The main gameplay itself might be straight-laced, but there's loads of fun to be had as you gain experience and unlock new courses, of which there are eight in total. Aside from the aforementioned Get Character mode, there's a Tournament, Mini-Golf - which lets you unleash your Putt-Putt skills - Ring Shot (shoot the ball through floating rings), Speed Golf (essentially a time attack mode) and a variety of versus modes, such as Stroke Play (player with the lowest score wins), Club Slots (before each hole you spin a slot machine, which selects a mere three clubs for you to use) and more. The game has a ton of modes to test your skills in, though. This means you have to be extra wary of large obstacles such as trees, and it does introduce an extra layer of strategy, but all in all, it doesn't really make a huge difference. The only other stat that matters is each characters' shot type some shoot the ball straight, but others have a "Draw" or a "Fade", meaning the ball will naturally go right or left, respectively, and then curve back to the middle. The starter characters' maximum drive distance is around 200 yards, but the final characters you unlock can all hit over 300, meaning there's absolutely no reason to use the old characters once you unlock better ones. Thanks to the fact you unlock the characters in a specific order, the game arguably suffers from balance issues. Don't expect an easy ride, either the AI is actually quite rough on you. You only have access to four characters at the start, too (Baby Mario, Peach, Charlie and Plum) and in order to unlock everybody else (yes, even Mario!) you have to beat them, one by one, in the Get Character mode. You get Luigi, Wario, Yoshi, Peach, DK, et al, but there's also a bunch of previously unseen 'human' characters to pick from, including Charlie, Harry and the most well-known one, Plum. This is one of the few Mario games with non-Mushroom Kingdom playable characters. If you're only slightly off, however, you'll miss out on the extra distance and lose your Power shot, too. When you start a course, you will only have six Power shots at your disposal, however, if you use one and then get a "perfect" shot (meaning stopping the marker at full power and perfect accuracy) your Power Shot will not be used up and the ball will fly even further, accompanied by a special effect depending on the character - Mario's ball is engulfed in flames, for instance. While that inter-console interoperability (achieved originally via the Transfer Pak) doesn't feature in the Nintendo Switch Online version, being able to revisit the 3D game on a portable is still fantastic the perfect accompaniment to a lovely, languorous Sunday afternoon with an icy drink on the side.Īside from being able to select an "Approach" shot (to get the ball on the green when you're close, but not quite there), you can select a "Power" shot, which makes the ball fly extra far. The pair complement each other brilliantly - the portable game offering a rich RPG-style experience, with this home console entry bringing just the right amount of flair and exuberance to a super-solid round of hitting a tiny ball across the countryside. I'm one of those boring sophisticated people who prefers their Mario sports games to more closely resemble the sport than a Nintendo-themed pyrotechnics show, and the combo of this Mario Golf and its sister title on Game Boy Color is my favourite of all the plumber's sporty exploits. You need to pay attention to the strength of the wind, too, which could send your ball way off course if you don't adjust your shot. The marker immediately starts sliding back right and you stop it as close to the origin point as possible: the closer you are, the more accurate your shot will be. A small marker then moves along the bar from right to left and you press 'A' when it's as close to the far left as possible: the closer it is, the more powerful your swing. For anyone who has never played video game golf, after selecting a club and beginning your swing, a power bar will appear. It's great fun, but you won't be running across the fairway in this game's version of speed golf.Īs standard, you get a number of different clubs to select woods, irons, wedges, depending on the terrain you're hitting off of. Pretty self-evident thanks to that dynamite title, but it's worth highlighting because if you're expecting more of the dazzling spectacle of the mascot's more recent sporting output - games which take some real artistic licence with the rules of the nominal real-world sport - Camelot's first shot in this particular series is a much straighter affair. So, Mario Golf on N64 was almost the first Mario sports game, certainly the first on a home console you played on a TV, and it is what you'd expect: Golf, with Mario.
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