TopGolf is a chain of high tech golf driving ranges.  You reserve a spot and can use these clubs (or bring your own), and you can scan your club to eject golf balls from a machine.  Then you swing and hit the ball and try to get it to go into big holes on the playfield for points.  I’m not totally sure how it works, but there are trackers in the ball so you can see the ball’s trajectory on a TV screen after you hit it.  A dumb way to describe it is that it’s kind of like bowling, but it’s golf.  A few years ago, they teamed up with Angry Birds for a special game option you could pick from.  I even wrote about it here.  And now they’re doing the same thing with another video game franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog.  They have a TopGolf in the same city where I live, so I had to try that out, and here’s how it went.

When you walk in, they had some TV monitors that advertised the new Sonic game mode.  So I took pictures of those.

And here’s another one.  I wish they had like a big standee or photo op display like they did with the Angry Birds game when it first came out, but they didn’t.  Oh well.

And here’s what the driving range looks like.  I made sure to take a picture when they were advertising the Sonic game on it.

And here’s another one with a different picture on the billboard.  Is it just me, or does anyone else think it’s amazing that we now have billboards that are just giant screens that can change what’s on them every so often.  I just think it’s so futuristic.  Or maybe I’m just easily amused.

Here’s the “title screen” for the Sonic game.  The idea is that you must hit the ball as far as you can, and make it land in these circles on the field.  Then on the screen you can watch the Sonic characters spin dash and hit trampolines on the field to jump up to paths to collect rings.  You hit the ball four times, one for each Sonic character (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy).  And whoever collects the most rings after two rounds, wins.  It’s even better for kids than the Angry Birds mode since it’s so simple and short.  And I asked the folks at the counter and they said they have special shorter clubs for little kids, too!

Here’s another picture of the gameplay screen on the wall mounted TV.

One new thing I don’t remember from last time I was there a few years ago was they now have these big monitors right where you swing so you can see the action right there.  So the rest of the pictures are from that screen.  Sorry if some of these are a bit glary.  It was a bright sunshiny day when we went, so it was hard to take pictures of the screens. Here’s one I took of Tails when they let you know it’s your turn to hit with that character.  Tails is my favorite Sonic character.  I wish you could pick to play as one character here instead of all four in a row, but oh well.

And here’s a shot before you swing.

The first round you play on is Green Hill Zone, so here’s a shot of that.

After you collect rings on a path, you hit a red star ring and see a close up of that character.  Here’s Sonic.

And Tails.

After you collect rings with that character, they’ll do their famous poses like how they do when you beat a level.  Here’s Sonic.

And here’s Tails.  Aw, Tails, why did you have to blink when I took this picture!

It wouldn’t be Green Hill Zone without that famous loop!

Round two plays on Sky Sanctuary Zone.  So here’s a shot of that.  I wish you could play on other zones, too.  Like Casino Night, Chemical Plant, or Egg Carrier.  But I guess they wanted to stick with the green golf field theme.

After two rounds, the game tallies your score and whoever gets the most rings, wins.  I won the first round so I had to take a picture of that.  I didn’t win the other games, though!

The game also gives little achievements to the players at the result screen.  My brother Jeff thought this one was funny so here’s a picture of that one.

You can also rescue the little animals in the canisters so here’s a screen of that.

And that’s all for now!  I’m surprised there hasn’t been a Sonic golf game on consoles.  I read that at one point, there was a mobile Sonic Golf game but it’s no longer available.  What kinds of video game characters would you like to see at TopGolf?  You would think they’d have a Mario Golf mode but maybe licensing would be too expensive.  Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments section.  Later!  –Cary

Tags: Game Reviews