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System:
Nintendo 64
Genre:
Sports
Publisher:
Nintendo
Developer:
Camelot Corp.
Players:
1-4
Release date/year:
06/30/1999
Other systems:
-
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- Mario Golf
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1999 Camelot Corp. - Nintendo - N64
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Golf. Golf is one of the greatest sports in the world. But, at the same time, it can be one of the worst. It is great to play in real life. But it is boring to watch in real life. This is Nintendo’s newest attempt at transferring the fun of golf to play, onto a video game cartridge. Sometimes this is a hard task. Golf games need to have the little intricacies that make it so fun, that is the area where so many golf games have failed in the past. I think that this game did a good job though. Here is exactly why.
- {~~Main Scores~~}
BREAKDOWN
Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 10
Sound: 9.5
Enjoyability: 9
- Gameplay
The gameplay is the most important part of a game like this. Golf is such a hard game to transfer on to a video game because is has many little things that you need a good system to control on the game. I think that this game had a nice system. It made everything easy to do, and simple. Along with that, the whole system made the game so much better, just because it controlled everything, and it wasn’t hard to do that.
Basically, to hit the ball you have a simple thing to do. There is a bar on the bottom of the screen, and that is what you use. The bar starts filling up at the right side of the bar, then it moves to the left side, then back to the right. What you need to do, is stop the bar at the right place. Simply, the left side is used for the power of the shot, and the right side is used for how straight the club hits the ball. When it moves to the left side, the closer to the end of the bar it goes, the harder your shot will be. When your bar moves towards the right side, there is a small area under a bolded bar that is underlined, you need to stop the bar within the underlined area, and as close to the bolded bar as possible. The closer it goes, the better the club will hit the ball.
There are a few other things that can help you make shots as well. First, much like golf, you have a wide variety of golf clubs to use, each hits the ball a different distance. The selection alone is quite good, making this a very good thing. You can change the clubs right before you make a shot. Instead of pressing the joystick to the side to change your aim, you can push the joystick up and down to alternate between clubs.
Among the other features there to help you is a wind meter. The wind meter is a ‘Boo’ up in the corner. It faces the direction of the wind, and then shows how fast the wind is going. Briefly, the other things you have to help you are a grid of where the ball should land, and a feature to tell you how far away you were from the hole.
There are a few modes you can play in this game. First, let me say that this is a 1 to 4 player game. In one player, you have a few different modes of play. First is the tournament. With this mode you play a singles game of golf, then after the hole, you are compared with all of the other golfers on a scoreboard, much like any televised golf game. The other two notably fun ones are the ‘Get a Character’ mode, in which you play one on one with a new character that you can’t originally use, if you beat him, you can use him. The other fun one is the mini-golf round. This is like a miniature golf game. It is all putting, and you try to get it into the hole. There is also the standard scorecard round, and a few others. Many fun modes of play for one player. If you have any other number of players, it stays pretty much the same.
Overall the gameplay is really great. As I have said making a good golf game is a very daunting task. But this game shows that they put a lot of thought into it, and a lot of detail into it. That really paid off, especially in this section. The idea of using the power bar at the bottom is great, and the wide variety of clubs makes the game very fun to play. Good job.
- Graphics
The graphics in this game are another hit. They definitely show the capabilities of the Nintendo 64, and those capabilities are great. This game is able to deliver perfectly rounded graphics, that look three dimensional. I’m sure that’s what they wanted too.
The first thing I want to talk about is the characters. They are one of the better things in the graphical area, and overall in the whole game. They are very 3 dimensional. One of the better ways to describe it with a common comparison is, much like Mario 64. By that, I mean that the characters in this game are polygonal, and perfectly rounded. Like most high-tech. games released right now, they use polygons, and look very 3D. Then, from there, they take the polygons, and do one of the best jobs rounding, and smoothing those graphics I have seen in a very long time. The characters look like people, and that is all you could really ask for.
The other thing that was very good was the detailing. By this I mean the special little touches put into both the characters, and the background designs. For the average gamer, you may not notice the little things. But for a review writer such as myself, I look for these things as instinct, and in this one, there was a lot to look for. You may be thinking to yourself right now, ‘What’s the big deal with details? They are only little things.’ Well, they are so much more. Individually, and in small numbers they don’t make a big difference, but I think in a cas like this, if you were to take away the great job of detailing, there would be a drastic change.
Overall the graphics were great. The actual graphics are great, using polygons, three dimensional figures, and rounding to make good designs is enough along. But from there they added all the little details. The graphics in this game showed a very high level of attentiveness, and tediousness that is great to see. Good job.
- Sound
The sound is another great aspect of this game. There isn’t really a great adjective to describe the sound that hasn’t been used already. They put a lot of sound effects in, and they all blended nicely. That was the great part of the sound. It creates a nice mood. This may have been especially hard too, because in this game, there is no music. Just the sound effects.
The main sound effects you will find are usually just the sounds of golf, the swing, the bounce, the ‘swish’ of the ball flying through the air. But, the other sound effects that help to calm you in a way are the sounds of nature. The most prominent is the sound of the birds chirping in the background. They make a nice soothing noise, and help set the laid back, calm mood of the game of golf.
The sound was almost perfect. But, almost. The thing that brought it down some was the lack of music. With some soft, calming music, the whole atmosphere and mood of the game would have been greatly improved. But, this wasn’t a huge loss, because the sound effects do a good job filling the gap.
- Enjoyability
The enjoyability is good. But, you may be wondering why it is not as good as the other mains scores averaged out. There is a simple explanation for that. The game can get slightly boring after a lot of play. It is great to play once you first get into it, and for the first long while. But, after time, it gets slightly boring. There isn’t a whole lot too keep you busy. There is a lot of modes, and mastering them all will keep you occupied. But, then everything is that same. In fact, playing through all the different modes it is all the same as well, just with a different purpose, or opponent. Overall great enjoyability, but not after a lot of play.
- {~~Other Important Scores~~}
Replay Value: Infinite
Technically the replay value in this game is infinite. The reason I say technically is because you do play this game over and over for a long time, but, there really is no ending to speak of. You will be playing this game for eternity before you find a real ending. Even if you get any secret characters, and get first an all tournaments, you wont really be finished the game. The only time you are really finished is when you get bored. So, I suppose you could say, great replay value.
- Challenge: High
The challenge of this game is really quite hard. You may think it to be simple to play. But, that is just to play alone. To actually be very good, and to be consistent, it will be hard. The computer players are the main reason. You wont be able to beat them until you get really good, and there isn’t a whole lot of room to improve. Eventually you will get good, and eventually you will master it all, but actually being able to do that is what makes the challenge so high.
- GOOD POINTS
-Gameplay
-Graphics
-Sound
- NOT QUITE AS GOOD POINTS
-Challenge
-Boredom factor
Score: 9.5
Rounded Score: 10
This Game Gets A Seifer Guarantee!
//Seifer psx
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