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PangYa Free Online Golf multiplay game

PangYa is a free-to-play MMO - all you need to do is register and download the client. And you're sure to hang on to your pennies for a good long while as you get used to PangYa's inventive courses and bright, mildly insane presentation, working your way through the first two or three Rookie ranks. But then you begin to hanker after a better set of clubs, or a stat-boosting, salary-hungry caddie, or a smarter hat, or even a whole new character with better hair than your current one - and that's when it starts. A few quid here and there, and suddenly you find yourself sitting there in your underpants, having sold your worldly possessions , watching a cutesy golfer dancing and grinning away in a jazzy suit with a +2 Accuracy slot bonus and a lucky octopus on its head.

Presentation-wise, PangYa is about as far away from the sobriety of Tiger Woods as it is possible to get. It's all-singing, all-dancing, colourful east-Asian madness, noticeable right from the tutorial - you're guided through the game's familiar controls by a happy paper bag with a cat face called Papel. Lining up and taking your shot is all easily controlled with the arrow keys and the space bar, with a familiar bar across the bottom of the screen controlling the power and accuracy - good timing results in a perfect shot. Rounds of golf are played in groups of four, or individually in real-time in tournaments across the game's thirteen 18-hole courses, and good performance is rewarded with Pang points, the in-game currency. It's not just about getting a good score - particularly good shots, long runs and advantageous lies are also rewarded.

The great thing about the currency system is that it operates on a mixture of in-game Pang points, earned by playing the courses, and Astros, which are bought with real money. Some items can only be bought with one or the other, but most have both options. The upshot of it is that you can't simply buy golfing prowess, and you're never forced to spend any money - you can develop a perfectly good character simply through playing the courses and earning the experience and Pang points to improve. Spending real money only grants aesthetic benefits - a character with five quid's worth of schoolboy/girl uniform, a pirate hat and a depressed-looking flying rabbit for a mascot just looks better than the blue t-shirt and white shorts you begin with, and it's a lot quicker than earning the in-game currency.

PangYa has a friendly and mildly eccentric community - as with real golf, it's one of the only games in which your competitors' successes make you almost as happy as your own. As you progress up the ranks, things can become slightly more serious (as serious as things can get in a Korean fantasy golf game in which you can hire a giant grinning bear to carry your clubs), but by then you'll have found friends, or convinced some real-life ones to download it and join your crazy-golf paradise. Because it's a familiar golf game at heart, you can jump in and out at will; it's equally suited to playing obsessively for a while and to occasional rounds with friends, which is great for on-and-off players. I've found that PangYa has easily replaced offline golf games in my affections.

PangYa is a great example of how MMO developers can invigorate an established genre, and an admirable indication of how a free-to-play model can work without unbalancing things with game-breaking benefits that are only available to paying players. Its appeal comes down to solid, simple gameplay mixed with an irresistible madness factor and, or course, sociability. Try it as your next lunchtime game; if you've ever enjoyed a golf game before, you're in definite danger of developing an addiction. My own goes back a year and half now, and shows no signs of abating.