E3 2008: King of Clubs Impressions

King of Clubs was on display at E3 2008, and this wacky game of minigolf is showing potential. It will feature lots of zany holes complete with dinosaurs, traps, and, of course, special golf balls and clubs when it heads to retail on the 29th of this month.

The controls make simple use of the Wii Remote. First, you aim your shot from either a third-person perspective or a top-down view. Then, you charge up your swing by raising or lowering the remote. Once the hit power is set, you simply move the remote and hit the ball! It sounds simple, but this game's courses are full of complicated obstacles, pitfalls, and jumps, yet very few straight shots.

So you'll need clubs and balls that are every bit as over the top as the environments. One ball we saw was a wacky putter that guaranteed a nice rolling curve ball. This definitely seemed to help the demonstrator hit the ball around corners. Then again, he needed all the help he could get on the "crazy triceratops in a bed of lava" hole. Not only did this hole begin with a hairpin turn, but it then led to a bumpy patch and up into the mouth of a triceratops. Once it traveled through, it came out in a small patch near the hole. That was the long route. You could also attempt to take a different path and jump the ball over a pool of lava, though we may not have had the club to accomplish that.

As you can see, though, there's a lot of potential here. You should be able to unlock clubs and then go back and replay holes in lots of different ways. We'll certainly know soon enough, as this game should be on store shelves in under a month.