Miniature Golf: The Tranquility Course isn't a game you probably pictured yourself playing. On the surface, it's a simply-made 3D mini-golf game with nine basic holes to run through and an easy, intuitive interface. Just beyond the thin film of golfing, though, you'll find a game world that presents you with more than enough reasons to run around and explore.

The controls are much like any standard first person game: [WASD] to walk in the four main directions and the mouse to look around. Here, though, since golf is the main purpose, you can press and hold the [spacebar] to focus on the golf ball, then press and hold the right mouse button to charge a shot. Holding the [spacebar] while the ball is moving around keeps the camera trained on it, allowing you to check out the bouncing action as your shot does its thing. Your goal is to make it through all nine holes under par, a task that's probably not as difficult as it is when playing real world mini-golf.

Here's the most intriguing part: exploration. You have full control over where you go in this game, meaning you can strut around the course and check everything out instead of swinging the club. When you're ready to golf again, simply hold the [spacebar] to zoom to the ball's location. To really sweeten things up, Miniature Golf: The Tranquility Course features 15 achievements, many of which involve doing some creative and unusual things. Without spoiling too much, you'll be rewarded for exploring the course, looking around the area, using your golf clubs for more than just playing the game, and for getting into spots of trouble with your shots.

Miniature Golf: The Tranquility Course does one thing very well, and that's exactly why we love it. It's a little more than just a mini-golf game, and the two layers interact well with each other. The game's author, Follomania, crafted Miniature Golf in under 72 hours for GMC Jam #6 and plans to release more content in the future. Until then, it's time to go back and see what else we can do in the rectangular world of Tranquility Course!

Windows:
Download the free full version

Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.