Another calendar quarter, another golf game, another chance for me to wallow in handheld golf nostalgia? Or maybe not, this time - let's keep this one a straight Ovi Gaming review. Let's Golf! has been well received on other platforms, notably on the iPhone and iPad, and here we have a Java version optimised for Symbian-powered touchscreens. How much of the experience has been compromised in the port to Java and is Let's Golf! (in the Ovi Store) actually any good?
Read on in the full article.
This doesn't seem to be quite the same Let's Golf that's been available for the Samsung i8910 / SE Satio for about a year. For a start, its not in landscape mode and there's no mention of the camera panning around each hole prior to teeing off.
Has it been revised?
The 'other' version presumably used the graphics acceleration present in those models? I haven't seen it first-hand....
As far as I know, the 3D accelerated version requires a hacked phone to install it. Maybe it appeared on Samsung's app store, but you needed an Italian SIM card to access it. It was ridiculous how Samsung had teams and websites up trying hard to promote the power of the i8910 to games developers, and then completely forgot to provide a means of delivering apps to customers for this phone. Did the Satio/Vivaz fare better?
Anyway, the other Let's Golf on Symbian was practically identical to the iPhone one besides a higher resolution. Although it was a little sluggish, probably because Gameloft couldn't justify making an effort to optimise it upon realising that the only people that will play it wouldn't be paying for it.
The problem with the performance isn't Java, as Java at this point doesn't have to fall through as many layers as S60V5 native code...
The problem is the responsiveness of the touchscreen. The developers probably did a quick port, and didn't account for the fact that Nokia's screen is a bit slower to respond on the hardware/software side of things.