I have learned two shocking facts today. The first fact was finding out that cornhole, that one pastime revolving around throwing bags full of corn into a hole, that thing you used to play at a funfair or during college, is now a professional sport. There are people who make a living out of it. There are matches being televised on ESPN and all that. The second fact, which is the even more impressive out of the two, is that there is a fully licensed cornhole simulator now available on consoles and PC. No Star Fox or F-Zero during this generation of consoles, but we sure do have ACL Pro Cornhole to satiate our needs.

For an astounding thirty bucks, ACL Pro Cornhole, a game by the same makers of the most recent professional bowling simulator available in modern consoles, offers everything the professional sport of throwing bags into a hole can provide. Which, as a result, is not a lot. Just like PBA Pro Bowling 2023, the amount of content and sheer simplicity of the gameplay loop aren’t enough to justify its existence as a game as a whole, and not just a side mode in a larger game.

The controls and gameplay are very simplistic. Pick a (licensed) player, and face off against an opponent. Select the height and angle of your toss, hold the right analog stick, and release when the meter reaches the specified blue mark. Do it properly (as in, with the infallible strategy of just tossing the bag with the tallest angle possible), and your bag will fall into the hole, giving you three temporary points. If the bag falls on top of the board, but not inside the hole, it’s one temporary point. After four bag tosses for each player, the inning is over, and the winner of the round will be the one with the most temporary points. The deduction between the winner and the loser’s points will be added to the official match tally. Keep doing that until the game tells you to stop.

The career mode is basically a nearly endless series of matches where you can also acquire experience points in order to level up and unlock new types of bags, stats, and professional cornhole players. There is also a practice mode and an option to play with a friend locally. Sadly, no online multiplayer, though I doubt this will be considered a blatant issue. I don’t particularly think the ACL Pro Cornhole servers would be booming regardless. If cornhole is your thing, just bring a friend over to play a virtual match or two. Or, y’know, just play real life cornhole. You can easily improvise with DIY boards and bags.

This riveting gameplay loop is accompanied by bland visuals and some admittedly decent commentary provided by real-life professional cornhole narrators (there you go, I have learned a third thing today). ACL Pro Cornhole looks like an Xbox 360 game at the very best, but it does have the slight advantage of actually running pretty well. Not like there’s a lot of action or moving polygons onscreen, but hey, it does offer the bare minimum for a sports title.

I guess ACL Pro Cornhole does a good job at recreating all the sheer excitement of cornhole to a virtual environment, but here’s the very obvious issue: this is too boring, and not particularly exciting to be played as a video game. Cornhole can be fun on a county fair, or when you’re a freshman in college, but as a game being sold for thirty outrageous bucks? Yeah, there’s just not enough substance and content to justify its existence outside of a minigame included in another, much larger title.

 

Graphics: 4.5 It runs at 60fps, but it’s not a looker of a game. Character models look like they’re from the Xbox 360 era. Furthermore, the backgrounds are really bland.	Gameplay: 5.0 Borderline basic controls and physics, all tied to a gameplay loop that just doesn’t fit well in a video game.
Sound: 6.5 A lot of average narration by some real-life cornhole commentators. There’s also one song played on the main menu screen. Hope you like that one riff being looped ad nauseum.	Fun Factor: 4.0 It’s just too damn boring. Cornhole can be fun on a county fair, but as a game being sold for thirty bucks? There’s not enough substance to warrant its existence outside of a minigame included in a larger game.
Final Verdict: 4.5

ACL Pro Cornhole is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.