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Ever since it was known as Touch Golf, Nintendo’s True Swing Golf has promised on the delivery of an incredibly realistic golf simulator. While that goal hasn’t quite been met, there are a few things about True Swing that may be of interest. Unfortunately, the golf game itself isn’t one of them.

This is not a licensed game. There are no PGA affiliations, so you will not be playing as any known pro golfer. Instead, you create your own avatar in a very limited character creation utility. You simply pick one of four male or female characters, and that’s it. Interestingly enough, the game creates your profile through accessing the DS’s firmware. In my case, as soon as the process was over, my character’s name was Stan and my personal greeting was “Love Me!” This is a bit of a teaser for one particularly cool little aspect of the game, but more on that later. First, a discussion on the gameplay.

There really aren't many modes. The game is designed to provide a choice between quick short-burst play or longer games. The quick games are provided by allowing you to choose different types of matches (i.e. stroke, match, or free rounds), but the main gameplay mode is Championship. In Championship mode, you play to rise among the ranks to become the top golfer in the land. No points for originality there; but hey, it’s a sports game, not Final Fantasy.

The primary innovation of the game is simply using the touch-screen to swing the club. This feature is enhanced effectively by placing all control options on-screen. Using the touch screen, you choose a club, aim, fine-tune, and swing. Though novices to the game may find themselves missing the ball frequently on their first round, aiming soon becomes significantly easier. The learning curve is rather slight.

I’ll be upfront here. The gameplay is boring. The novelty of using the touch screen for more accurate swings wears off as soon as you adapt to it—which won’t be long. The game is just too easy. Unless you’re simply passionate for a portable golf simulator, True Swing doesn't offer a whole lot.

The only extraordinary feature is within the multiplayer mode, which is fun despite the drudgery of the game. When playing the multiplayer mode, the game utilizes the DS’s PictoChat function. This allows for intensely joyful, yet limited, moments of smack-talk and crudely drawn obscene images. And while there’s no WiFi Connection support, you may play wirelessly from a single game card, without being limited only to multi-card play.

Wow. If Nintendo can get this feature working on WFC, online gaming on the DS will vastly improve. The ability of the game to integrate the information on the system memory is impressive, as I’ve never seen it done as transparently. PictoChatting within a game really does add an extra dimension that does enhance the gameplay, if only for a bit. I definitely look forward to seeing more of this type of innovation on the DS, especially online.

Sadly, the game is dull and the PictoChatting simply isn’t enough to warrant the purchase. Other aspects about the game are nice, though. The models, animation, and course designs are impressive, and the sound design is more than serviceable. Unfortunately, the limitations are constantly present. Aside from some minor weather and seasonal effects, there simply isn’t a lot to view, and eventually you’ll find yourself ignoring the background sound, while the whack of a great hit will no longer excite you. So the game looks beautiful and sounds great, but it quickly ceases to amaze or impress.

Despite its innovative touch screen swing concept, True Swing Golf simply doesn’t deliver. There isn’t enough customization, gameplay variety, or fun to be found. It’s very straightforward and refuses to be anything more than just a golf game. It’s extremely disappointing considering the potential it demonstrates by having PictoChat in multiplayer and the ability to access the user profile from the system. If you’re itching for a decent golfer on the DS, you may want to give it a try, but I doubt it’ll excite even die-hard golfers much.