PAX East: Cursed to Golf Preview

At PAX East, we had the opportunity to go hands-on with Cursed to Golf, a delightful golf-life adventure game where you'll need to successfully complete 18 holes in order to break out of purgatory. Cursed to Golf takes a relatively simple concept that we've seen across many platforms and adds the unique twist of adventure and rogue-like elements. The Cursed to Golf demo is available on Steam right now, so if you'd like to check it out for yourself it's available to play.

Cursed to Golf starts off simple enough, but a tragic lightning strike cuts your career short as you're about to prove yourself to be the greatest golfer of all time. This untimely death sends you to purgatory, where you must win 18 holes of golf in a row to break out. Fail one hole by not meeting a stroke limit and you'll be sent back to the beginning, creating a rogue-like (golf-like?) adventure game that's going to play with physics and countless hazards, from bunkers to blocks of TNT.

Your controls are simple enough: a swing power gauge and the ability to adjust the angle the ball will travel. These controls are complemented by an arrangement of ability cards you can unlock and purchase at the shop in the game, Eterni-Tee. These cards allow you to stop time, take a practice swing, add additional shots to your par, among other things to make your time golfing in purgatory a little bit easier. There are also idols through each level that you can strike with a ball, adding additional shots to your total number of attempts. Fail to make it to the end within your allotted number of shots and it's game over.

Cursed to Golf: Every Shot Counts

Each course will have a different par count, and some courses will offer multiple paths, so it's important to use your camera to scan the course ahead of time and plot out the best route to the next fairway. Some areas may require you to use a specific card to make the shot, while for others it might make more sense to take a practice shot first to take out an idol to increase your total number of attempts or gauge how the physics in a particular area will react. This makes the game accessible but still challenging. Admittedly, I failed on my first several attempts while navigating through the first course. In order to complete all 18 holes in this golf-like, you really will need to become the greatest of all time.

Cursed to Golf Demo Is Available Now

The Cursed to Golf demo is currently available on Steam and it's absolutely worth taking a look at. In addition to a colorful and cute art style, Cursed to Golf includes music composition by Mark Sparling, who also composed the music for A Short Hike. The music in this game feels like a Metroidvania meets Mario Golf, and it fits the purgatory setting extremely well.

This is one of our most anticipated games we sat at PAX East and we look forward to the full Cursed to Golf release date!