2000 · T&E Soft · Golf · Sports

Swing Away Golf

PlayStation exclusive

Bring your clubs, caddy, personality and attitude as you join Joe, Rachel, Kelly, Ryan and other golf nuts in a game packed with personality. Laugh, scowl, celebrate and hang your head in defeat- you're going to do it all. Play leisurely for fun, or rise from the amateur ranks to the official pro tour and experience real competition in story mode. Unlock courses, characters, and game modes while earning skill points, prizes, and virtual cash.

Released: 23 March 2000
Platforms: PlayStation 2
Genres: Golf Sports
Developers: T&E Soft
Publishers: Electronic Arts
Perspective: Third person
Age ratings: ESRB E
Languages: English

About

Swing Away Golf, known in Japan as Golf Paradise (ゴルフパラダイス, Gorufuparadaisu), is a sports game developed and published by T&E Soft for the PlayStation 2. It was shown as a launch title for the system at the PlayStation Festival in 2000 Electronic Arts' third-party publishing arm EA Distribution acquired publishing rights to the game outside Asia and released the title that same year.

Keywords

golf
polygonal 3d
launch titles

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Players have several available gameplay modes such as a story mode along with additional single and multiplayer settings. The game allows players to choose from seven available character models to start a career with. Players do not have a preset skill level for each character, and the game allows players to instead determine their skill with Skill Points to be distributed among the attributes of Distance, Accuracy, Control and Recovery.

Development

In 1999, many third-party developers, including T&E Soft, joined Sony. Not only that but according to IGN, Sony "showed how another winning characteristic that helped to launch it to the top of the console heap". On February 8, 2000, T&E Soft announced a release postponement for the game. The game was announced as a PlayStation 2 launch title in Japan, and was scheduled for release on March 23, 2000, priced at 5,800 yen (around $54 US).

The game was later shown at the PlayStation Festival in 2000. Before the game was released in Japan, Sony released the demo of the game via a shady source.

Reception

The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

IGN member David Zdyrko praised the graphics as "beautiful" for a PS2 game. He stated it was "a lot like Hot Shots Golf with some cool improvements, as well as some minor downfalls." He also stated that it "might not be as great as Hot Shots Golf, but it's a phenomenal golf game nonetheless." GameSpot's Frank Provo said that the Japanese import is "a game whose features and execution could barely be explained by a book, let alone by a review."