Golf is a great sport, but the often far more casual and fun putting based variant known as minigolf is considered by many to be even greater. Whether you take it seriously, or just want something fun to do on a Sunday afternoon, it's hard to beat a round of minigolf. Of course, something being fun in the real world means it can surely translate into something fun in the gaming world as well, which is exactly what Oxygen Games are aiming for with their minigolf title King of Clubs. With release still a few months away, we had a chance to check out an early preview build for the PC and, in its current state, it definitely seems King of Clubs captures the fun and randomness of the real thing, while still maintaining a unique feel of its own.

On show in this build were five modes of play for single player - a career mode, a tournament mode, "speed golf", "gopher hunt", and practice - and four modes for "multiplayer" (which is not online but rather a turn based system for two or more 'profiles' on the same PC) - 'versus', 'grand prix', 'speed golf' and 'party'. The single player career and tournament modes are quite similar in that they both require you to beat par on a course of 9 holes to unlock the next course, except in the tournament mode you have a CPU controlled competitor tagging along with you that is themed to the course you chose. For instance, if you chose a space themed course, you'll be going up against a space man.

As for the other modes, they are self explanatory - "speed golf" requires you finish each hole in a set time rather than a shot count, "gopher hunt" requires you to shoot the ball through all the 'gophers' on the course before putting in, and practice is just that. To be honest, the modes on offer in this build were not overly impressive themselves - there doesn't seem to be much depth in their structure, such as the career mode, which doesn't yet really seem to have much 'career' aspects to it at all. It must be said though, the game does offer quite a lot in the way of unlockable and purchasable items, such as special clubs and balls and even mulligans, which you afford by the money earned during gameplay.

While the modes don't seem fully fleshed out as of yet, the impressive parts found in this preview build can be found in the gameplay itself. Once you have chosen your mode of choice, it doesn't really matter what the rules are or what you have to do to finish a hole, King of Clubs does its thing and it does it well. This is a game where the same holes and courses could play totally differently each time you attempt them. This is because the holes are usually vibrant with multiple obvious paths (and countless less obvious paths) to completion, not to mention many variables including moving objects and of course the random nature that is minigolf ball physics. Combined with the aforementioned ability to buy special clubs and balls, such as swerve and chip clubs as well as extra bouncy rubber balls, you're in for a real treat when it comes to the variation and relaxed boundaries on offer in the gameplay.

This results in quite addictive gameplay, and from what we've experienced in this build, this addictive gameplay captures the fun of minigolf to a tee (haw haw). However, at the same time, the game isn't trying to be a minigolf simulation or anything, this is definitely an arcade-ish, cartoony type game that never takes itself too seriously. After getting used to the controls and the physics of the game, you will start to realize that sometimes it takes some very 'out there' thinking to master a hole, which definitely can test your imagination and creativity. And hey, even if you totally screw a shot up, there's always the ability to use one of the mulligans you bought!

To make sure there is some learning curve beyond just developing a feel for the game and its physics, Oxygen have made sure that you will get a challenge out of many of the holes and courses themselves due to their design, and the result are some incredibly insane holes that highlight the game's focus on fun and addictive gameplay, and definitely reinforces that this game isn't necessarily based on what might be possible out there in the real world of minigolf. Admittedly, at times some of the holes can border on the line of frustration which can distract from the fun, but at the same time it was very important that the game didn't go too easy on the hole difficulty as low replay-ability would have likely ensued.

Another way the game could prevent the replay value from slipping is the inclusion of a hole/course creator, but unfortunately this stands as the only real disappointment I had with the preview build, as one was not included. This really seemed like a complete no-brainer of a feature to me as the ability for users to create and perhaps even share their own minigolf holes and courses online would surely add a huge amount of appeal to the game. Given the limited attention directed at this genre, King of Clubs could have become the TrackMania of minigolf games with such an inclusion. Even though this game will also appear on the PS2, Wii, PSP and DS which aren't quite as suitable as the PC for a mode like this, it still would have been great to see, so hopefully between now and retail release something can be done.

Regardless of this though, as it stands right now, King of Clubs is a title that lovers of fun and addictive gaming should definitely keep an eye out for when it sees release later this year. There have been a few attempts at crazy golfing and minigolf over the years, and some have been quite fun and successful, but King of Clubs definitely has the potential to be the best of the bunch. At the very least, it should have no problems offering fresh and enjoyable addictive gameplay that almost anyone would be able to sit down and enjoy. If some more attention can be given to the modes and features before release, then that would be the icing on what is set to be a tasty cake regardless