game clicks. When you hit five featureless slabs in a row, you start to understand why the Steam rating sits at a modest 72 percent positive. The power-up system adds a layer most people won't expect. Rockets accelerate your ball along the course, Glue freezes it in place to correct an over-hit, a Magnet pulls the ball toward the hole, and the Joystick hands you direct steering control for a few seconds. Using these at the right moment in a multiplayer match creates genuine decision points - do you spend your magnet for a safe par, or gamble on a hole-in-one line to chase the world-record score bonus? The simultaneous-turn multiplayer is a smart call too: nobody sits watching someone else putt. All players take their shots at the same time, which keeps eight-player online sessions moving fast. Local multiplayer supports up to eight players as well, handled by passing a controller or by connecting multiple pads. The progression loop is where it gets a bit odd. The unlock system - cards, coins, randomized card packs from an in-game store - looks like something lifted from a free-to-play mobile title. Cosmetic rewards include hairstyles, clothes, new golf balls, and club types, all gated behind level thresholds and card draws. There's no real-money spending, so it's just a slow grind for avatar items you barely see. It doesn't break anything, but it feels like the game shipped half a design philosophy. Players who want something to chase beyond scoreboards will find it thin. Anyone who just wants to fire up a session, get eight friends shouting at a Nightmare Mansion hole, and call it a night will not care at all. Bottom line on the experience: the physics are sound, simultaneous multiplayer is the right call, and the course creator is genuinely capable once you invest time in learning it. The weak points are the garbage diluting the community browser, a progression system with no teeth, and the reality that solo play loses its appeal within an hour or two. This is a groups game, full stop. Fred, Scout Team