Clutch Putting a Synthwave 8-bit Lair

Picking up where I left off after Mars Gardens, I had to dive headfirst into Walkabout Minigolf’s latest 8-bit Lair course. After playing through it, I can confidently say this course is an absolute blast, with tons of reimagined 80's retro flair. 

Welcome to Vectorland!

The 8-bit Lair is set in a retro corporate hideout where you arrive to work your way through three floors, or levels as it were, eventually putting your way right into the digital heart of the villain’s lair. 

On the first floor, you meet your digitized boss and start in an office setting where things are in total chaos. Picture Breakout-styled cubes as obstacles, mixed with classic office vibes—think desk clutter, paperwork, and cubicles, all arranged for you to putt around and through. One hole is even, as your evil boss (Vincent Vector) puts it, your new prison/cubicle. 

Putting around floor one of VectorTech

Next, you reach the floor that really won me over: the arcade. This isn’t just any arcade, either. It’s loaded with everything from a disco floor to a few fully functional arcade machines! The machines might only use simple joystick commands that are a little tricky with VR controllers, but hey, it works! I loved the detail here, like the top-down sports car racer game. Overall it’s like stepping into an 80s fever dream, complete with collecting coins while putting for those hole-in-ones.

Every corporation, evil or not, needs a level of their offices dedicated to 80's arcades

On the third level, you get hints about the evil boss’s grand plan: creating a digital world for him to control and converting real-world objects into digital cubes. I'm pretty sure if you ever watched Tron as a kid, you'll be having the same I-see-what's-going-on-here reaction that I did. Anyway, the lab has that kind of slap-stick sci-fi flick vibe, where really you're just being set up for the showdown in the final digital world section of the course.

Vector's off-limits lab on floor 3

Because, yes, the last quarter of the course throws you into an 80’s Synthwave digital landscape, bringing that classic Tron vibe to life. The graphics are all retro-futuristic, the music is a play on Axel F, and it's like stepping into an 8-bit world where you end up putting right into the heart of the evil boss himself! In classic boss-fight style, you blow him up, and hopefully, come away with a solid score.

He even looks like a Recognizer from Tron

One of my favorite parts of this game mode, as per usual, is collecting the hidden balls. The balls you find are all 80s-styled, and it’s awesome seeing them added to my collection alongside those from other courses. On the hard part of the course, you will also get a fun fox hunt to acquire a new digitized golf club. I had to look up clue 13 to be honest . . . and that makes me mad. I was so close to finding that clue on my own, but just didn't think to look down. Ahh well.

nice club!

Also, as per usual, the course is more fun to play with friends, and yesterday I was able to join my buddies from the RuffTalk VR channel in a round through the easy course. We spent our time searching for the hidden balls and talking each other through the details we spotted around the course. And I’d love to say my VR headset didn’t try to sabotage me this time, but…well, it did. My attached battery just couldn’t keep up with the battery drain, so I was crashing out right at the end, which could have cost me my first-place win! Guess I’ve gotta keep my headset better charged for these pop-up game nights.

For the win!

All in all, the 8-bit Lair is a must-play if you’re a fan of Walkabout Minigolf. From the unique floor themes to the arcade and virtual world scenes, it’s packed with great touches and loads of nostalgic charm. Plus, I’m just glad to post about it on time, not “$4 short and a month late” for once. I’ll definitely be jumping back in for another round soon.

Happy Dueling!

Step Aside Elon! We're Colonizing Mars . . . with Minigolf!

I meant to blog about this newest Walkabout Mini Golf course back when it launched to the MetaQuest store, or rather, landed safely on Mars? Unfortunately, I got caught up in Diablo IV and real life, and set it aside. But here we are now—so let’s dive into the details!

Switching on the low gravity

That’s right, last month, the new Mars Gardens course hit WMG, and the VR community was all over it, as they always are with new WMG courses—because honestly, where else can you experience the full Martian mini-golf treatment for $4? (Seriously, if anyone knows, drop me a comment!) The course is a nice blend of stunning, polygon-embracing visuals (is that a nice way of putting WMG's graphic style) and intricate, challenging design. You'll immediately fall in love with all the slopes and curves that feel like some Martian cement-crafting genius put them together.

Ye' olde loop de loop . . . but on Mars!

But what really makes this course a standout is playing it in the custom low-gravity mode. The way your ball floats and drifts on those gentle slopes like it's floating through water is pretty great. In that way, the low-gravity physics really crank the difficulty up a notch. Hmm, if my body itself could experience low gravity while I played, might I be able to play better or worse? Probably worse. (Star Trek holodeck, anyone?)

Easy shot for sure . . .

As usual, you get both the regular version of the course and a harder, nighttime variant to mix it up. I haven’t tried hard mode with low gravity yet—I, mean, I’m decent at mini-golf, but I’d probably hit my stroke limit on every hole. 

By the way . . . the music on this course is outstanding. Reminds me of mellow Minecraft music. It gives the whole course a really chill vibe. I think it might be one of my favorite WMG tracks yet.

Yet another easy shot . . .

As always, this game shines when played with friends. When it launched, my VR buddies from the Ruff Talk VR Discord group hopped on, and we had a blast. The course was pure fun, even though my headset ran out of power near the end (cue me scrambling to charge it while still trying to secure that sweet victory).

Oh yeah! Five under par, baby!

Hey dating crowd, I'VE GOT YOUR SCI-FI DATE PLANNED! Strap on a headset and pair a back-to-back WMG Mars Gardens and Tethys Station golf session with a classic Mars-related movie. Right? Play a few rounds, then watch The Martian, Total Recall, Mars Attacks, or maybe Red Planet. Bonus points if you hand your date a Mars Bar halfway through the movie (can you still get those?). BAM—perfect date night!

Trust me, your date will love it!

If VR isn’t your thing or you get motion sickness (or you're just an Apple user), did you know you can now play these courses on your iPhone? It’s true! I mean, I wouldn’t, because… Apple (shudders), but if you have an iPhone, dive in! It’s a great game.

I could live here. It'd be lonely in my mini-golf paradise though.

And, of course, I’m a bit late to the party (again), but you can bet I’m looking forward to the newest course that drops TOMORROW: The 8-Bit Lair! Maybe this time, I’ll get my reactions out sooner… or, you know, stick with my tradition of being $4 short and a month late.

Happy Dueling!

Just what you wanted, Wallace and Gromit!

I bet there isn't a day that goes by when you wonder to yourself, MAN, when's the next Wallace and Gromit video game going to come out! No? Ok, me neither, but that's ok. The stop motion Claymation hits generated by Aardman are super recognizable with their very distinct style. A better bet would be that you've seen at least one of the movies, shorts, webseries, or some-sort-or-the-other Wallace and Gromit and/or Aardman production, right?

Wallace enjoying a nice "spot of tea" as the Brits might say

For my family, it used to be Chicken Run. We had a DVD (or maybe even it was a VHS) of that movie and watched it on repeat with the kids when they were little.

While thinking over this article, which is actually about a Wallace-and-Gromit-themed course in Walkabout Minigolf, I stopped by the Aardman site to peek through the news section, and wow.  I had no idea there was a Wallace and Gromit AR game for the Quest 3. Nice!

Anyway, have I mentioned how much I love my little Ruff Talk VR group I hang with on Discord? The moment a new Walkabout Minigolf course is available, there's immediately a group of super cool VR enthusiasts (and just generally great people) ready to play through the new course. So when the new Wallace and Gromit course dropped on July 24th, I was ready to go for a great game of golf.

How many people can we pile into the bathroom?!

I came in 2nd place for the group . . . gah, just one stroke!

GG Gwanatu, GG!

The easy version of the course features all the fun gadgets one might find around Gromit's household. From Beds that get you out of bed to guns that shoot jelly onto toast.  One of my favorite gags in the house was the ball washer in the bathroom.

Put into the target and the ballwasher places it on the pillow

Since I shot under par, I was able to unlock the nighttime harder version of the course, which is actually very difficult.  What isn't too difficult, however, is the hunt for golf club clues that are scattered around the course.

Man, those sheep in the hard level really caused some damage around the house!

As per usual with any hard version of a walkabout course, there is an associated pick-up quest within the course. If you find all the clues, you'll get a new themed golf club to play with in the future. The club for the Wallace and Gromit course has all the elegant construction of a retro '60s sci-fi golf club. I like it, daddy-o.

The gadget club -- if it gets me more holes in one, I'll take it!

Overall I really like the courses in the Wallace and Gromit DLC for Walkabout Minigolf! The holes are fun, the hidden balls and the club are not too difficult to find, and the characters are both cute and hilarious. I won't spoil too much here, but make sure you ride the rocket to the moon! There might just be cheese up there.

Happy Dueling!

Loving That Underwater VR Walkabout Mini-golf!

I truly would love to review every single underwater experience in VR I can get my hands on. (I'm going to make a new "Underwater VR" tag so I can start cataloging them. It's a strange genre and mostly filled with "submarine" games, but I've made a short list of games to look at. It'd also make a really cool YouTube series . . . you know, one of those weird subgenres of games that you'll probably never play, but some random dude on the Internet went on a quest to play them all. That's the kind of YouTube I can just zone out to.

Anyway, about a week ago, the Ruff Talk VR Discord channel had a meetup to play Walkabout Minigolf (WMG). Fortunately and unfortunately, it was just me and my buddy Amelia that showed up to the event. Unfortunately, because it's always fun to play with more. Fortunately, because Amelia offered up her entire WMG library of expansions and allowed me to choose our course. 

WMG is pretty great because it'll let anybody just play an expansion course on a guest pass. Meaning, that as long as someone owns the course, it'll let you play that course with them in multiplayer. The only downside to that is you can't collect any hidden balls or complete the hard course quest to earn a new putter, which totally makes sense from a business standpoint.

 

swimming up high and looking down at a few holes in the underwater golf course

Of course, I'm going to choose to guest pass the underwater Atlantis mini-golf course I don't own! Amelia obliged and we were soon putting around in an Atlantian underwater fantasy.

Rule one of underwater mini-golf, bring forth the mermaid statues and coral structures!

The course itself was good. I found it a fair bit less difficult than some of the newer courses I've played like the Meow Wolf course or the Venetian course. We didn't play the hard version of the course, but I didn't have any problems scoring under par on my first attempt around the 18 holes of underwater magic.

HERE, TURTLE TURTLE!

Even better, they made it so you could grab on to larger sharks, manta rays, and turtles and ride them around as they circled the course. I loved that little extra feature. It's things like this that make WMG one of the most well-thought-out experiences. It's not just a mini-golf course, it's an experience as well.

The sun shining through the underwater ruins of the mini-golf course was a nice touch

Of course, they didn't mess with the physics of their real mini-golf experience. It's all an illusion of being underwater. You're not going to smack a ball as hard as you can to only have it go 12 inches forward and start floating upward -- that'd just be frustrating. It is a pretty great illusion though. Little hexagonal graphic fish were darting around in small schools and the sharks were circling. I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing a mini-golf game with Amelia.

Six under par! Not bad!

Rest assured, this isn't really the only underwater experience you have in WMG. There's also, the infamous 20,000 Leagues under the Sea course, but that all takes place inside Captain Nemo's submarine. The only times you'll catch a glimpse of being underwater is through the submarine windows, on hole 18 where the Kraken has broken through, or if you fly outside of the course boundaries and take a look at the sub from an outside view.

I love my 20,000 Leagues putter. It's Krakentastic!

I own the 20,000 Leagues under the Sea course, but after last week, I'm pretty sure I'll pick up the Atlantis course on my next opportunity.

Happy Dueling!