Published by EA Sports
Developed by EA Sports
Released - Out Now
Price : £34.99

As the N-Gage game catalogue begins to fill out it's inevitable that more sports games become available and it's great to see that the behemoth that is EA Sports is bringing it's key titles to the platform. FIFA 2004 has already arrived on N-Gage but here we have the very successful Tiger Woods PGA Tour series on N-Gage. Last year we reviewed the game on Xbox and we were very impressed with how the game felt so at home on the console. In fact if you read the reviews of the game on other platforms you'll find that it was just a top effort all around from EA Sports. It's time to take a look to see how well this very popular series has made the transition to the N-Gage.

Before we go any further let's have a look at the game's features. The game modes on offer are Practice mode, Career mode, Versus Mode and Arena mode. Practice mode allows you to do just that and it's a mode where you can get to grips with the controls at your own leisure. Career mode is where you'll spend most of your time in single player mode though. You'll get to play in tournaments, take part in scenario challenges and you can even have a go at winning the EA Sports crown if you're successful on the tournament circuit. The disappointment with the Career mode is that you cannot create your own golfer. You simply choose one of the existing golfers and give them a name of your choice. The golfer attributes have been trimmed to just 3. There's power, control and putting and throughout the career mode you'll be attempting to improve these three statistics as much as possible. You'll begin as an amateur but you'll progress through the pro, tour and champion until you eventually reach the master level. A four-player versus mode (stroke, skins and battle golf are the game variations) is available as is a 2-player Bluetooth mode. You can also have 4-player games on the N-Gage Arena if you're feeling good enough to take on the world.

If you've played Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 on another platform you'll notice that the N-Gage version has been streamlined and a bulk of the content has been removed. There are just 3 PGA courses (Bay Hill, St Andrews and TPC of Scottsdale) in the game with the overall number of courses being boosted to 5 as 2 fantasy courses (The Highlands and The Predator which needs to be unlocked by playing on the N-Gage Arena) have been included. Similarly there are only 6 included golfers. Out of these 6 you'll only find 3 professional golfers, Tiger Woods (of course), Cedric Andrews and John Daly, which will come as a major disappointment to golf fans. Whilst these figures for the number of courses and golfers seem rather lean when compared to the other versions of the game they aren't that bad at all for a handheld version of the game but it's a shame that all the golfers and courses weren't official ones.

For a long time now golf games have attempted to adopt a more natural virtual golf swing as the method of control. PC golf games now use the mouse swing and console games now use the analogue stick swing. In fact the days of the triple click or the triple button press that was used together with a swing gauge seems to have disappeared completely. The N-Gage version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, like it's console counterparts, attempts to use an analogue swing using the directional pad but it's not as satisfying with a digital directional pad as it is with an analogue stick. That said though it suffices but they should have included the triple button press and the swing gauge as an option as I feel it would have been a better method of control than the swing system that has been used.

Graphically the game doesn't look too bad at all. For the tee shot and every other shot before you get to the green you'll see a third person view of your golfer but for putting you will switch to an overhead view. The game looks more pleasant from the overhead view. The third person view looks good as far as the golfers, and their animations, are concerned but the textures of the grass and bunkers look poor and you get a patchwork quilt effect, which is a bit disappointing. Before you get to the green you'll want to switch to an overhead view to line up your shot and pressing the 5 button will allow you to do just this. Overall the look of the game is good and it has a slight edge on the Game Boy Advance version of the game.

As you would expect from a handheld game there are no problems for deaf gamers with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004. All information, such as scenario instructions, messages informing you of a good shot and comments on your overall score for a hole such as whether you scored par, birdy or bogey etc., is in text. The N-Gage version also has Caddy tips that the other versions of the game have and these are in text too, which is most useful in helping you read the green. The game manual contains 13 pages of English text and tells you all you need to know about the game in a concise manner which is always good to see.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is essentially a good golf game and a solid addition to the ever increasing amount of N-Gage titles. The are a few ways that it could have been better though. A more traditional three-button press control scheme should have been included. More official golfers and courses would have been very nice. I would also liked to have been able to create my own custom golfer as in the other versions of the game. These issues aside though there is a lot to like in the game and it's definitely worth it if you like your golf games and own an N-Gage.

Overall Game Rating: 7.7/10
EA Sports have done a good job of bringing the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series to the N-Gage. A more traditional golf swing would have been a better option though rather than trying to imitate an analogue swing.

Deaf Gamers comment:
Fine for deaf gamers.