Developer: Com2Us

MSRP: Free

Also Available On

I normally hate F2P or Freemium games, but GolfStar proved that you can still enjoy a game without spending hundreds of dollars on it. Sure, a lot of the good items are locked away for people who pay ridiculous amounts of money, but GolfStar offers a great enough experience that you don’t really need it. The game is very enjoyable and is the best golf game on mobile platforms right now.

The game has the usual events and sales and ads for these that pop up. You can buy stuff in the shop such as clothes that increase your stats, level up your character, buy new clubs, and temporary boost items like any other RPG. You can invite friends to golf matches for free, but career mode costs hearts, but they regenerate over time. Once you get into a match you will notice you have a 3 step meter. Press it to get it going, set your power, then your direction. The little tee in the center of your impact area is for a perfect shot. Hit here and the ball will fly straight, go in the red area and the ball will fly 95% straight, the orange will make your ball curve a bit and this can suck if you are going into the wind. Wind direction plays a big part here as well as the level of the ground and distance just like in any golf game. GolfStar keeps it fast and simple while providing simulators like physics and conditions. Sure the wind can only knock your ball a max of three yards (think of the wind as steps 1, 2, and 3 with three being the hardest).

While driving in these short courses is no big deal, it all comes down to putting in GolfStar. The physics is spot on and nothing can compare to it on mobile devices. Judging the slope and your power just right and landing an Eagle or Birdie is just so satisfying. You can play a 9 hole round in about 10 minutes which is great for pick-up-and-go gameplay. The game takes a lot of skill to master which is very surprising for a free-to-play game. Once you win the round or even finish it you get experience and G currency which is earned the fastest and can be saved up fairly quickly. The gold stars are what you will have to grind for and most items are nearly impossible to get without spending real money. Thankfully you get some pretty sweet winnings at the end of matches. You need 10 hearts to spin a wheel which will multiply your G and your XP. Sometimes you can win items and even large amounts of G. Twice I won 6,000 G and various passes and coupons which proved helpful. Most F2P games don’t throw things like this at you and I loved it.

I still wish this game had a premium price. Charge me $10 for this can and give me everything. As it is right now the game is short on content, There’s not much to buy and the courses are limited, but hopefully more content will come about. The graphics are actually spectacular for a golf game. Even on high-res phones and tablets, the graphics hold up. The game holds up so well to console golf games and I hope this game continues to grow and become the greatest golf game to grace mobile devices. The only thing holding it back is the lack of content and those damn microtransactions.