Turbo Golf Racing Game Preview Impressions

I have a strange fascination with golf games despite not really enjoying the real life sport, and I’ve also been obsessed with playing Rocket League/Super Sonic Acrobatic Rocket-powered Battles Cars over the years. So when Turbo Golf Racing landed in my inbox, you could say I was immediately in. I enjoyed my brief stint with the beta a few months back, and now the game is out in Game Preview/Game Pass I’ve had a bit more time to get stuck in. So far I’ve had a pretty good time, though I have to say it isn’t quite hitting the spot just yet.

The premise is simple: Golf, but with rocket cars. Up to eight players compete to be the fastest to hit the ball down the twisting and turning courses and land in the hole at the end. At our disposal is a car that can boost, flip, shunt, and glide while chasing the ball down, as well as power ups and weapons dotted along the track to ruin other players runs.

As soon as Go! appears the action is immediate. The short rush to tee-off is the calmest games get – it’s not long before there are cars and giant golf balls everywhere.

Handily, collisions are not allowed, which means we don’t need to worry about someone trolling us by knocking our ball or car out of bounds over and over. I do find though that this gives the racing a bit of a flat feel at times. For all the action displayed on screen, the fact we’re still effectively playing solo is a bit underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, it would likely be maddening if everyone was bashing each other about, but perhaps allowing us to be able to interact with either the cars or balls might just give a bit more life to the races. We can use the rockets dotted along the track to hit other players, but this isn’t quite as satisfying.

So it’s just us and our ball for the most part then – although just because others can’t mess with us doesn’t mean it’s an easy feat to get the ball down the course first. Much like the aforementioned Rocket League we must charge at the ball and hit it with the bonnet of our car. In practice this is harder than it sounds to be accurate thanks to the rolling hills, sand pits, and floaty physics.

A guide arrow gives us a rough idea of where the ball will go when we hit it, but even a slight adjustment to the angle of attack can see it careening off course wildly, especially if we accidently put spin on the ball too. We have a quick reset to help us get back on track although this will still cost us distance and time. Getting to grips with these physics is proving a bit trickier than I’d hoped, the learning curve quite high in order to be able to hit the ball accurately. More often than not I’m chasing it as it pinballs from side to side in the arena.

As we level up we’re granted various passive and active abilities to equip though, and these can make things easier on the track. One sends out a shockwave allowing us to hit the ball in a 360 radius, while another grants us extra boost at the cost of it depleting faster. We can see what other players have equipped, so if someone is running away with things perhaps it’s worth looking at their loadout for some inspiration.

While the game is primarily an online affair – eight players battle over three rounds – there are some solo challenges too. These task with beating set times on the games courses with up to three stars rewarded for the fastest times. These also unlock abilities and customisation for our car. I did find these enjoyable enough to try and beat, and it certainly made some early dips into online battles easier thanks to the practice. It won’t be the main draw by any means, but as an addition to the online side it’s decent enough.

Overall though, the Turbo Golf Racing experience so far is just missing that something to make me excited to come back often. Just prior to writing this piece I played around half a dozen online games and while I had fun, I’m also not rushing this to get back on it. It’ll be something I’ll pick up here and there, but as I mentioned above, the online action just needs a little something to make it a bit more exciting, be it collision with other racers/balls, or maybe some more variation in the track elements. It’s a nice looking game and tracks all vary in layout but they all look incredibly similar at the same time.

Of course, this is an early access release so there’s plenty of time for Hugecalf to take feedback on board, and hopefully give Turbo Golf Racing the time it needs to become the next big multiplayer game.

This game was previewed on Xbox. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by the publisher.