Forest Golf Planner

Genre: Management Simulation

Players: 1

.

Review:

Without a doubt the most prolific developer and publisher of Management Simulation games on Nintendo Switch is Kairosoft, who specializes in games with a retro-style isometric pixel art style, often with the word “Story” in the title. As of this writing, Kairosoft has released 62 games on Nintendo Switch, most of them Management Simulations.

After their earlier games, Kairosoft had established a few templates for their Simulation games that later games would largely follow. Game Dev Story established a Simulation-style game more focused on managing employee time and focus, Hot Springs Story established a Simulation style in line with Theme Park Simulators where you try to cater to guests’ tastes to maximize attendance and income, and Epic Astro Story established a Simulation style akin to games like Sim City, where you’re building out a town or settlement. And then there’s a template that has you managing not employees but members of a sports team, something we first saw in Grand Prix Story.

Forest Golf Planner originally released on mobile devices in 2023, then received a port to PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023, then to PlayStation 4 in 2024, and then to Xbox One in 2025. This is a game that fits in that second “cater to guests” category, with players building up the amenities in their golf club while also designing the holes on their course to be the right balance of difficulty, varied, and visually-engaging.

Given that premise, Forest Golf Planner (which seems to have little to do with forests) is actually a pretty engaging, if minimalist, take on a Management Simulation. You get some good control over how to plan out your courses, and there’s a good balance between maintaining your outdoor and indoor facilities. However, I was a little frustrated at how this game cordons off creating additional holes until you meet certain thresholds, and it’s not always clear how to strike the best balance in a golf course to make it as popular as possible.

As for the presentation, this is in line with what we’re used to from Kairosoft. As I mentioned above, this game makes use of Kairosoft’s signature presentation style using simple retro-styled pixel art visuals (here presented in an isometric overhead view perspective), paired with bouncy synthesized music that works well enough but is largely forgettable, along with simple sound effects. For the most part, everything about this presentation is really endearing, though by this point we’ve seen more or less the same thing in numerous other Kairosoft games.

Overall, I think Forest Golf Planner is likely to satisfy anyone who… well, anyone looking to get a game called Forest Golf Planner. It still has some of Kairosoft’s odd choices and overall simplistic approach to Management Simulations, but the ability to custom-design your golf course is pretty good, and makes this a fun and relaxed entry in the genre.

tl;dr – Forest Golf Planner is a Management Simulation where players manage the development of their golf club as well as the golf courses attached to it. While this is a bit simplistic and limited, it’s overall an enjoyable Management Simulation that gives you some good options for custom-creating your own golf course.

Grade: B

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}