Walkabout Mini Golf
Available on Meta Quest, Steam VR, PS VR2
If you can believe it, the PSVR 2 released this year, and while it reportedly sold better than the first PSVR at launch, the device is still not a must-have for PlayStation players. There’s one game, however, that makes the strongest case for why you should own a unit, and it’s not Sony’s own Horizon: Call of the Mountain. It’s Walkabout Mini Golf.
A simple game like mini golf goes with virtual reality like peanut butter and jelly, but it’s all the trimmings that Walkabout provides that make it an exceptional experience that will prevent your VR headset from collecting dust. Its courses are incredibly imaginative, with some based on IP that are a great fit for the game, such as Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and Myst. Its Meow Wolf course, which is actually inspired by an art exhibit, is jaw-dropping. Each course even has a god mode where you can look down upon it in its entirety as if it were a miniature, and if you’re playing with friends, you can even see them playing on the course in this way.
Taking things a step further, each hole has a ball design hidden on it somewhere. Each course also has a hard version, set at night, and if you complete that variant’s puzzles, you unlock new clubs. These additions push you to admire the intricacies of each level’s design.
Walkabout shines when played with others. The motions of your friends’ floating heads, and the fact that their mouth moves when they speak, bringing their mannerisms to life in a way few other VR games have achieved. I have on more than one occasion found myself on the floor laughing because of how surreal the whole experience is. The game is such an excellent way to just hang out, and we even interviewed its creator for our podcast inside of it.
With a steady flow of new courses that just keep adding new, wild ideas, and the hidden content scattered throughout, Walkabout Mini Golf is one of the few VR games that will keep you coming back for more. — Tom Caswell