88. Links LS
Creator: Access Software
Genre: Sports
Year: 1996
Platforms: DOS
Mobygames link
Available through: eXoDOS
I love that the previous entry was called "Links 386 CD." I hope if they revise this series they call it Links i9-9980XE M1 Stick.
They made a bunch of different versions of this, including one called "Legends," which is funny to me because 67 year old Arnold Palmer was digitized and is giving us his 67 year old swing when you play on default settings. LEGENDS! This game was being made in 1995, and very few current, active golfers were in their prime. Phil wasn't FIGJAM just yet. Tiger could keep cars on all four wheels all the time. 3D cards were just starting to be invented, not that depicting Payne Stewart was going to need one soon. The only true legendary thing happening was Corey Pavin's moustache.
Before we go further, here is the Kids in the Hall on golf:
My first job was the clerk and "guy who drives the tractor" at a driving range. I didn't hate the game or the players, but I never got good at it and there was a lot down time, I could definitely have worked on my swing if I chose. There is nothing of value I do on a golf course, although I love being on a course and swapping stories in the clubhouse and having a drink on the course and driving the cart. If you like everything about a sport but actually sucking at it - video games are for you.
I think the first good golf game was Mean 18, that one was the first one I played that looked like actual golf, and Links just started taking it to a new level. This is what Links LS looks like at Pebble Beach:
I want to do an article some day on the "best game graphics belt," I think I have seen Bill Simmons or similar do something for the best player in the NBA, where the concept is that you have the belt until you lose it. You can't really lose it and gain it back in video games like you could with the WWF or NBA, but depending on how the years shook out I have to think that Links LS has it for some length of time. That is Arnold. If you butcher a shot, he smacks the ground with his club in frustration. Haha! I have never been to Pebble Beach. I didn't choose the best screenshot, there are others that are nicer, but that looks like a beautiful course in the screenshot that you could see in real life.
The article a couple below this one is about creativepig, a golfer that has long since left the site, trying some golf games in 2003 and he seems mostly frustrated with the state of the genre. I can attest - my brother played various releases of EA Sports' Tiger Woods for a couple of years and you could move, adjust the ball mid-flight. That isn't golf. I don't know what EA thought they were making, but that is not what golf is. Links LS, to its credit, does not let you do that.
Links LS is still the best golf game I have seen and played.
