Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day.
Golf is one of the earliest sports portrayed in gaming. The lack of opponent AI, the relatively slow pace of the game, and the static environment all made it easier to program than something like Rugby or Football. Golf video games can be followed back all the way to Odyssey 2 in 1978. Today, though, we’re not going back quite that far. Today’s game is Wicked 18, developed by T&E Soft and released on the SNES in 1993.
Wicked 18, known as Devil’s Course in Japan, decided to take a different approach than most golfing games of the time. Where typical golf games in the 16-bit era would attempt to recreate real-life golf courses such as Pebble Beach or the TPC River Highlands, Wicked 18 was going to create a fantasy golf course with obstacles that could never exist in real life.
The course they came up with has waterfalls, massive canyons, and even floating islands that players must get past to complete each hole. Other than these fantastical elements, Wicked 18 looks and plays like many other golf games of the time. Each shot must be lined up with a power meter determining the accuracy and strength of the shot. Clubs can be selected to fit the appropriate situation. Players can even select one of four caddies which will give advice, each with their own different personality.
Wicked 18 received mostly positive reviews, with many saying that the fantasy course was a neat take on the genre but that there is very little else to set it apart from other golfing games. T&E Soft did port the game to the Genesis as well as the Sega Saturn and the 3DO over the next couple of years. T&E Soft would continue to create golfing games through 2013.
Thank you so much for listening! For more trivia on this and the other games we talk about on the show, follow me on Twitter @vg_oftheday. Archives and transcripts are available on videogameoftheday.com. Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day!
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Devin "Katosepe" Sloane is a long time gamer and host of the show Video Game of the Day. He firmly believes Darklands is the pinnacle of gaming achievement and this is a hill he will die upon. Where his nickname came from is a secret to everybody.
