Mini golf for mini golf is not a particularly good game of golf. The controls seem a bit confusing, the physics are unpredictable at times, and there aren’t many holes to get through. This may turn some people off, which is a shame because this is just the tip of the iceberg of how utterly weird it is. It’s actually an experimental narrative adventure about climate breakdown, human memory, time travel, and awkward FMV video game theory podcasts. Just… mainly told through mini golf.
Released a few days ago and the debut title of the Berlin art collective Three More Years, it is an advanced science fiction story set in the year 2063. Operating from a retrofuturistic space station orbiting over the (newly created) Great Baltic Ocean, you try to piece together the story what has happened to our needy and abused planet, while at the same time communicating with some extra-dimensional being who speaks to you through glitches in mini golf game.
From the bit I’ve played (and I still wouldn’t want to spoil it for you beyond that point), it’s an audiovisual treat. A mixed media collage featuring mixed-up VHS FMV, warped and erroneous game geometry, text conveyed through all manner of kinetic typography (including key narrative written on the ground in the wake of the ball’s travel), and constantly changing perspective as you play, jump between screens, tweak knobs, press buttons or wait for the text to print in your weird science clipboard.
There’s a lot to unpack here. From the very first minutes, the game delves into the social repercussions and politics of combating climate change and how capitalism is unwilling or unable to deal with it. But it is also a human story, about overwork, memory, love, heritage and more. Sometimes it’s also about deep thoughts on games, with the developer’s own podcast—Mini Mini Talk Talk, can be watched independently here on YouTube— used to provide ideas and chopped up to provide clues as to where the next branch of the non-linear plot lies. You know, when you’re not rolling tectonic plate inserts with mini-golf controls.
While Mini Mini Golf Golf undeniably offers other possibilities, it’s not the first game where you can do weird, high-tech things with mini golf. Psychedelic Wonderputt forever provides superficial social commentary through evolving and context-shifting courses, but Wonderputt is less interested in telling a story than conveying it mood. Above all, Mini Mini Golf Golf is here to tell you the story, no matter how strange the delivery. The game is on is now available on Steam for £9.89/$11.59, with a tiny launch discount available until December 19.
