Mario Golf: Super Rush Review

While the Nintendo Switch has solid golf mechanics, it lacks content tied to the Adventure mode, which plays on low, uneven courses. Battle golf is a bit like Mario Party or Mario Golf because it is fun for the first time, but afterwards there is not much desire to come back to it.

Solomodus is a fun golf adventure where you take your Mii avatar to a series of tournaments to learn the ins and outs of Mario Golf and unlock courses. Singleplayer mode takes the golf role-playing game and sees your Mii travel to a course and compete against franchise favorites to overcome challenges, and not hitting par is even better. The Golf Adventure mode and the single player campaign should be interesting for people who have delved into the history of Game Boy Mario Golf.

In most modes, you race across the course on foot and master the small cardio meter at the bottom of the screen. The rules change after a few rounds, but the speed of the shot is important every time you make a run through the course and in cross country golf you have to avoid strange hazards like huge, angry clouds and chip balls from the course to desert before you complete your watercourse. The highlight of the package is Battle Golf, the fastest mode in the game.

Battle Golf, simply the fastest gamemode, is a nine-hole course set in a huge stadium where the aim is to sink three shots while controlling things like thwomp bombs. There are no matches, which makes it the ideal party experience. Before Super Rush was introduced, Battle Golf was a mode not dissimilar to Capture the Flag.

The Golf Adventure has an extensive tutorial on Super Rush's new mechanics, and a strong emphasis on speed golf. There is no way to unlock every place, but for me Mario Golf Super Rush is a fun game and there are moments when you are reminded that this is a Mario sport game.

You cannot manipulate the joystick with the precision that PGA Tour 2K21 titles require and you need to think about more real factors when hitting the ball, such as the angle and height of your lie, which can add a substantial curve to your shot. The game shot indicator tells you exactly where the curve of your marble track will lead you, so you do not have to guess in most situations. Full swings are manageable and easy to hit, but misses that require delicate swing such as chips and putts are as much a guess as the game.

It is important to master the buttons and swing system, including the design of the golf ball to add backspin and to fix the trajectories, and Super Rush's tricky courses are dotted with obstacles that make you think about the types of shots you want to hit. I think the golf mechanics fit the kind of game Nintendo is doing, and I'm glad it's different from golf on the PGA Tour. After playing some of the courses in Super Rush, it is clear that the motion control is not compatible with the elaborate design created by Camelot to highlight the characteristics of the new Speed Golf mode.

More than 20 years ago Mario Golf came for the Game Boy Color with a full role-playing mode for many players. At least for me, I didn't take it up until my younger children were old enough to take care of golf and the video games I played.

It is this gradual approach to the challenge that kept me coming back, testing myself with post-game challenges in multiplayer mode and inspiring me to play in a new way before I thought I was a pro. On the golf adventure I could say that is not worthwhile wasting time on, but the truth is that it is necessary if you want to enjoy the rest of what Super Rush has to offer. It's the mode I was looking for in Super Rush, and the nostalgia for earlier Mario golf installments has fueled my expectations.

I love it when sports game developers go to the trouble of developing story modes like this, as it's a great way for players to familiarize themselves with the game mechanics and intensity of online multiplayer. It is also a wonderful way to capitalise on the storytelling inherent in competitive sport. The simplicity of this mode makes it easier for more players, as opposed to the profound mechanics of simulation sports games.

The new mode promoted by the game is called Speed Golf, but playing it is actually rather annoying. In this mode you have to hit the ball faster than normal and you have to run after the ball to get it further to the hole. Running after each shot feels like a hiatus from what could have been a fun twist in standard golf.

The headache-inducing squeak of the characters makes the golf adventure all the better. You wouldn't expect an oversized turtle swinging a club with one hand in down-to-earth golf. As we have seen in other video games, golf is a sports game, but Toon golfers add an element of comic world and fantastic power.

The biggest difference between these modes is that in Battle Golf, players compete in a limited number of holes to compete in the shortest possible time. In this game mode, characters rush their golf balls across the map and try to sink them into the hole as quickly as possible. Familiar characters have super powers, and the course has strange obstacles, but the new modes are meant to emphasize speed.

Battle golf is fun but it feels more like it meets the minimum requirements for ball points on the back of the box. Super Rush has some of the best courses in the history of the series, but I can't help thinking that it's a bit underwhelming that six of them have been released, and only two of them are great, which to traditional golf purists feels like normal Mario golf fare. As with all Mario games, the approach lacks variety and inventiveness, but for existing fans they are fine.

It's been a while since the last episode, but Mario Golf: Super Rush offers a lot of new material. From the new Adventure mode to the Battle Golf, Super Rush works hard to make Mario Golf feel fresh and dynamic.