Noodlecake Studios' original "Super Stickman Golf" was a surprisingly entertaining physics puzzler under the guise of a golf game, and it deservingly grew in popularity. The base gameplay, culminating in swatting a golf ball through a collection of intricate and playfully designed golf courses, all on a two-dimensional plain, let mobile gamers have short spurts of fun and an upbeat attitude. "Super Stickman Golf 2" is, expectedly, all of these things, out now on Android and iOS. The oringal gameplay is retained and built upon in mostly positive ways, the meta-game is greatly improved to the benefit of both players and Noodlecake Studios itself and it's all still wrapped up in that adorable, cartoonish, simplistic stickman aesthetic.
Gameplay
At its core this is exactly the same game as the original, but with a brand new collection of courses that embrace a zanier take on the original's design. You still gauge the power and angle of your shot with simple touch controls, and power-ups also make a return - sticky ball, super ball, nitro ball, freeze ball, etc. - which each augment your next shot in some unique way. Two new ones are introduced this time around. The laser ball allows you to fire off your shot in a straight line until it hits something and the magnet ball attracts your ball to the hole in controlled bursts. Happily, the system is streamlined by no longer forcing you to choose your set of power ups before you begin a round. Instead you can use any of them at any given time, though you're still limited to seven per game (unless you're wearing a special hat, which I'll get to later). Though these power-ups are an integral part of your strategy, and the new ones are a blast, we all know "Super Stickman Golf" lives or dies on the design of its courses. Noodlecake did well.
And you can bet your biggest dime Noodlecake is going to keep adding hats, avatars and courses to promote their Golf Bux system. This is just the way it is.
It's all in good fun, and Noodlecake's attempt to turn their popular franchise into a microtransaction gem seems to be mostly in good faith. Some players might take issue with a couple optional purchases - players can only play up to five games of the asynchronous multiplayer at a time, but they can purchase the ability to play up to 25. Additionally, players can purchase the ability to see the power of their previous shot, which doesn't really sit well with me because it seems like a feature everyone should just have, but it doesn't break the experience. You can also buy an XP boost, but what fun is that?
Still, it's free on Android, so spending maybe an extra couple of bucks to jumpstart your hat collection doesn't feel like a total rip-off, and right now I'm good with five multiplayer games at a time. The $1 asking price on iOS isn't so bad either. Remember, you still have access to every course and even the multiplayer mode without spending a penny, and this is still an extremely entertaining time, so don't simply roll your eyes at Noodelcake's attempt to stay profitable. They've made a quality game, they deserve it.
