Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii) Review

Posted by Ramon Aranda on 07.21.2009

EA takes a big step forward with this well rounded, fun to play edition!



Title: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Tiburon
Players: 4
Type: Sports (Golf)
Rated: E for Everyone

I’ll come right out and say that I’m not the biggest golf fan in the world, but have found previous iterations of Tiger Woods PGA Tour on the Wii pleasantly enjoyable. Now with the addition of MotionPlus, I was pretty eager to give it a go and ultimately found myself both frustrated and hooked with the 2010 edition!

Gameplay

Where to begin with this one? Well for gamers who either have or haven’t tried MotionPlus, you’ll find it extremely beneficial to first get a few practice games out of the way. A good way to begin is also to check out the club tuning feature. Like last year, you’ll be able to fine tune and customize your clubs depending on your swing. Once you’re ready to rock and roll, you can go to Play Now to jump right into a game (again, a recommendation) or if you’re ready to hit the greens, you can dive into the career mode. On a side note, there are plenty of other things you can do but I’ll get to those a little later.



My Career is deep folks! After you’ve created your character you’ll have the option to get into the PGA Tour Season, the Tournament Challenge or the FedEx Cup. The season can take you quite a while to complete so be prepared for a long journey to the top (or bottom if you suck). I think it must’ve taken me a good 10 games or so to start getting things right. When using the Wii MotionPlus, you’ll have complete control of your swing, coupled with a real-time look at how you’re moving your wrists. Before you swing the club, you’ll see an indicator that tells you which direction you’ll likely hit the ball if you don’t made adjustments. So if you slice the ball without wanting to, it’s totally your fault. Granted, I’m not the greatest golfer in the world or even in this office so I grew pretty frustrated with how my game was coming along. Honestly though I had only myself to blame. It’s the price I have to pay for having this much control over my swing. I’ll bet most of you will have a few issues early on but it’s a great feeling when you finally start nailing those shots or sinking those putts. In regards to putts, you can still use the “classic” putting system which I never really liked but the Precision Putting works a lot better as it really does take into account how hard you hit the ball. I’ve found myself putting better than I ever have and also seems like a more realistic approach.

Gamers will also notice that the Wii’s Forecast Channel comes into play. As you progress through the season, you’ll encounter real-time weather from the exact moment you are playing in a particular course. So if it’s raining in Torrey Pines the day you’re playing, it’ll rain in the game. Speaking of courses, EA has added a few more to this year’s game as the previously mentioned Torrey Pines is added alongside Oakmont, Banff Springs, Pinehurst, Hazeltine, Bethpage Black and Turnberry.

Graphics



Let’s be real here – the game shows a bit of an improvement over last year’s game but it’s still not up to par with other Wii games including EA’s own Madden. The animations of the golfers are pretty decent and we also now see the crowd surrounding the course when you’re playing. I do like the menus however as they’re very easy to navigate and make things pretty seamless. The courses themselves look pretty accurate when compared to the real ones but I think overall, the game just lacks that extra bit of detail. I really hope that with next year’s iteration, EA finally rebuilds the game and gives it a makeover. We’ve seen that games can in fact look pretty on the Wii so how about getting the Tiger franchise the same treatment?

Sound

I’m not overly excited with the commentary which gets rather repetitive as you play through the season though I do like the music that plays when you’re in the menus. A few times, I just let it sit there while I took care of some other things around the house. Sound effects work well and are what you’d expect if you were really on the green.

Lasting Appeal

I’ve talked about playing My Career and specifically about the PGA Tour but man does this game have all sorts of other things for you to do. Though I do enjoy playing with others in the same living room, it’s just as fun to jump online to do the same. Luckily we don’t need to use any headache inducing Wii Friend Codes as anyone with an EA account can simply use their existing profile to get online (or you can create one). You can easily add other players to your friends list and you can quasi-chat with some predefined comments. I’m still hoping that EA finally jumps on the Wii Speak train and includes it in 2011.



When playing online, the other player will not have to wait for you to finish your stroke and vice versa so you’ll be playing on the same course at the same time. That works great as you’re not forced to sit there and wait. Also you can partake in some ranked and unranked online tournaments. To me this was one of the better inclusions to the game which is already pretty packed. In the tourneys, you can play against other players or even take on the pros in “Play the Pros” where you’ll be able to participate in an existing tournament. So you can see how you’re doing against Tiger Woods for instance during the U.S. Open. Though you won’t see him playing on screen or anything, you will get real-time stats and scores and play in the same tournament as it’s going on. You can also test yourself against the all-time scores.

But wait, there’s more! What’s a Wii game without a little mini-game action? Tiger 10 also features some pretty fun games which are highlighted by Disc Golf. You basically have a Frisbee that you’ll toss around with great 1:1 motion courtesy of MotionPlus. I found it to be not only extremely fun to play with others but also pretty accurate in terms of your movements.

Fun Factor

Seriously, this game is a joy to play. Whether you’re playing some mini-games, in a tournament, online or against a buddy at home – the game is good times for all! Add to the fact that you now have complete control over your game and things can get pretty competitive when you’re playing against someone else. Still though, even if you’re going at it solo, there are always the online matches which worked pretty well for me. I didn’t experience any lag or disconnections.

The 411

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for the Nintendo Wii is the definitive golf game. I challenge you to find another game that is as deep and lifelike as this one and I give major credit to EA for getting it done right. Any golf fan would be doing themselves a great disservice by not playing this game and newcomers should find this game to be the best place to start before hitting a real course.

Graphics	7.0	Time to revamp the look of the game I say but not too bad as it is.
Gameplay	10.0	Yeah you'll get frustrated at first but when you get it down, it's awesome.
Sound	8.0	Music is enjoyable, the commentary needs a bit of an overhaul and the sound effects are spot on.
Lasting Appeal	10.0	This game is just too deep to get bored off. So much to do and so many game modes to play.
Fun Factor	9.5	Even as a non-golfer, this is just too much fun.
Overall	9.0   [  Amazing ]

Screenshots
All 9 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Screenshots