Golden Tee Arcade Classics Review (PS5)

It’s perhaps a symbol of the current retro game boom that Golden Tee Arcade Classics exists at all. That’s not a slight, by the way – it’s just remarkable that these trackball titles, often nestled between claw machines in American sports bars and restaurants, now exist in fully playable form on a home console like the PS5.

For those of you outside of the US who may not be familiar with these arcade golf games, they’re a bit like the real-life realisation of Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge from The Simpsons.

While the presentation is rudimentary, they were remarkable upon release in 1995, using large colourful player sprites and vibrant course designs.

You actually get six Golden Tee games here, all of which are largely the same aside from different courses, voice samples, and minor details.

This package also bundles in two other trackball titles: World Class Bowling and Shuffle Shot. The former is exactly what it sounds like, while the latter is a bit like curling or boules, albeit with a kind of puck.

The big problem here of course is that PS5 doesn’t have a trackball controller, so gameplay concessions need to be made.

The main control scheme sees you operating a cursor with the analogue stick and “dragging” a digital hand across a virtual trackball to replicate the experience. It’s about as inadequate as it sounds.

Another option utilises the DualSense’s touchpad, but it’s not big or precise enough to reflect the tactile nature of the input it’s trying to replicate.

This leaves you with the aim assist option, which comes closes to replicating the click-click-click gameplay format of a series like Everybody’s Golf, but largely strips the release of its unique selling point.

The controls are the big downside here, then, because it’s practically impossible to recreate the “feel” of the arcade original on a pad.

But we still like having these games readily available on contemporary hardware. The CRT filters included are outstanding, and this being a Digital Extremes joint, you get tons of bonus materials, like the original arcade flyers to flick through in their entirety.