Mario Golf Review @ Gaming Target

Written by Jeff Pear on July 22, 2000

Review: With Mario playing golf on N64, its gonna be a Mario party!

Mario Golf is "The Birth of Entertaining Golf" it has a great multiplayer and has a good one-player. Why it may not be a simulation it try's to have some simulation elements to it. For instance when it rains and you putt your ball will not go as far if it had not been raining which will lead us to our first topic:

Weather is a big part of game play in Mario Golf. It has rain and wind. The rain slows your ball down in the grass. Wind is your worst enemy it pushes your ball every which way. A ghost in the top left will show which way the wind is going and how much wind there is. If you press "Z," little grass blades will come up to show you the direction too. The wind is just like in real life expect what real wind would do to a golf ball to happen to yours in the games.

The visuals are fair not the best but not the worst. The characters look somewhat blocky. Also the grass blades that come up are a bit hard to see (this may just be me or my TV). The courses look beautiful. Toad's Highlands are great fun to play and perhaps the best course in the game in my opinion. There seem to be a lot of sprites in the games which gives it an old school feel which makes the game feel more like a classic (This is probably cause the N64 can't push as many polygons as other systems but can do sprites like no other system around).

The controls are great very innovative. The innovative part is that you can call out things to your opponents by pressing the d-pad or the "C" buttons. The "C" buttons say something that is not encouraging. And the D-pad says something nice for instance. Up on the D-Pad will "Nice Shot" up on the "C" buttons will be "Hurry up already". Quite fun when you have 4 people playing. When pressing the "B" button you can switch from a normal hit to a power hit which will let your character hit the ball farther. You only get six of these.

The audio is done well with things like birds chirping and being able to hear the rain pitter patter. Everything sounds realistic. But the swinging of the clubs and sound of it cutting through the grass is great very well done. My complaints are that when you hit a tree with the ball it sounds like its a metal tree and the cup (which is made of plastic) sounds like metal also. Luigi sounds like Desi Arenez from I Love Lucy, but with a faked Italian accent. Weird.

Was I satisfied? Oh yeah, the modes just kept on coming! Tournament mode lets you earn points for more courses and lets you earn Birdie Badges if you get a Birdie or better on a hole. Get Character mode is pretty self explanatory what you get if you win this mode is the character you were competing against and course points to go for other courses. Ring shot (quite possibly the hardest mode) lets you shoot the ball through a set of rings on every hole you cannot complete the hole without getting the rings and staying under or at par. Very tough. You will get stars for completing this. Speed golf you play through the course as fast as you can and at the end it will record your time and rank it with other scores you will get course points for completing this. Stroke mode is a mode that will just let you and some friends gain course points very fun and easy. Mini Golf is miniature golf. When you complete this you will earn point for additional mini golf courses.

Training will help players who are not fluent with golf rules and play. Match game is for 2 players and will let you earn points for additional courses. Skins match is the person who win the hole with the fewest strokes will get a star coin. At the end you will receive course points for completing it. Club slots is for people who have played this game before and aren't that bad. You play a slot machine mini game at the start to choose what clubs you will have on that hole very hard especially if you don't get a wood club. If you get three stars in a row you can use all your clubs. You will receive course points for completion.

This game supports the Game boy pack once Nintendo releases Mario Golf (the new version) for game boy Color you will be able to "create characters and raise their skill levels as you play. Improve you game and visit the clubhouse for tips from the pros." then you will be able to upload these players to the Mario Golf N64 pak and play as them. Very cool indeed.

The replay is high because of all the options you have. The modes have a lot to do with the FUN in the game too. Game play is fast (for a golf game) and being able to taunt your opponents can really throw them off if you do it enough. Some holes on each course will have special shot such as Longest Drive and Closest to Pin. On longest drive you try to be the person who drives the ball the farthest from the starting point. If you do you will receive whatever you and your opponent bet for on that hole. Closest to the pin is whoever hits it the closest to the hole. You will win the bet for getting closest to the pin. Remember you have to land on the fairway to let that shot count. Pure Fun gameplay in Mario Golf!