Since the launch of the Switch 2, one of the most consistent questions I’ve tended to be asked about games released for it is whether they support mouse controls. I understand that conceptually it’s a great idea, and that in theory it would open the door to easier enjoyment of games that would traditionally be played with a mouse. But honestly to this point when it comes to execution I’ve seen far more misses than hits. Granted, sometimes the controls simply don’t feel like a great fit, but even when they do there’s just an awkwardness to using them full-time I don’t think most people are accounting for.

Given the fact that right out of the gate it was clear my Pro controller wouldn’t be of any use, I first tried simply using the JoyCon normally, but that obviously wasn’t going to work either. Understanding what had to be done, I then went with the left JoyCon held normally, working with the right as a mouse… and that appears to be your lone option, at least for now. The thing is, for any extended period of time I don’t find using the mouse controls terribly comfortable, in part because the JoyCon is quite thin, not allowing you to comfortably rest your hand on it, and then the fact that the trigger is awkward to use and many times you’ll find you still need to use face buttons at times. Worse, while pairing a mouse and keyboard works in part because it’s now very familiar to most people, having your left hand held up to use a joystick while trying to work the mouse with the right is simply awkward at best and not great for extended play sessions, and that’s before even getting to how the controls happen to be implemented with regards to this game specifically.

Sadly, given my fondness for the old-school SimGolf, which I’d hoped this would feel similar to in the vein of the Two Point series emulating Theme Hospital, I’d say that it’s hit and miss at best. Granted, I’d consider everything to be a bit tainted by how poorly I found the controls and interfaces worked for me, but even when it came to some fundamentals it felt like the core game was letting me down. Yes, there is a tutorial that does an admirable job of at least trying to get you up to speed on some of the game’s concepts, but it also often leaves out small details that can be aggravating. A great example would be when I started hiring staff and wasn’t given direction on how to actually assign them or put them in place. It was frustrating that there wasn’t really proper instruction for that, but what made it worse was that how it ultimately worked wasn’t all that intuitive. 

On a consistent basis I actually found accuracy when trying to pinpoint people walking around to be disappointing as well, making simple monitoring tasks a little more difficult than they should be. While it is certainly fun to see your creations realized at ground level, your ability to play the holes you created seems half-hearted at best, included for novelty but not really raising the bar of the overall experience. This is one of those titles that seems to suffer a death from a thousand cuts in many ways. There’s something to enjoy here, but it gets overwhelmed by small hitches and disappointments that accumulate. The good news is that along with more varied control options many of the game’s problems feel like they could be addressed with some patching, but out of the gate I’d consider it tough to heartily recommend, at least on the Switch 2.