For anyone like myself who’s ever wondered what it might be like to use the same high-octane vehicles from Rocket League to play sports other than soccer, let me introduce you to Turbo Golf Racing. Currently in early access on Steam and Xbox, the game tasks you with striking a ball while racing through the air and on the ground in an effort to be the first to deposit that ball into a hole at the end of the course instead of a net. Though it can’t help but feel like a spinoff or expansion pack of Rocket League, it still has enough of its own charms to separate itself from that game and establish its own identity. Turbo Golf Racing especially hits the mark as an online game, where the pressure to get the ball through the course in a hurry is palpable and there’s room for strategy in both how you equip your car and your choice in navigating the terrain.
From how the nuanced controls will keep you thinking about how to maximize your speed throughout a race to the variety and dynamics of the individual courses that possess their own hazards and shortcuts. there’s a lot to like here. For a game that’s still in early access, there are not a ton of glaring issues that need attention besides some scoring and playlist issues.
That said, let’s have a closer look at where the game is currently soaring and then suggest how it can resolve the few areas where it has veered a little too far from its trajectory and could use some course correction.
Turbo Golf Racing Early Access Review
What I Like
Controls & Gameplay
On a basic level, Turbo Golf Racing is about getting your ball to the hole faster than anyone else. In order to accomplish that, it’s imperative to learn how to get the ball going in the direction you want. However, this is easier said than done. When striking the side of the ball, this will cause the ball to curve one way or another, which is something that you can use to your advantage the more you play, but it’s more of an annoyance when you’re still learning the physics (they’re quite different than Rocket League).
You’ll want to avoid losing all your momentum and being forced to double back to get your ball on track, as this will no doubt sacrifice valuable time. As with Rocket League, you can use a turbo button to move your vehicle faster both on land and in the air, and that’s accompanied by a familiar bar that depletes as you use this extra boost of speed. You can replenish the bar by riding over boost pads scattered throughout the course, performing flips with your vehicle, and by gliding slowly through the air.
To help and hinder you along the way, there are a few items of interest dotting every course that are liable to become a factor in races, particularly the shorter ones where every second counts. An icon that refills your all-important boost is available to keep you moving at top speed in the heat of a tight finish. There are rockets and shields to snag too, with the former allowing you to line an opponent up in your crosshairs and bring them to a standstill with a missile strike, and the latter providing protection against anyone attempting to use those rockets against you. In a post-Mario Kart world, there’s a slight sense of disappointment to not have more kinds of power-ups at your disposal, as the constant counteraction of rockets and shields has its strategic limitations and gets stale pretty quickly.
Online & Single-Player Modes
There aren’t a ton of options when it comes to either single player or online modes (more on that later), but those that are being offered for both manage to make the game addictive in entirely different ways. Online rounds are divided into three races situated on courses that seem to be selected entirely at random, meaning that some rounds are naturally going to last a little longer than others. At the end of each race, points are awarded based on where you finish (more on that later too) and coming out on top at the final leaderboard will earn you more XP to unlock level rewards. Even at its lengthiest, a round will end so quickly that the prospect of starting another one becomes so perpetually enticing that it’s easy to pass an hour or two without even realizing it.
The single-player mode is more of a time trial on each course that sees you earning anywhere from zero to three stars based on how quickly you’re able to reach the hole. You’ll likely be able to rack up two stars on each hole without breaking too much of a sweat, but being quick enough to nab that third star can be a real challenge. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself restarting certain holes until your quest for shaving off a few seconds from your time borders on obsession. It’s conceivable that placing on the leaderboards for these holes and posting the best times in the world could develop into a holy grail for some players.
Courses
The collection of courses in Turbo Golf Racing clearly take some design inspiration from golf, but that appears to be considered a starting point before taking the various landscapes in some truly wild directions. Some of the typical golf hazards should be recognizable enough, as sand bunkers and the long grasses of the rough are capable of slowing down both your ball and vehicle should you be unfortunate enough to find them. You’ll want to try to make good use of the many golden rings that adorn every course, which can launch your ball and vehicle long distances and, in some cases, send the ball sailing directly into the hole.
Some longer courses even have their own built-in transport systems that will take you and your ball from one section of a hole to another. Keep your eyes peeled for shortcuts on courses that can be accessed by showcasing a little bit of accuracy with the ball and/or some superior driving skills. Recently, there was an update that added four new courses to the existing batch, and one can only hope that more will coming down the pipeline in the weeks and months ahead.
Customization
Another way in which Turbo Golf Racing borrows a page from Rocket League is in how you’re able to customize your vehicle using rewards that you earn and items that you purchase from the store. This enables you to modify things like the body of the vehicle, wheels, finish, spoiler and, of course, the ball that you’ll be striking with that vehicle (mine looks like a baseball, for example). Turbo Golf Racing does separate itself from Rocket League though by providing two cores, one active and one passive, that you can choose depending on your own preferences and style of racing.
The active core will be thrust into action with the push of a button and can range from a quick flip for faster boost charging to a magnet that draws your ball towards you. The passive core, meanwhile, is impacting your vehicle or ball at all times and includes options like not being slowed down in the sand or long grass and limiting the curve on your shots to allow you to hit the ball straight more consistently. It’s fun to experiment with different cores and various combinations of them to find ones that will serve you the best on the course.
What I Don’t Like
Limited Playlists And Player Base
Turbo Golf Racing is still in early access so perhaps it deserves the benefit of the doubt and some time to expand and grow an audience, but it’s possible that its limited game modes could be responsible for its other problem of finding few players online to race against. As of this writing, the only online avenue that’s open to players is the aforementioned one that that pits you against others in a round that consists of three races. It’d be nice to see some other playlists added to shake things up, like a duos mode (something that’s apparently in the works) or one that eliminates the missiles and shields from the equation completely (something that many in the community want).
The hope would be that these innovations would draw more people to a game. On the other hand, the conundrum here is that this might only spread out that same small player base over more playlists and make it even harder to get a round started.
Scoring Structure
For the most part, the determination of how many points each player receives following each race works just fine, with eight points going to the fastest racer and one point awarded to the slowest. The problem though is that people who do not finish in the 45 seconds after the first racer holes out and receive a “DNF” for not completing the hole are still treated as if they came in last and, as such, are given a point. This leads to some players wasting time and intentionally trying not to get the ball in the hole once they realize they are in last and will be awarded the same point whether they finish or not. If racers who didn’t finish a hole were instead provided zero points for their ineptitude, it would incentivize getting to the pin and add a sense of urgency to those final 45 seconds while racers scrambled to get their ball in the hole in time.
Bottom Line
While Turbo Golf Racing probably won’t be winning awards for originality any time soon, fans of Rocket League will likely enjoy the way it borrows some customization and mechanics (including probably the same mechanics that fix the vehicles too) in transplanting the action from the soccer field to the golf course. Whether in single-player mode or online, the game is addictive, fast-paced, and the challenge of learning the quickest way to get to the hole will likely keep you busy for a while. The courses have been designed with welcome variations in length and layouts to keep the rounds from feeling too similar to each other.
The hope is that more people continue to find the game in the near future to increase the player base and help open up the possibility of adding new playlists that will keep things fresh when looking ahead to the long-term relevance of the game.
