Since we’ve had the Switch 2 come along, we’ve seen new versions and ports of plenty of games fixed by the additional power the console offers. Games that were just a little bit too big for the old console are now running fine with the upgrade. PGA Tour 2K25 is sadly not one of those games. In a big way, the performance actually gets in the way of the golf. It’s a real shame because almost everything else about the game is exemplary.
If you’ve been missing an RPG mode from Nintendo’s sports games, you can sort of find it here. The main way to play is the MyCareer mode. It’s in-depth, and as you play through events over multiple “years” to become the GOAT, you’ll do more than just bash out tournaments one after the other. There are little side hustle rounds, interviews to complete, and your golfer is yours to mould however you want. You can even tinker with and adjust all your clubs, with far more customisation and tweaks than I’ll ever care about, but it’s there.
It’s not just your golfer or your clubs that you can customise either. The game’s difficulty settings are fully adjustable, letting you go from Mario Golf levels of helpfulness to a full-on simulation, depending on what you prefer. The swing is the backbone of golf, and here there are two main ways to play. You can use the usual three-click style, again like Mario Golf, but the real fun and skill come from using the right stick to swing instead. Once you get the hang of it, the action feels more like real golf and, here on the Switch 2, it’s the way to play if you want to avoid the worst of the input lag and jank. We’re getting to that, hold on.
Visually, the game looks quite nice. The courses are well lit, and the surroundings are varied and detailed, really bringing the locations to life. You can see where some cuts have been made in the background, but it’s not a barren wasteland like the previous game was on the Switch. There are people in the stands, folks watching you play, even a guy sitting in a Volkswagen. In handheld mode things look a little rougher, and there’s some lighting sheen that’s missing, but it’s still looks fine. Player models are solid, and the create-a-character mode, when it doesn’t completely hard crash the game, lets you make a convincing likeness. Stupidly, I tried to recreate Happy Gilmore’s Shooter McGavin before realising he’s already in the game as paid DLC.
So you’ve got a strong golf game, stacked with a deep career mode. You can play it casually or dial it up and make it painfully hard. The controls are great and it looks pretty good on the Switch 2. And here’s where the bogey sinks in. Parts of the game run so poorly that the entire thing feels like it’s fighting just to stay operational. From the minute you load it up, you’re waiting. It takes too long to load, and once you’re in, the slowdown begins. Every menu runs badly. You can’t tap through options quickly because the animations feel glacial, and these are just menus. You’ll press A twice thinking it hasn’t responded, only for it to suddenly jump forward two screens.
Then you get to the golfing action, which thankfully, most of the time, works well. The three-click system can feel a little sluggish, like there’s some lag, possibly for the same reason the menus feel sluggish as well. That leaves you leaning on the right-stick method, which, as mentioned earlier, is more fun anyway. It’s disappointing because on the original Switch we knew the console wasn’t powerful enough and took what we could get. It was just nice to have PGA Tour back. On the Switch 2, though, we know what the console can do.
I was also disappointed to find that the game’s much-vaunted offline mode isn’t really offline at all. Yes, you can play without an internet connection, but you’re limited to a handful of modes, not the main MyCareer mode, and you won’t earn any XP offline either. I understand this is what 2K games have become, but seriously, it’s golf. You shouldn’t need to be connected to the internet just to earn XP. The constant push of adverts for VC is a downer in an already expensive game. At least the course creator works offline.
HB Studios have once again put together a well-crafted golf game that can be enjoyed by players who want a serious simulation or something a little more relaxed while still rocking the goofy pants. But the stripped-back offline mode means that unless you’re playing at home with a connection, you might be playing for nothing. The sluggish menus are a real letdown too. The Switch 2 can do amazing things. It should be able to handle menus.
If you fit into a very specific type of player, PGA Tour 2K25 on Switch 2 could still be great for you. The core golf is excellent. It’s just let down badly by the packaging around it.
