This review may be a bit biased because I actually like this game, a LOT! I like the simplicity of the game and how it achieves what it sets out to accomplish... Which is golf on the Atari. Many golf games from this generation take after golf on the NES, top down perspective, selectable clubs, wind, and giving the green invisible hills and bumps to bring the game more complexity almost verging on simulation(I'm Looking at you Intellivision Golf). I like Atari Golf because it has none of those things, It is the most basic bare-bones golf game apart from Computer Golf on the Odyssey 2, which I also like. In Atari Golf It's just you, the ball, the obstacles , and par. And I love it.

I know I just said I love this game but the graphics have NOT aged well at all... The courses have no curves... only corners It's blocky to the MAX! The obstacles are fairly well defined, the trees look like trees, the bunkers look like bunkers, and the green looks like the green. But the game looks too simple, there is little to no detail to anything, solid colors all the way (with the exception of trees which have an astounding two colors). Your golfer is solid yellow and barely looks like a human, I have to agree with AVGN here, your golfer does look like MIMAL the elf and it's hilarious. The graphics are bad, onto the sound.

Sounds are basic to the max, I think there's like four sounds. There is the sound of your windup, the sound of you hitting the ball, the sound of your ball hitting an obstacle, and the sound of you sinking a shot that's it, sounds are terrible. But can this game be redeemed in game-play?

Yes somewhat. The game-play just like the rest of the game is extremely simple. you position your golfer by the ball, the angle of your hit depends on where you stand around the ball. I really like this mechanic, it's simple, there's no gauging the wind no checking the angle of your swing, it will go in the direction you hit it. The windup is a really handy way of measuring your hit strength, when you windup for a shot your club will circle the golfer until it completes a full circle, then it will stop, that is max power, and anywhere in between that will shorten the distance you hit the ball. One irksome thing about hitting the ball is that it does not slow down, It starts at maximum speed and abruptly stops making it rather difficult to actually measure the strength of your hit. My recommendation is going full blast until your on the green then start to measure your hits. Simple but rather effective and rather fun.

While Atari Golf is by far one of the worst golf games ever made, I still love it because it was one of the first and it deserves some recognition for it, It had some good ideas which were overshadowed by it's many flaws. Play it and you may just get a few good belly laughs out of this crappy old game.