Mario Golf

"mario hits the fairway - with style"

Once again , the master programmers over at Nintendo and Camelot have managed to move their most famous characters to another unusual genre for mascots . In Mario Golf , the aforementioned plumber and his chumps hit the brightly-coloured fairways for a round of golf . Included in the game are Mario , Luigi , Wario , Yoshi and Peach , who wears a smaller skirt than her usual fluffy one . Also , there are some secret characters such as Donkey Kong and Bowser , and a couple of generic golfers that are reminscant of those in Hot Shots Golf .

Gameplay is simply , golf . Like any other sport game with the exception of the Hangtime and Blitz serieses , Mario Golf doesnt try to reinvent the sport . You take your turns to hit , and you win if you get the ball in the hole in as little shots as possible . The main attraction of Mario Golf are the 18 hole tournaments . You can play many different modes such as ring mode and versus . You start off playing on one course , but you can earn extra one by beating certain opponents and earning more stars . For me the main attraction was the multiplayer mode , in which you and up to three other buddies can take to the courses for a friendly 18 holes . To add further to the fun , you can taunt your opponents . Just when they are about to hit the ball , you can let off a well timed " mamma mia " and it can be very off putting !

The graphics are of a good quality , but some people may not like the whole style of what they see . On a whole , the only word i can use to describe the graphics is " Happy " . The couses look good , but i felt that the mini golf courses left a lot to be desired . They consist mainly of a checked pattern on the ground , with some trees in the background . Not much to keep my interest for very long .

Sound in the game is of top quality , but the music will put you to sleep quickly if your playing it at any time of the night . The taunts are truly hilarious when timed right , although Yoshis are so tedious youll want to hit the person that is Yoshi .

As I have said before , the main attraction to this game is the multiplayer mode . I only played the one player mode for two rounds before i discovered the multiplayer mode , and since then i havent played one player again . One of the main attractions to multiplayer mode is the fact that no game is ever the same as one before it . This adds to the replay of the game infinitely so . There are also so many things to unlock in the one player mode that this cartridge wont be out of your n64 for months .

Over all , id say that the only reasons you could not like this game would be a serious problem with the game of golf or have a personality clash with Mario and his friends . This game is definetely worth the rental price , and you should seriously consider buying it .

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99