WHAT THE GOLF? and Strokes of Genius

2020-01-05

While playing through WHAT THE GOLF? via the Apple Arcade over the winter holiday, the game stuck out to me for being humerous, puzzling, and downright devious at times. While the game enticed me with the hilarious ragdolls and wacky things to putt, the clever pieces of design kept me playing even when I was frustrated. This is a list of some of those strokes of genius I noticed while playing WHAT THE GOLF? from the fabulous team at Triband.

Rotato, rotato

In one of the earlier sections of the game full of disorienting space levels, you come upon a challenge to send a planet across a screen full of other cosmic clutter, but in only 2 hits.

"A screenshot of a space level focused around planets from WHAT THE GOLF?"

After the first swing, the planet will begin hurtling across the top and bottom of the screen in a loop. Now, players COULD try to find the right measure of force to send it towards the right in a never-ending free fall between the top and bottom borders...

"The player attempting to launch a planet to the right in WHAT THE GOLF?"

...or you could just send it to the left! (Because the screen wraps that way too!).

"The player attempting to launch a planet to the left in WHAT THE GOLF?"

Ninja Style

Another great example of how the game makes you feel as if you are thinking outside the box is in this simple platforming level:

"A level from WHAT THE GOLF? that tasks the player to reach a flag in five jumps"

The second iteration of the level asks you to hit the flag in five hops. While it is possible via going through the tunnel on the right, it can be a tight fit with only five jumps as opposed to the unlimited from the first rendition of the level.

So instead I just, uh, yeet’d myself off the wall on the side.

"The same level from WHAT THE GOLF? mentioned before, but the player character is hanging off a tall wall overlooking the flag post"

WHAT THE GOLF? gives so much freedom in its simple expression of mechanics that players are really free to experiment and see how much they can break the game—whether some of these breaks were intended or not.

Volley-bawl

In this volleyball challenge level, you need to dodge explosive barrels kind of like an inverse of that absolutely barbaric challenge in Super Mario Odyssey.

"A volleyball court level in WHAT THE GOLF? where the player must survive explosive barrels thrown at them for 15 seconds"

Rather than subject myself to more beach-based video game trauma, I opted to stand as far away from the center as possible and voila, there are no boundaries on the court!

You can dodge the barrels by literally standing next to the beach-goer throwing them.

"The same volleyball court from before but the player is standing next to the person throwing explosive barrels."

Crab Save

My favorite piece of level design in WHAT THE GOLF? (And the one that inspired me to create this list) is in a level I was stuck on for quite some time, where you have to ascend a sand tower as a crab in a limit amount of time.

"A level from WHAT THE GOLF? where the player character is a crab and they must ascend a sand tower in 20 seconds."

Not only are you limited by the timer, but also by the rising water level. Coupled with the maze-like structure of the tower and the frequent water blasts while climbing, I began to lose hope fast.

"The previously mentioned crab level, as the player unsuccessfully attempts to climb the tower via the direct path"

However I noticed there was a small gap left of the start of the level, and it is just enough to sneak through and take a path directly to the flag. Score!

"The crab level, but the player is sneaking through a small opening in a fence near the start"

"The crab character successfully climbing the sand tower!"

Show and (Please!) Tell

If you still aren’t convinced in the foresight and understanding of their audience from the folks at Triband, they knew exactly what their biggest fans would want to show others in WTG?, the craziest levels straight out of the gate. So rather than relying on you finding those levels they put in a button JUST for that feature. 10/10 well played.

"The main menu for WHAT THE GOLF?, focusing on the Show to a Friend button"

Overall, WHAT THE GOLF? made me feel like some sort of putting genius time and time again, so much so that I had no choice but to 100% the game. Well worth a one month trial of Apple Arcade and a few more months of you don’t beat it right away! Fantastic job again to the Triband(Opens in a new tab) team! 👍