Mini Mini Golf Golf is not a very good golf sport. The controls really feel a tiny bit off, the physics are sometimes unpredictable and there is not many holes to putt your means by. That may delay some individuals, which is a disgrace, because it’s simply the tip of a completely bizarre iceberg. In actuality, that is an experimental narrative journey about local weather collapse, human reminiscence, time journey and awkward FMV videogame concept podcasts. Just… principally informed by the medium of miniature golf.
Released a number of days in the past and the debut title from Berlin-based arthouse sport collective Three More Years, this can be a high-concept sci-fi story set within the yr 2063. Operating from a retro-futuristic house station orbiting above the (newly-formed) Greater Baltic Ocean, you are making an attempt to piece collectively the historical past of what occurred to our poor and abused planet whereas additionally communing with some form of extra-dimensional entity that speaks to you thru glitches in a minigolf sport.
From the little bit I’ve performed (and I would not need to spoil you past this level anyhow), it is an audiovisual deal with. A mixed-media collage of VHS-scrungled FMV, warped and glitching sport geometry, textual content delivered by all method of kinetic typography (together with key narrative being written on the bottom within the wake of your ball’s journey) and an ever-shifting perspective as you hop between screens, tuning dials, tapping buttons or ready for textual content to be printed onto your bizarre science clipboard.
There’s loads to unpack right here. Even in its opening minutes, the sport dives into the social repercussions and politics of tackling local weather change, and the way capitalism is unwilling or unable to handle that. But it is also a human story, about overwork, reminiscence, love, legacy and a lot extra. It’s additionally generally about deep bathe ideas on video games, with the developer’s personal podcast—Mini Mini Talk Talk, viewable independently right here on YouTube—getting used to ship concepts and chopped as much as present hints at the place the subsequent department of its non-linear plot lies. Y’know, once you’re not lathing tectonic plate inserts utilizing mini-golf controls.
While Mini Mini Golf Golf undeniably hits completely different, this is not the primary sport to do bizarre high-concept issues with mini golf. The psychedelic Wonderputt Forever delivers some surface-level social commentary by its unfurling, recontextualizing programs, however Wonderputt feels much less eager about telling a narrative than conveying vibes. Above all else, Mini Mini Golf Golf is right here to let you know a narrative, nonetheless bizarre its supply. The sport is out now on Steam for £9.89/$11.59, with a small launch low cost obtainable till December 19.
