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Dumbolf


(6 votes) *Average rating will show after 20 votes
Comments (19) | Views (4,597)

DumbolfThe talented crew at Gamesheep has just released their latest Flash game, and this one is a new take on the classic gameplay of miniature golf. Dumbolf stars a club-toting elephant that needs your help to make par on each of the game's 18 unusual and tricky holes.

In place of trees and sand traps are kickers, conveyor belts and warp holes that provide fodder for the challenge of a beautiful and stylish round of golf.

Control is entirely with the mouse and is relatively easy to get the hang of. Simply move the mouse until the elephant is facing the direction you wish to swing. Move the mouse forward or back to select the power with which to hit the ball by using the arrow as a guide. Full power is when the arrow is completely filled. Click to swing.

Analysis: I have always enjoyed a good game of miniature golf, and this game does not disappoint due to excellent physics and collision detection implementations. There are lots of tricky situations and gadgets to affect play, and the outer edges of the game window is considered out-of-bounds so swinging the club will require a bit of precision and patience. The wispy Wind Waker clouds and trees look great and fit the game's airy style. The sound loop, although short and repetitive, as is the usual case with most of Gamesheep's games, is rather pleasing and also fits the theme and mood of the game. If you do tire of the music loop, press [M] to mute it.

The game is not without a couple of problems, however. One is common with Flash games that rely on mouse input for control such as this game does. When the mouse is moved outside the game window mouse events are no longer passed on to the game. In other words, the game loses track of the mouse. This becomes a problem should the ball ever come to rest on the very edge of the game window. The other problem I experienced was due to a bug where the ball actually came to rest outside the window on Hole 11 and I had to restart the game. Hopefully the game authors will fix this so that neither of these issues will affect your game play experience negatively. Update: Florin from Gamesheep just informed me they have addressed these issues in the latest version of the game.

Overall I enjoyed playing Dumbolf very much. The precision control that each hole required of me was reminiscent of another of my all-time favorite Flash games, Saltacol, so it has already won a place in my heart. And who doesn't enjoy a good game of mini-golf anyway, hmm?

Play Dumbolf

19 Comments

First of all, I can't beleive you compared it to Saltacol... I suppose the control structures are similar, but Saltacol was a work of art. This one, in my opinion, is rather unoriginal, from premise to artwork.

Also, there is seemingly a control problem. You must move the mouse after you click or you won't swing. This took me a while to figure out and led to some frustrations. The level design also seems haphazard, lending to dumb luck rather than skill.

Were it not for the annoying control problem and level design, I would've rated this much higher, but as I see it now it's a mediocre time-waster at best.

You've reminded me of Saltacol, though, so I'm going to go play that agian.

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atomicwedgie May 22, 2006 4:44 AM

I didn't like this game, because it was so SLOW! I got bored just watching the ball settle down. The challenge of the game turned into frustration because every time I made a shot I'd have to wait 30 seconds just to make the next. I feel like a lot of the attention went into the appearance and physics of the game, but not into the actual gameplay dynamic.

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Yeah pretty good...I didn't like the fact that the teleporters were so silly...if the ball doesn't jump out of the exit hole properly, it teleports back and there's a chance of it exiting the original teleporter. Pretty ridiculous stuff. But a nice diversion.

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Andrew - hmm. I did not experience the same issue as you, in fact, I remember leaving my mouse in exactly the same position in case the first shot failed so I could adjust the power just slightly relative to the previous shot.

Atomicwedgie - I will admit that the time it takes for the ball to settle bothered me at first, but I soon settled into the slower pace of the game and enjoyed the experience much more. It's a different sort of game, like Saltacol as I mentioned. Playing it as an arcade game will likely result in frustration and impatience.

WobL - agreed with the ridiculousness of the teleporters. That's something I was going to mention in the review but did not. I would have preferred it if the teleporters worked one way only, but eh, whatever. I still had fun with it despite them. =)

By the way, Florin from Gamesheep just wrote to tell me they fixed both of the problems I mentioned in the review. Very nice!

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Hi Jay! First time I write, but I visit your site for a couple of months now and it's the best for discovering new fun games (and walkthroughs for cheating...;).
Good job!

Dumbolf: cute little game, but some of the levels are horribly frustrating! Some of them took me forever... And sometimes your ball will get stuck between a [tapis roulant?] (what's the word in english for that?) and a log, and it will rebound for a few minutes... But despite alll that, I had fun! :)
(sorry for the bad english, I'm french...)

Worth the try!

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Cheers, Rose! =)

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yes, a couple of holes did try my patience as well. I believe a little frustration in a game makes winning that much sweeter. ;)

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Jimbo_G May 22, 2006 1:27 PM

Well, to start with I didn't really like this game, I thought it was too much down to chance. However, after some practice it's definitely grown on me (and I'm currently 6th in the top scores ;)

The teleporters aren't great, and I don't like the noise the moving blocks make, but other than that a very nice game.

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I made it all the way to hole 9, then my ball got stuck in an infinite loop, my ball got stuck just right of the bumper so now whenever the ball sets from going OB, the bumper knocks it OB....so it will never settle, even as I write this the ball is doing it's loop. Kind of annoying there is like no "Reset" because on a few levels the ball would take forever to settle because of a conveyor or a teleporter.

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On Hole 17, the ball got stuck in the tile when I hit it off the wall. Screenshot Here

The slope physics seemed a bit funny, but it's nothing I couldn't get used to. However, I do feel the game loses a bit of professionalism when it uses smilies and laughs at the player. Without a game character associated with the messages, the player has to assume the messages come from the game or the game makers themselves. This will pit the player against not the level, but the game interface and ultimately the game maker. A simple fix though, just add a game character (like an annoying caddy), and it'll become a lightning rod for player frustration.

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Well that's nice to go through the entire game and find out that you're mainly graded on TIME....
It took me 1459 secs (including time that I wasn't playing) and with no bonuses, I got the whopping score of 1 point.
Those teleporters bugged me and the logs didn't seem to have consistant physics (sometimes it acted like a pinball bumper, othertimes, just like dirt)
Found it overall irritating...but then....I don't really like golf games XD

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Nope, sorry. I love minigolf games, and this one was one of the worst, from lame music to poor level design. The whole point of minigolf games is that you should be able to predict pretty well what will happen without even taking as stroke, but this game had too many flukes and too many slow loops. Oh, and the edgeless field? Lame. There's simply not enough control to consistently place the ball where it needs to be without worrying about going outside the boundaries when faced with pernicious obstacles. Thumbs down.

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Thanks for your feedback, js. If there is anything I've learned from this blog it's that you can't please everyone. =P

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I learned that the world is a cruel place. Ive never done so badly at a golf game and that the creators are cruel, who cracks an evil laugh (muhahaha) after youve posted 11 strokes on a 3 par hole :(

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I stuck in a loop on hole 11 :(

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i got stuck too on hole 11.

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My beef is with the scoring system. Apparently pars are graded better than birdies and eagles.

I have a screen cap of a 50. That's 25 under par, and by far my best round. Yet my score was only 60K. (It was a single sitting, and I played straight through to minimize the time.)

How can the leaderboard be populated with people in the 210K range?

I don't get it.

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bob sylvia August 9, 2006 10:10 PM

i had one problem where the ball gets stuck in the ceiling on hole 17 just above the conveyer belt...and sometimes it shoots back like there is an invisible converyor belt on the ceiling just above the one on the floor if you hit it in the right spot.

also how does one solve the enigma on a regular basis that is the 17th hole.

furthermore i would like to know how someone can get a score in the 2ook's i have mastered the game and my top score is around 150k.

to further indulge how do they score the game. my best games give me terrible scores a lot of times. i would like to know how the game is scored and how i can achieve a score in the 200k's.

thanks,
the josher

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I loved this game. It's fun and unique.

BTW, what's the name of the song that you got the music loop from? I really love the music and I want to buy it someday! Thx.

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Yeah, it's too dang slow. I have to wait 30 seconds between shots, much longer if one of those stupid teleporters are involved, and it's all about luck.

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