Ever heard the old gamer adage 'I could beat this game with my eyes closed!'? That saying rang in my ears while I took Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour for a spin, right when I realized my fingers were simply pressing the 'A' button over and over and over again. It wasn't so much the ease of the game that piqued the 'blind' saying - no, it was actually the ease of the game itself. While mindnumbingly stabbing 'A' repeatedly, my lack of concentration gave my ears a bit of time to realize that there was much more to Mario Golf: TT's saccharine-laden sound design. I then cooked up a theory that I could score as effectively with Mario Golf: TT with my eyes open as I could with my eyes closed, and using only the game's aural clues. To compare my findings, I figured I should try the same out with a game that is at least 85% sound design driven, so I plucked Space Channel 5 Part 2 off my shelf.

For Mario Golf: TT, I chose the opening course (Lakitu Cup) - there was no need to strain myself, plus I had only played it through once. This first trial was with a 'sight advantage', no advance techniques, not even club switching - just pure 'A' mashing.

Not bad. Not great, but to be expected after roughly an hour of previous game time, not to mention the 'lazy golfer' gameplay I was using. Now here are the results of the second game with my eyes closed (played a few hours after the first, just to make sure that I wasn't vividly recalling the previous session. Oh, and my eyes weren't actually 'closed', I was simply staring at a wall instead of the TV.)

Well, I was doing fine until hole 6. Surprisingly, the hazards actually played quite a pivotal role in this round - each time I'd hear the leaves shaking (and my ball 'clunking' to the ground) I'd lose my bearings and start swinging wildly. However, if you look at the holes where trees didn't intervene, you'll see that often I wasn't too far from my mark. How'd that happen? Well, the following specific sound cues helped the most:

• An opening sound when you start your swing that helps you gauge how powerful your swing would be. Roughly every four holes I'd get a 'Nice Shot!', meaning I managed to swing the most powerful shot possible.
• The background music changes the closer to the hole you get. When you hit the green, it changes to a slightly softer tune and when you're quite close to the hole the soundtrack turns languid, indicating that you barely have to push 'A' at all.
• When you barely overshoot the hole, hit the lip, etc. your character emits a little 'wooowoah' sound (well, at least Mario does) - helpful if you're over-swinging when putting on the green.
• Let's not forget the actual sound of the ball falling into the hole - the most satisfying sound of all!

On paper, this may look quite minor but consider this: I was trying to play a golf video game without actually being able to see the course. Now, let's take a look at how I fared when I tried the same test to Space Channel 5 Part 2 - a game that, while I have won it, I have only played the opening level (Report #1) once. For those of you not familiar with Space Channel 5, it's your basic rhythm game: commands are barked and you have to follow them a la Simon. In Space Channel 5, you're following dance moves - your opponent shouts out directions (up, right, left and down), as well two 'actions' - shoot or save. It's up to you to repeat the patterns your opponent barks out. The test level was Report #1, first time played was 'with sight' (the higher the rating, the better you have performed):

Rating: 43.4%
Rescue ratio: 83.3%
No secrets found

Pretty sharp - I blew away my previous record of ~17%, but the singing bits gave me a spot of trouble. Note that you do not need a specific rating to win the game, and that you can't get a rating of 100% in the first level - believe me that my rating was pretty good. Now, here are the 'blind' results:

Rating: 52.0%
Rescue ratio: 66.6%
No secrets found

Somehow, I actually improved my rating! I'd chalk this up to the 'questionable' rating system of the game, or perhaps it has more to do with rewarding consistency. Regardless, my rescue ratio went way down as I certainly had a few bits of trouble in the middle section (right when they introduce the 'Hey!'/save button. I also swore quite a bit.) It's obvious that sight isn't required for Space Channel 5, it's the sound that presents the challenge.

So what does all of this mean? I'd say it's a pretty convincing argument for never underestimating the effect of quality sound design in a video game. If Nintendo had removed just one of the sound elements listed above, I'd probably still be on hole 1 of Lakitu Cup, with a score well over +100 for sure. And Space Channel 5 Part 2, while relying mostly on sound design, does have visual components to sync up and assist with the patterns you're to recreate (for example, one of Report 1's boss robots's mid-section expands to the number of times you have to shoot him) but these visual hints are supplementary and do not hand out additional information beyond the sound cues.

Sound design is often ignored in many reviews, instead focusing on the quality of the sound itself rather than how it actually aids the gameplay experience, whereas this little experiment has given me a bit more insight as to the value that sound can bring to a game. There are a great many games I can imagine are virtually unplayable under these type of circumstances, but I for one am glad that there are a few that do more than just rely on pixels to propel the gameplay.