Mini Golf Games

Mini golf games squeeze golf onto short courses packed with obstacles: ramps, walls, windmills and bounces. There are around 20, all free and with nothing to download, and nearly all work the same way: you aim, hit, and try to sink the ball in as few strokes as possible.

What changes from one to the next is the scenery and how tricky the holes are. Rounds are short, so you can play nine holes in a few minutes and quit whenever you like.

What you'll find

The ones with the plainest names, Mini Golf, Mini Golf 2D, Mini Golf 3, Minigolf World, Minigolf Master and Mini Golf Tours, are the best picture of the basic idea. Others add a theme: Mini Golf Adventure, Cartoon Cove Minigolf, Flower Minigolf and Archipelago Miniature Golf change the settings and the courses. And a few are more arcade, like Arcade Golf, Micro Golf Ball 2 and Where's My Golf?, which move away from the traditional course with other ideas.

How you hit the ball

The most common move is to drag backward, as if pulling a rubber band: the ball goes in the opposite direction of the drag, and the length sets the power. In others you set the angle first and then click on a power bar. If the game draws the path, use it, but don't trust it once bounces come into play. Also remember that a very fast ball can fly over the hole or bounce out, so a soft shot sometimes goes in better than a hard one. In the ones seen from above, like Mini Golf 2D, angles are usually easier to figure out than in games with a perspective camera.

Tricks from a casual player

• Use the bounces. On many holes, a bank shot off the wall gets where a straight one can't.
• Don't hit at full power out of habit. Too much power sends the ball off the course or makes it bounce around.
• Look at the whole hole first. Obstacles like windmills, ramps and pipes usually make you wait for the right moment.
• If you keep missing the same hole, change the angle instead of repeating the same shot.

To start, Mini Golf or Minigolf Master are good picks because they're simple. When you want more of a challenge, try Mini Golf Adventure or Archipelago Miniature Golf.