However, should you be off on either power or accuracy, your shot may fall short of your mark, or veer somewhat to the left or right. If you time it just right on both counts, your shot will land pretty much where you aimed it. You need to stop the bar twice for each shot once for power, once for accuracy. Of course, the grid area doesn't take weather or the terrain into effect, so you'll need to adjust your aim accordingly.Įvery time you take a shot, a bar with a moving slider pops up. You can move the grid anywhere within your shooting range, which makes it easy to plan out your shot. By hitting the R button, you can look at the map of the hole from overhead, where a grid will illustrate where your shot is likely to land. You can aim your shot by simply moving the analog stick and blasting away, but you'll soon learn to be more strategic. Learning how the various game factors effect your shot can be a bit frustrating at first, but you'll soon get the hang of it.ĭescribing the game's actual golfing interface would be a bit dull, but in a nutshell, it involves smart planning and a little timing.
well, your shot will land quite a bit further from where you planned it. but with strong winds from the southwest and you chipping out of the rough, and the green is six yards higher than your current location. Sure, you could aim straight for the pin. Here is where the true skill of 'Mario Golf' lies, and it involves a lot of basic math skill and gut instinct. The trick, of course, is to weigh in all factors and compensate for everything when you aim your shot. The weather is also a factor, as rain cuts down your power (especially on the green) and the wind will blow your shot off course. Should your ball land in the sand or rough, it will dampen your power and make it difficult to predict where your shot will land. Your best bet is to keep the ball on the fairway until you can make a shot at the green, where the elusive hole lies. Once you're on the course, it's the usual golfing goal: get the ball from the tee to the hole in as few shots as possible. Still, there's a nice variety of big-driving characters to choose from once you've unlocked them all, and expert players will enjoy the extra challenge of managing their draws and fades. Once Maple is unlocked, there's little point in choosing Peach, Charlie, Plum, Yoshi, or any of the weaker drivers, since Maple hits the ball straight-on with a longer drive than any of them. If 'Mario Golf' has any flaws, it's in the character variety. Each golfer has their own driving distance, shot height, and draw/fade as a general rule, the longer-driving golfers have nastier draws or fades, so aiming their shots can be much trickier than it is with the straight-on shooters. The game, as the cliche goes, is 'easy to learn, and hard to master.' You can choose from an interesting variety of characters, including some reasonably professional-looking folks like Plum and Harry, or some of the the Mario gang, like Yoshi, Wario, or Luigi. Needless to say, golfing fans (or video game fans in general) will have plenty of stuff to do in 'Mario Golf.' And if that's not enough, you can unearth other golfers in Get Character mode. And for variety's sake, you can play through the Ring Shot mode, where you have to get par on a hole AND put the ball through all of the scattered rings on the course.
You can play out a tournament on any of the six courses, and if you earn first place, you'll get a trophy, and tons of experience points that can go towards unlocking the later courses. There's a lot to enjoy in single-player mode, too.
'Mario Golf' is a great, slow-paced multiplayer experience, perfect for a few beers and shooting the breeze with the guys. Since the only way to win a hole is by using the fewest strokes, it leads to some exciting risk-taking as you try to shave off a shot or two on your approach. There's also a skins option, where you try to win the most number of holes. You and up to four friends can play on one of six courses to see who can finish with the fewest strokes. The purpose of 'Mario Golf' is to, well, play golf. And the presence of Mario and his crew just adds to the fun. But thanks to Nintendo's quality control and the skilled development veterans of Camelot, this turned out to be the finest golf game I've ever played. And if being a senior citizen is half as fun as Nintendo's 'Mario Golf,' well, I say: bring on the bingo tournaments and hiked-up pants!Īt first glance, 'Mario Golf' looks like a kid's game, concerned more with colorful Nintendo mascots than providing a realistic golf simulation. I'm pretty sure that's the first sign of becoming elderly, but what can I say? Golf is an interesting game. As I've gotten a little older, I've come to appreciate the sport of golf.