Approximate Release Date: October 1, 1992
Genre: Golf simulation
Developer: Irem
Publisher: Irem
The Irem Skins Game is the best golf game yet for the Super Nintendo.
I mean, it’s still a golf game. There’s nothing revolutionary here. The Irem Skins Game manages to avoid all the mistakes the other golf games made; the graphics are nice, there aren’t any weird technical problems, there are sound effects and music tracks, there are a variety of game modes, the game didn’t copy an earlier version to an alarming degree … it almost seems like praising this game is akin to handing out a participation award. Congrats, Irem! You didn’t poke an eye out!
The main attraction in this golf game is the Skins game mode, which is a jargony way of referring to a cash game. Each hole has a cash value, and the golfer that gets the lowest score in the group earns that money. The golfer with the most money at the end of the round wins. I’ve never played a golf game that featured this mode front and center, so it was a novel experience for me. But the fact you have to sit through the computer golfers take their turns meant that there was a lot of waiting. The Irem Skins Game supports four players, so having real people playing would make this a less frustrating mode.
But still, the other modes are here if you just want to hit the ball into sand traps as I do. Or if you don’t want to deal with CPU players that will make every putt on the first try.
I enjoyed the time I spent with this game. But the gulf between The Irem Skins Game and my previous top recommendation, HAL’s Hole in One Golf, is as deep and as wide as a teardrop. It’s going to come down to personal taste more than anything.
After all, it’s just a golf game.
Later Today: How many people remember that 007 got the Muppet Babies treatment with the James Bond Jr. cartoon?
