Par for the Dungeon (2023) [PC] review

A good golfer has the determination to win and the patience to wait for the breaks.

–Gary Player

I have always loved minigolf. Every summer, on vacation in a small town with at least three mini golf courses, my family would spend an evening putting away at one of them. They’re still there too, twenty years later, so I suppose we’re not the only ones who love the game. I may not hit the small greens as much as I used to. In fact, I don’t think I’ve done minigolf since college. I still keep an eye out for games that scratch that old itch, though. I found it back in 2020 with What the Golf. Now I’ve found it again in Par for the Dungeon, a bite-sized minigolf adventure.

A ball and his dog

You are Cal, a sentient golf ball. You live a happy, peaceful life with your equally round dog… until the Bogeys dognap your precious pup! Now it’s up to you to hunt down every last Bogey and rescue your best friend, even if it takes over 100 courses. And it will. With Cal, you will bounce through four different biomes, village, forest, icy tundra, and a dark dungeon. Each biome has nine stages, and each stage has three bite-sized courses. How well you do on each course will reward you with stars. If you do well enough, beating par and optimizing your route, there’s a shiny crown for you. Collect enough stars and crowns, and you unlock fun new costumes for Cal. Be a pirate, a princess, a chicken, and more. If you’re good enough, you have a variety of twenty-eight costumes to unlock.

A good old fashioned golf ball ricochet isn’t the only tool in Cal’s arsenal. As you progress through the stages, you’ll unlock a variety of tools to help you beat the Bogeys. Early in, you unlock the bow and arrow, which lets you shoot the baddies from a distance. Eventually, you’ll also add bombs, grappling hooks, and more to your toolkit, as long as you can afford them. Be sure to pick up as many coins as you can each stage to buy the time-saving gimmicks and hit par.

The bow and arrow and grappling hook both help you when water hazards are in the way

Pick up and play gameplay

All told, there’s not too much that needs to be said about Par for the Dungeon. It’s a simple to play game with a simple yet fun premise and gameplay that you can take in small bites or one sitting as you like. You’re not limited by which stages you can play. After you unlock them, you can replay them as many times as you like. However, as you progress through a stage, you can only reset each course once if it goes awry. Need to reset more than that, and your only option is to quit and restart that three-course set from the top. Fine if you mess up on course one, but frustrating if it’s the final course giving you trouble.

When it comes to money in the game, the gold is part of the puzzle. You only hold onto what you get on each set of three courses. This isn’t about ending the game with a horde of gold; it’s about saving your dog at any cost. Buy whatever tools you can afford at each stage. If your aim and timing is good, you should be able to buy everything you need to optimally achieve or beat par. If you need two arrows and a bomb in course 3, and you collect every coin you can, you will be able to afford two arrows and a bomb by course 3. However, if you can only afford one arrow and a bomb with the money on hand, take a look at how you progress through the stages. There may be a better path you haven’t figured out.

Final Thoughts

Due to life getting in the way, I haven’t been able to sit down and tackle all of Par for the Dungeon. In fact, I’ve only made it through the first biome. Being able to play one stage at a time in five minute bursts though has given me the opportunity to keep going despite everything in the way. It’s refreshing, a breath of minigolf air in trying times. I look forward to seeing what the later stages have to bring when I have the time to get there.

Thank you to Sleeping Giant Games for providing us with a copy of Par for the Dungeon for this review.

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