GAME CLEAR No. 89 -- Putt & Putter Miniature Golf

Putt & Putter Miniature Golf (1991, Game Gear/Master System)

Developer: SIMS
Publisher: SEGA
Clear Platform: Game Gear
Clear Date: 4/8/22

This is one of those games I heard about and then saw in a store mere weeks later. In this case, the store was Level Up Video Games in Santa Cruz, California. It was a great, well-stocked little shop that I’d recommend to anyone in the area.

I quickly knocked it out because not long after, I became aware that a Coca-Cola themed Game Gear variant existed, and I impulse bought that as well (this time on ebay).

The game is quite charming and well worth the few bucks I spent on it, but man would I like to see a modern take on the concept. Basically, its stated goal is to combine mini golf with pinball, which it sort of barely does. It’s much more mini golf that pinball, but some of the courses feature pop bumpers (the circular ricochet machines found on nearly any pinball table), but that’s basically the only element carried over. The game is perfectly competent at being a little handheld, isometric putt-putt game, I just wish the killer concept weren’t so half-baked.

Off the top of my head, I think it would be neat to have flippers around the course that can be activated at any time and don’t increase your stroke count. Stages could also exist where the hole only even becomes reachable after achieving certain conditions just like real pinball tables. Obviously, a lot of those things would’ve been extremely ambitious or even impossible on Game Gear, but I just think it’s a great little concept.

As good as they’ve been recently about effectively reviving old IP, I doubt SEGA’s gonna be digging this one up anytime soon. But if someone did an honest, modern take on this concept, I’d absolutely love to see it.