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Mini Golf vs Pixel Golf: What's the Difference?
Search for "mini golf online" and you'll find two quite different kinds of game mixed together. Some are true mini golf: one putter, windmills and loop-the-loops. Others are pixel golf: small, retro-looking games of actual golf with fairways, irons and wind. Both are fun, but they scratch different itches.
What is mini golf?
Mini golf (also called crazy golf, putt-putt or miniature golf) is golf with only the putting. Each hole is a short, walled lane with obstacles, and you play every shot with a putter.
- Club: a putter only.
- Holes: usually 9 or 18, each a few metres long.
- Par: usually 2 or 3 on every hole.
- Skill: angles, bank shots and speed control.
- Obstacles: windmills, ramps, tunnels, loops and water features.
It has a surprisingly long history. The Ladies' Putting Club at St Andrews laid out its "Himalayas" putting course in 1867, and America went mad for miniature courses in the late 1920s, when Garnet Carter's "Tom Thumb Golf" started a craze that put thousands of courses on rooftops and vacant lots.
Mini golf online
Online mini golf keeps the same idea: aim, pull back and bank the ball around obstacles. Popular examples include Mini Golf King and Golf Battle on phones, Golf With Your Friends on PC and consoles, and Walkabout Mini Golf in VR. Physics does most of the work, and the best of them are really puzzle games.
What is pixel golf?
Pixel golf means golf games drawn in a retro, pixel-art style. The style is the only thing they share: some are puzzles, some are RPGs and some are straight golf. When most people say pixel golf, though, they mean the classic top-down or side-on golf game: tee, fairway, rough, bunkers, green and a bag of clubs.
- Clubs: several, from irons to wedges to a putter.
- Holes: real golf holes in miniature, with par 3s, 4s and sometimes 5s.
- Skill: club choice, wind, the lie of the ball, and reading the green.
- Obstacles: natural hazards like water, sand, trees and out-of-bounds.
It grew out of 8-bit classics like Nintendo's Golf and Leader Board. We go through those in retro golf games.
Side by side
| Mini golf | Pixel golf | |
|---|---|---|
| Clubs | Putter only | Irons, wedges, putter (sometimes woods) |
| Typical par | 2–3 | 3–5 |
| Main skill | Angles and speed | Club choice, timing, wind, reading greens |
| Hazards | Built obstacles | Water, sand, trees, out-of-bounds |
| Feels like | A puzzle | A round of golf |
| Session | A few minutes | A few minutes to half an hour |
Where Mashy fits: pitch and putt
Mashy sits between the two. It's pixel golf, but the holes are short, like a pitch and putt course: the kind of short course where you leave the driver at home and play with irons, wedges and a putter.
- It's real golf: a fairway, rough, bunkers, ponds and wind, and you choose between a 7-iron and a lob wedge on every approach.
- The short game matters: chips, pitches and drag-and-release putts on sloping greens, which is the part of mini golf people love most.
- It's quick, like mini golf: a hole takes a minute or two, and nine holes take about ten.
If you love the putting part of mini golf but want a bit more golf around it, pitch and putt is the sweet spot.
Which should you play?
- You want a puzzle with a putter: mini golf.
- You want golf, in miniature: pixel golf.
- You want golf you can finish on a coffee break: a pitch and putt like Mashy.
Play a hole of Mashy free, with no download and no sign-up.
If you're comparing more options, see our round-up of the best free golf games online.