Mini Mini Golf Golf is not a particularly good golf game. The controls feel a bit off, the physics are unpredictable at times, and there aren't many holes to jump through. This might put some people off, which is a shame, because it's just the tip of a completely weird iceberg. In reality, it's an experimental narrative adventure about climate collapse, human memory, time travel, and goofy FMV video game theory podcasts. Just… Above all told through miniature golf.
Released a few days ago and the first title from Berlin-based arthouse gaming collective Three More Years, it's a high-concept sci-fi story set in 2063. From a retro-futuristic space station orbiting above the (recently-formed) Great Baltic Ocean, you try to piece together the story of what happened to our poor and abused planet while communicating with some kind of extra-dimensional entity that talks to you through problems in a mini golf game.
From what little I've played (and I wouldn't want to spoil you beyond that point anyway), it's an audiovisual treat. A multimedia collage of FMV to VHS, distorted and glitchy game geometry, text delivered through all sorts of kinetic typography (including a key narrative written on the ground as a result of your ball's travel), and constant perspective evolution as you jump between screens, adjust dials, press buttons, or wait for text to print on your weird science clipboard.
There's a lot to unpack here. Even in its first minutes, the game delves into the social and political repercussions of the fight against climate change, and how capitalism is unwilling or unable to deal with it. But it's also a human story, about overwork, memory, love, heritage and much more. It's also sometimes about deep thoughts on games, with the developer's own podcast—Mini Mini Talk Talk, viewable independently here on YouTube– being used to convey ideas and cut up to provide clues as to where the next branch of its non-linear plot lies. You know, when you're not spinning tectonic plate inserts using mini golf controls.
While Mini Mini Golf is undeniably different, it's not the first game to do weird, high-level things with mini golf. The psychedelic Wonderputt forever delivers superficial social commentary through its unfolding and recontextualizing lessons, but Wonderputt feels less interested in telling a story than in conveying atmosphere. Above all, Mini Mini Golf Golf is here to tell you a story, no matter how strange it may be. The game is available now on Steam for £9.89/$11.59, with a small introductory discount available until December 19.
