Up to this point, the Kidz Sports line from Bold/Destineer has failed to impress, but Kidz Sports Crazy Golf in many ways departs from the mold of its progenitors and offers a major improvement, but how does it hold up as a golf game?

Crazy Golf offers 72 holes of miniature golf, but by miniature golf, we're talking unique obstacles and courses, yet the kinds of courses you could only have in a video game, often taking standard miniature golf courses and obstacles to the next level with larger ramps and traps, similar to the golf minigame in Super Monkey Ball. Beginning with 18 holes, making par unlocks more courses with new tropical settings, like a night Luau and a volcano.

The first difference you'll notice is the best new feature of the game, the NuYu editor. Previous Kidz Sports games have been limited to a small number of characters to choose from, but Crazy Golf offers an editor to create your own character, similar to--but more limited than--the Mii editor. My kids love this aspect. If you don't want to take the time to tweak your digital persona, the editor includes a randomizer to get you going quickly. Of course, the randomizer creates some amusing and fascinating combinations, so you may end up spending quite a bit of time just hitting the random button for the entertainment value.

Once you've created and selected a character (or multiple characters--play up to 4 players), you choose a course from those available, then opt for either the front 9, back 9, full 18, or just 1 hole at a time for practice. Queue the steel drum music, take a deep breath of Caribbean air, and play some golf in a simple but pleasant tropical setting. My kids love the scenery and animations.

If you're going to play this game, you'll have to ignore the graphical glitches. When the ball is close to a wall or other obstacle, your character will stand in the obstacle, so feet or other body parts disappear. This doesn't affect gameplay, and kids will find it amusing, but it's a shortcut taken for a budget game. The camera can be adjusted to get a better angle on the ball and hole, but the camera is tied into aiming, so you'll occasionally need to take blind swings and just estimate locations, and a free-floating camera to see the entire course close-up would help immensely.

The game offers 2 methods of control, both of which involve tilting the Wiimote to adjust power. The easier "Arcade" mode tilts for max power, then uses a button press to swing, whereas the "Sim" mode requires you to actually swing the Wiimote like a golf club. Unfortunately, the Sim mode is difficult to pick up and use and takes quite a bit of getting used to, but eventually, you can get the hang of it. Also unfortunately, while players can choose their control methods individually, if you get frustrated with one method, you can't switch methods in-game via the pause menu. And like most Wii golf games, putting is a major source of frustration, but much easier with the arcade mode. The controls will be the greatest obstacle to younger kids enjoying this game, but older (~age 9+) kids with some patience will get the hang of it eventually, but it takes some patience on their part.

The game also suffers from 15-20 second load times between each hole. That's a total of about 5 minutes per 18 holes of just staring at a load screen.

Overall, Kidz Sports Crazy Golf offers a drastic improvement over previous titles in the series, but compared to other golf games on the Wii, it lacks the polish and control of other Wii golf titles. If you really love mini-golf, it's only $20, and my older kids enjoy playing it. It also makes a mediocre family night game. Rent this one before you buy, or try it out in the store if your local establishment allows it.