You never feel that a round was a waste of time because you'll still earn a tidy sum of XP and are awarded bonus points for completing the round regardless of the result. Every round has bronze, silver and gold targets that offer scope for repeat play and there's one new character to be unlocked per course, to increase the meagre starting brace of competitors to an underwhelming total of six.Įverything you do in Powerstar Golf earns you XP, whether it's hitting the fairway, landing a nice approach shot, achieving a personal best or setting a new world record, and this method of positive reinforcement helps to counter the inherent frustration of failing a course challenge at the 18th green. In career mode, each course offers nine cups that mix up standard variables such as tee length, pin placement and wind strength, as well as requiring a varying number of holes to be completed under match or stroke play conditions. The characters are clichéd rather than cute you start either with the big and powerful man or the slight and accurate woman. Instead, Powerstar Golf focuses predominantly on the single-player experience with a reasonable crack at a meaningful XP system and the introduction of random, on-the-fly challenges that add variety to the slim pickings of its four courses. This, more than anything else, could damage Powerstar Golf's long-term popularity and will prevent its community scene from ever becoming as vibrant as its visuals.

There's four-player local multiplayer and an online Rivals mode, in which you compete against AI representations of up to three other players' best course scores, but there's no option to play in real-time against a friend or in online tournaments. One of the first things to note about Powerstar Golf is that it lacks any form of standard head-to-head online play. It's apparent very early on that Powerstar developer Zoe Mode has drawn more inspiration from Clap Hanz' long-running Everybody's Golf series than from the sport that it is emulating, but while it one-ups its rival in some areas, it trails it in too many others. In truth, real-world golf holds little sway over events here. Like the pastime upon which it is loosely based, Xbox One launch game Powerstar Golf is comprised of a few triumphant moments, some boring bits and an awful lot of time spent looking at pretty scenery and wishing your friends were around.

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