Well, that's not entirely true. If you score well enough on a hole you get a puzzle piece, and if you get all three puzzle pieces for a theme, you get a new putter based on that theme, however it's just for looks and doesn't do anything to help your swing. You can also play a round of golf in local multiplayer against three other people, and win all of their tokens from them. Players can use diversions to throw others off their game and score epic loot; however the biggest diversion comes from the swing mechanic.

When swinging, you use the up and down arrows of the d-pad to pick your shot angle, and the left and right arrows to pick your aiming position. Once you have your aim down, you hold down the A button and then swing wildly to increase the power meter, letting go of the A button once you hit the right power level. There's no back swing, and no one to one swing mechanic. In fact, any real precision when it comes to picking the power level is nigh on impossible. You can either somewhat move your arms, and generate barely any power, or swing for the fences so that the game recognizes that you're trying to move the power meter, and end up blasting the ball out of the course. Add to this some funky ball goings on where the game will strangely set your ball in odd places if it gets stuck in a corner and you have one very frustrating experience.

And then there's Barker, your tour guide and sometimes opponent in the game. Barker is the mascot for the Carnival Games line, with his oversized head and old time dress. He's also one of the meanest competitors and worst sport you'll ever go up against. When playing in single player mode, you choose to play a hole solo or play against Barker. If you think that the swing mechanics are frustrating, try flailing your way through a hole against Barker only to see him step up to the tee, hit a precision power shot that you have no hopes of ever making and ultimately getting a hole in one. If that wasn't bad enough, you're then subjected to an animation of Barker attempting to give you a Barker token, just to pull it away at the very end. Stay classy Barker. If the game is targeted at kids, that's a hell of a way to treat a child. If you do win you're treated to sayings like "I got pwned!" which is about a thousand times worse. You also get a Barker token which nets you one four hundredth of a pair of pants.

Even the course layout seems to be designed to cause you as much frustration as possible. There's no ability to string holes together into a proper course, or even play all of the holes within a theme in one round. Once you pick a hole and complete it, you're backed out into the course menu where you have to pick your theme all over again and then pick a hole. When was the last time you bounced around the holes in a mini-golf course with no sense of direction?

The game looks nice, albeit a little GameCube-y, but unfortunately, the pretty pictures and cute animations of the various course contraptions don't help what's really wrong with the game, namely the cruddy swing mechanics. Younger kids will be excited by the courses at first, but once they get a Wiimote in their hand and experience the joy of flailing, coupled with Barker's obnoxious comments, they'll be begging you to put Wii Sports back in the machine. With its lackluster swing mechanics, poor course organization and few rewards, Carnival Games Mini Golf proves yet again that no good can come from carnies.

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