As the sellotape used to attach this demo disc to the THC front cover is specially designed to deface glossy cover art when removed, we recommend you enjoy what you can see of the diving goalkeeper, bicycle-kicking striker, and bulging onion bag, before attempting separation.
Unlike most treatments of the sport of Queen’s, the aptly titled and refreshingly cerebral Line Clipper: Tennis Tactics doesn’t punish hamfisted or ponderous players. Because Golden Set Games chop rallies into turns, you always get plenty of time to consider shot choices and avatar movement.
And because the game communicates the implications of most shot choices very clearly, even if you don’t understand every bit of tennis lingo in the menus, you should find yourself producing satisfying winners within a minute or two of commencing your first first-to-five-points demo match.
Fans of the real thing won’t need the following two bits of play advice.
It’s worth perusing scouting reports prior to a game. Randomly generated (?) opponents have tendencies and weaknesses.
While it’s often unavoidable, allowing your avatar to get dragged to the edges or the back of the court is rarely a good idea.
Viewed from across a misty valley, True Disc Golf looks suspiciously phone-y. I went into the nine-hole taster with pretty low expectations, but came away impressed by Sportsmanlike’s aerodynamics, disc selection, course design, and approach to aiming and throwing.
There’s no trajectory prediction line, but a darkened landing circle projected onto map and 3D view takes much of the guesswork out of judging power and choosing aimpoints.
If you’ve never disc golfed before, the following is worth knowing. Forehand throws naturally ‘fade’ to the right at the end of flight, backhand ones fade to the left. One of the factors that determines how pronounced that final flight path bend is, is the fade rating of the particular disc you’re using. The higher the fade rating, the more dramatic that concluding curve.
Before fade kicks in, physics attempts to compel flying discs to curve in the direction they are spinning (so right for a backhand throw, left for a forehand throw). Confusingly, because a disc’s inherent ability to resist that compulsion is often referred to as ‘turn’ in the sport, a disc design with a negative ‘turn’ rating will actually curve more in flight than a design with a zero or +1 ‘turn’ rating.
I think I’ll let an expert explain ‘hyzer’ and ‘anhyzer’:
Line Clipper and True Disc Golf look awfully staid when compared to Despelote, a quirky, nostalgia-tinged delight more interested in exploring the social consequences of sporting success than letting players experience sporting success for themselves.
Developers Julián Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena transport us to Quito in 2001. We become schoolkids caught up in the football fever produced by Ecuador’s success in the World Cup qualifiers.
If the demo’s first-person playground kickabouts and front room PlayStation sessions don’t put a smile on your face, then the snatches of overheard adult conversations should. Despelote promises to be a football game like no other.
Eek, another disc golf game. I still haven’t tried Flex Disc Golf, a game I happen to own because it was referenced in a previous article.
But the combination of that, the discovery that there are comedy terms for ‘throwing a frisbee’ and the turn based tennis has led me to a game idea. We need a turn based Ultimate where you set the runs, blocks and (if you have the disc) throws of your team and over the next 5-20 seconds the game is rendered in beautiful 3D wego action.
I’d play that. I’d play the real thing but I’m too old, too slow, and it kept dislocating my knees when I was a teenager so just watching the hyzer/anny video made me cringe in anticipated pain.
Next step: Find someone to write me a game 🙂