When it comes to developing meter-based sports titles, Jamdat doesn't have much left to prove. The company has already broken the bank with its bowling franchise, which has boiled this type of interface down to a fine art. However, the jury has been out on whether the mobile development juggernaut can reproduce this success in other types of sports games. Jamdat Sports Golf 2004 isn't without a few hiccups, but its graphically lush front end and sturdy gameplay uphold the tradition in a convincing fashion.
The first thing that stands out about Golf 2004 is its level of graphical polish. The developers put a lot of effort into the menu system, which looks like it has been picked over with a fine-tooth comb from the fonts to the background. This standard sets high expectations for the integral gameplay's visual feel, which are satisfied by the detailed course renderings. In all, Golf 2004 is the nicest-looking downloadable golf title we've seen: The fairways are lush and freshly striped from the player's overhead vantage point, the foliage isn't pixelated, and shadowing effects make it easy to identify a particular hole's contours. In addition, the overhead camera scrolls smoothly from one part of the hole to another, greatly facilitating shot-planning. There's very little variation in terrain types between courses, however, as most of the courses seem to share the exact same color palette.
As far as control goes, setting things up on the overhead map is a breeze; you can switch clubs by pressing up and down (displaying an updated range estimation each time), aim your shot from side to side, and add spin to the ball using the 7 and 9 keys. The sound is unremarkable, as it is mostly confined to the thwacking of club against ball and crowd noise, but it is high quality and appropriately placed.
Golf 2004 is also remarkable for the amount of useful information it packs into its interface. For instance, the game will display your shot's estimated trajectory in a red parabolic arc as well as a shadow on the ground; this is a tremendously cool feature, as it helps to calculate whether you can blast your ball over obstacles. A wind sock appears in the upper-left corner to give you an idea of direction and power, but it's sometimes difficult to tell in which direction the flag is blowing, especially when you have a direct head or tail wind. A simple arrow might have been a better choice. The ball-lie indicator, on the other hand, directly indicates the kind of terrain you've gotten yourself into, and it is quite useful in judging which club to use. In addition, if you've chosen a difficult club for the situation, it'll show up on the map screen in yellow, orange, or red--increasing the speed of the swing meter accordingly.
Jamdat's obligatory swing gauge packs a few new twists for mobile golf games. This particular semicircle is equipped with several colored zones: You can go through the blue zone on the upswing to build power up to 100 percent; you can verge into the red zone to overpower if you so choose; and then you can stop the meter somewhere in the yellow zone to set your shot's accuracy. Green lines denote the optimum meter levels in both the power and accuracy zones, and Golf 2004 also provides you with a "recommended" white line that denotes the perfect swing. All of this is pretty confusing at first, and the fact that the meter continues through the full arc no matter where you set your shot doesn't help. It doesn't take long to adapt to this system, however, and once you do, fairway play is generally pretty easy. Unfortunately, the putting system isn't as well-done. The swing meter is switched out for a linear indicator that doesn't share the same cognates as the fairway system--other than the white line that tells you how hard you should putt in a perfect world. Instead, animated arrows supposedly tell you the direction and degree of green slope by their speed in progressing from one side of the green to the other, but it's difficult to tell where to hit your ball. Successful putting ultimately involves a lot of guesswork. The mechanics could also be tuned better, because in some cases your ball will end up unbelievably close to the hole (occasionally appearing to travel directly over it) without going in.
Jamdat has implemented a number of nifty stat-keeping and online features in Golf 2004. The game will keep track of your lifetime stats, including on-green percentage, average drive length, and best 18-hole score (you can upload your scores to a server for comparison against the world's best). More importantly, Jamdat keeps all of the game's courses on its server, meaning that there's a possibility for brand-new downloadable courses in the future.
All told, Jamdat Sports Golf 2004 is one of the most elegant, well-engineered golf sims on mobile platforms. You don't have to be an avid golfer--or even a weekend duffer--to enjoy this game.
