Urban games are nowhere near new occurrences in the gaming world. There is bicycling, motorcycle racing, basketball, skateboarding, and the old favorite of driving a finely tuned car at high speed down brightly light city streets. However I-play, a company that develops games to be played on the go, has made a new addition to this pantheon of the mobile gamer. It is titled NYC Urban Golf which takes you away from the well manicured green expanses of the golf course and drops you into New York City. The city and everything in it is your playing field, gamers.

Or, more precisely, three different parts of it. I-play will allow the player to drive off in three areas of the city: the downtown area, the docks, and an industrial area. You tee off down city blocks, try to dig your ball out of the gutter, and send it pinging off the hoods of cars and metal roadsigns. You can also knock over rubbish bins, send boxes flying out of dumpsters with a well aimed shot, and also explode gas canisters. While all this is going on, however, you will also have the chance to collect what I-play has dubbed “Mayhem points” by taking out various gang leaders in an as yet unspecified way while busily flirting with women and going on to win the big prize.

I am left speechless by this creation. I really am.

I-play has stated that there are no predetermined paths in this game so that the player can choose whatever path he or she prefers while playing the game. This mixture of free form gameplay, humor, and drama are all ingredients that I-play finds to be at the heart of their gaming philosophy and they promise that you will find this all in NYC Urban Golf. For me, I'd say the most impressive achievement is making golf gritty. Pool is gritty. Cards can be very gritty. But none of us ever imagined golf having anything resembling a hard edge to it. That in and of itself makes NYC Urban Golf an innovative development.

But I'm not the only one excited by this new gaming development. David Gosen, the CEO of I-play, offered these words about NYC Urban Golf:"The first time I played NYC Urban Golf I was setting off car alarms with my drives, knocking over garbage bins with my putting and having arguments with hobos." I-play has, singlehandly, revamped the image of golf as a sport, but we can only see how it will play through. For more information on NYC Urban Golf or on I-play in general please visit http://www.iplay.com/

Fair play to you, gamers. 

Nick McCavitt@nmccavitt@forumwizard.net