Alphaputt is a small mini-putt game with a really nice sense of style, but not much else for me. The game has you putt across all 26 letters of the alphabet, each with their own theme and gimmicks, but with no great way to become better and no good sense of challenge. I went through the whole alphabet, then tried the challenge mode, but was left with no intention to keep up with the game, which is a shame, since it looks and sounds pretty good!
Starting the game, you’re not too sure what to do, I suppose that the ‘wordplay’ mode would be the default one, but it doesn’t feel like the basic game mode to me. You have a few options, wordplay is a randomly selected 5 letters word and you have to putt on each letter, par-fection requires you to complete the whole alphabet without putting over par and you can consult your unlocked balls - which you get from hole-in-ones. There is a practice mode hidden in ‘more’ that goes through all the letters, so that’s what I started with. The game is fairly simple, you drag to putt. The levels are dynamic and full of obstacles and you don’t know what’s going to happen when it’s the first time you get into a stage. But after trying as many times as I needed - sometimes a lot - I got to the end of each course.
The frustrating part is in being unable to know the trajectory your ball will take with the current force you’re using. I wish the game gave more than a very small trail of arrows to tell me where I was aiming. This gives much of the difficulty in the game. It’s really hard to gauge where you need to shoot because of the various hazards, but having almost no information about the ball as well makes it doubly frustrating. I couldn’t get past the letter D in par-fection.
Alphaputt might be a better party game than it is a single player experience, but that’s how I played it. It’s too bad, because like I said, the style is great and all the level themes are quite interesting and creative, but I just couldn’t enjoy playing it. Oh well.
