Mario Golf: Super Rush Review
Credit to: NintendoIs it any better than the other games in the Mario Golf series?
Have you ever played the old school Mario Golf? Maybe you haven’t but you have fond memories of the other Mario sports games like Mario Strikers, maybe Mario Sluggers. Mario Tennis, even? Well, back when I was still a kid, I played Mario Golf: World Tour on the Nintendo DS, Mario Sports Mix on the Nintendo Wii, and even Mario Tennis Open on the 3DS. If you still can’t tell, I was a massive fan of the Mario spinoff sports games, and I truly still am to this day. They’re all so unique, and never fail to please a wide variety of people, so when this game was announced, I was SUPER excited. Was I right to be? Let me tell you.
What’s so new about this new game?
If you’re not too familiar with this game, let me run by you a quick rundown of what’s in this game. There’s three modes that you can play: Standard Golf, Speed Golf, and Battle Golf. With all three of these modes, you can choose to play them alone (except Battle Golf), against computers, or you can even go online to play these modes against your friends or other online players by either creating a room, searching for a room, or finding or room using a code that’s given to you. I won’t go super in depth in this section so that way I can give each mode its own spotlight, but what I will say is each one of these modes are absolutely fantastic. This game absolutely makes me feel like a kid again, and that’s something I didn’t expect to feel again over a Mario Golf game. There’s also a brand new single player adventure called Golf Adventure, where you tee off as your own Mii character and visit different golf courses to do different challenges and tournaments. Golf Adventure is a pretty basic and simple campaign, but it’s still extremely fun nonetheless. Now, with that out of the way, let’s get into each mode of Mario Golf: Super Rush.
Standard Golf
For those of you who’ve played all of the old Mario Golf games, this is basically the same old thing, which isn’t bad. In fact, they take what was already there for the Mario Golf games and improve on it. You’re given so much control over your shots, being able to spin the ball in any direction at any trajectory that you want. You can also change how much you want the ball to curve. For example, if the flag is only 100 yards away, but there’s a tree 50 yards directly in front of you, you can hit the ball in a way that curves around the tree, but you can also make the ball curve into a whole other trajectory to get it back on its appropriate path, making it head straight towards the flag. It’s also so much easier to tell the distance between yourself and the flag, since the graphics are so beautifully polished of course, but also with the map being so clear and accurate, showing you the trees, bunkers, rough grass terrain, fairway terrain, and the green terrain. It’s extremely easy to comprehend. When you’re near the flag, let’s say only about 30 feet away, there’s a nice clear grid on the ground that shows you whether or not the ground is uphill or downhill, while also telling you how steep or fairly flat the ground is as well. Using this and the nice clear wind trajectory sign which also shows how fast the wind is, it’s super easy to plan your shot. Also, with each character having their nice and unique special abilities, you can also impact how much farther your ball will go, or you can stop your ball from rolling depending on what your favorite character’s ability does. I personally love Luigi, as he’s probably my top favorite Nintendo character (maybe even above Link from Zelda), and his special ability lets you hit the ball farther, while freezing some of the ground where it lands. The ball actually stays put where it lands too, preventing it from rolling at all. Such a cool ability for such a cool character.
Speed Golf
You know, for a golf game, you would think that there’s really not much else they can do to make it any cooler than the previous Mario Golf games. If you thought that the way I did, you’re wrong. Here, you literally have to get your ball in the hole as quickly as possible, and when you’re playing with either friends or computers, the goal is to either get the ball in much quicker than your opponents, or you have to get the highest score compared to your opponents as quickly as possible. Basically, you’re either quicker, or you’re quicker and score higher. Each character has a stamina bar that needs to be managed well if you want to sprint ahead of the competition, or if you have at least half of your stamina, you can use a special sprint ability called a speed dash. Each speed dash is unique for whatever character uses it. Luigi example uses an ice flower to skate on ice super fast before reverting back to his regular golfing outfit and running back at regular speed. Daisy for example, dances across the field, King Bob-omb has his little bob-omb friends carry him, etc etc. There really is a lot of detail put into this mode to make it competitive and fun, and it honestly, it’s soooo fun. This is personally my favorite mode, since the Battle Golf mode doesn’t let you play on the regularly available courses. That mode instead lets you play on these specialized battle courses, which totally makes sense, but I’m just a big fan of the long, outdoorsy courses. Speed Golf was great, and playing with and against all these characters made it even more fun, since you get to set them try and race ahead of you or use their special moves and dashes to win. I really loved it, and I definitely will continue to play this mode.
Battle Golf
Honestly, if you like Speed Golf, or you like the sound of it rather, you’ll really like Battle Golf. The point of this mode, is that you have to race against your opponents to get your ball in the flag, but for this mode, there’s multiple flags to score. Once you score one flag, that flag is gone, and it’s considered to be a point for you. For example, If me and 3 other opponents are racing for the same flag, and I manage to score it before they can, I receive one point, and then we all have to find a new flag. This mode is challenging, because not only do you and your opponents have access to your special moves and dashes, but there’s actually hazards in the environment that can both hurt you and even knock your ball away from where it landed. There’s thwomps, chain chomps, and bob-ombs that you can hurl at your opponents. Factor in the special abilities and environmental hazards, and you’ve got yourself an extremely frantic game mode. I absolutely adore this mode, since me and my friends are very competitive against each other, but even against the computers I still have a super great time. Let’s say for example you like to play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Battle Mode, you will absolutely love this mode. Super competitive, super frantic, super fun. All in all, this game is for you if you want a good battle.
Golf Adventure
Me personally, I’ve always loved the Mii characters. It’s so cool to create these funny little characters that look like you, and have them box, play tennis, workout, and all that other jazz. I really do love that. With this mode, I’m just super pleased. This little campaign is actually very similar to any of the 3D Pokemon games, where you have a big journey ahead of you, you’re surrounded by friends, and you have people to take care of you/look after you. That might sound weird, but it actually works surprisingly well for this game. As I said before, you play as your own Mii character, and you go on a journey to multiple lands with cool courses to participate in matches or tournaments, or just practice before you move ahead in the story. There’s even an experience point system that lets you level up and use points to raise your character’s personal attributes, like how straight they can hit the golf ball, how much they can curve the golf ball, how far they can hit the golf ball, how fast they can run in the Speed Golf matches, how long their special dashes last, things like that. The coins you collect in the Speed Golf matches can actually be used to buy newer and better golf clubs that are better suited for different areas and terrains, or you can buy clothes and shoes that help you run faster or longer in sand, thick grass, etc. This really is a neat idea, and even though I prefer the other modes over this campaign, it is still a super fun time.
Final Thoughts
This game is just great. I’ve been playing these sports games for years now, and this is definitely one of the best. This is easily the best Mario Golf game, and it’s in my top 3 list of best Mario sports games. I just love it. The only downside is the fact that there aren’t really too many courses, and there aren’t as many characters that I would prefer. Though, it is confirmed that this game will be receiving DLC (downloadable content) as the game goes on, so that’s cool. I personally think it sucks that we’ll need to pay just to get more stuff for a golf game, but it’s fine. I’d be glad to pay for a game this great. Overall, I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants to relieve stress after work, wants something to do if they’re bored, or for anyone who loves to play with their friends and family. You’d definitely be missing out if you don’t get this game. Nothing much more I can say about this, it just really is fun! That’s it from me, now go check out Mario Golf: Super Rush! This has been The Wolf Den!
