Review for Mario Golf: Super Rush. Game for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 25/06/2021
Tennis, baseball, and even football and the Olympic games: Mario is more of a jack of all trades than a plumber, who in addition to saving princesses and galaxies dabbles in various sports, including golf, which is probably his favorite sport. In fact, Mario has been on the green since 1984, the year of publication of Golf, a game for NES programmed by Satoru Iwata. The title not only had the courage to launch in a certain sense all the other sports activities and to pave the future golf courses, but it saw the Nintendo mascot as a playable character - certainly a bit disproportionate to the canons for which it is known today. worldwide.
A decade later Nintendo struck an agreement with Camelot, until then linked to Sega with the fantasy series Shining Force and Everybody's Golf, and from this was born the first Mario Golf for Nintendo 64. From that moment on. Camelot has been inextricably linked to Mario's sporting feats, passing through several chapters and arriving on Nintendo Switch with the new Mario Golf: Super Rush.
Yes Sir, I Can Bogey
The game starts with a long cinematic showing one of the modes of this new title, the Golf Battle, with Mario and the other characters jostling each other to try to be among the first to hit the ball in the hole. banana peels and special shots, and then catapult us to the main screen.
The real novelties of Mario Golf: Super Rush are two: the possibility of using the motion sensors of the Joy-Con and the Speed Golf, which is undoubtedly the selling point of the title for Nintendo. It is clear how it is the aim of this new Mario Golf title is to be the most accessible for everyone, and with many elements that combine it with a party game, trying to wink even at those who do not particularly appreciate golf, finding it boring.
Here the relaxation and the noise of the wind in the trees in the silence due to concentration are undermined by the songs, by the colors and by still being a Mario game, of being playing with his characters and being surrounded by koopa, goomba and all. the other inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom.
To confirm the accessibility of Mario Golf: Super Rush, Camelot has made available a long and useful glossary with all the typical terms of golf, most of which do not have a counterpart in our language. The tee box is the position from which you start your game, the par is the ideal number of shots to put the ball in the hole and the birdie will soon become synonymous with happiness (score of -1 compared to par) together with the apotheosis of hole in one, which needs no explanation. The green is the area to aspire to, the one where the hole is present, while the fairway extends between the green and the tee box.
The rules of golf are the same as always, you have to put the ball in the hole, and to decide the fate of the game there are several variables: the practice, the club chosen, the direction of the wind and the obstacles on the course. There are clubs for every situation, from the one that throws the ball away to the one that allows the ball to bounce in the water or remove the chestnuts from the fire when you end up in an uncultivated or worse sandy area of the course. The obstacles, on the other hand, are all courtesies of the Mario universe, such as Marghibruchi, Categnacci and Twomp, which can annoy our race. Mario Golf: Super Rush winds between simpler courses, where vegetation dominates, to desert areas or rich in ponds, diversifying as much as possible the choice and approach in view of an additional batch of even more thematic and imaginative routes (as in the World Tour).
The heart of Mario Golf: Super Rush are the various modes it offers. The least interesting is Solitary Challenge, which as the name suggests involves only one player trying to improve their 18-hole record or time. Free Golf is the main mode of the game, where there are new features such as Speed Golf, Battle Golf and multiplayer, as well as a standard mode. In the end, Super Rush marks the return of Adventure mode, which was last seen in Mario Golf: Advance Tour.
Golf Is Such An Easy Game
With a beginning that is very reminiscent of Pokémon, The Adventure involves the creation of a Mii, which can also be used outside and in other modes, and presents a plot that does not differ from wanting to become the classic professional golfer. His purpose is to be a great tutorial through which to learn the difference between the various shots and advance in rank, starting from the lowest and starting the journey at Green Graziosi. This mode has a well-defined gameplay loop, not to say monotonous, that is to practice, qualify for tournaments and eventually win them. One of the first elements to make friends with is a very intuitive power indicator, which signals how powerful the shot will be, how much effect the ball will have and so on, which will be the basis of the whole experience offered by Mario Golf: Super Rush. By pressing Y instead it will be possible to study the situation from above, choosing the most appropriate shot according to the distance from the hole.
Advancing in the Adventure will not only level up, allowing the customization of the Mii in its different statistics (Power, Resistance, Speed, Control, Spin) but you will have access to new outfits, clubs and new shots to diversify your golf course strategy: for example, you can make curved shots to avoid the obstacles present in the various courses or launch into a so-called Special Shot, which we will tackle later but which in a nutshell allows us to pocket the ball with a higher probability and break large boulders.
The Adventure has some faint interesting twists and it is possible to freely turn around the various areas that reflect the available routes, but it is clear how Camelot has done the bare minimum to make this mode captivating, focusing a lot on the tutorial aspect and leaving the game world at a "basic" level even just graphically speaking, turning our gaze to other home console productions. This is populated by the typical creatures of the Mushroom Kingdom, but it does not seem as cured as other productions is the absence for most of the time of the main characters to weigh more. To mitigate this absence, besides the alleged rivals Boo and Plakkoopa (playable character here at the debut), it would have been a nice idea to put a main character as a "champion" at the end of each area: Yoshi at the beginning, for example, or Peach at her golf residence. The cafeteria could also have been used to purchase special food to gain some advantage in the next tournament.
We understand that these are whims, but it is no coincidence that the Adventure mode becomes more interesting as soon as two specific shady characters meet. To make a comparison with Advance Tour, in which they impersonated a boy or a girl who dreamed of reaching the level of Mario and defeating him, their world was full of quotes, like carpets with the shape of Mario's face, or a Boo who appeared. suddenly in the mirror and other goodies that are unfortunately not present here. Elements that we appreciated, however, are the fact that each area has its own characteristic way of playing golf, from normal to Speed Golf through Golf Campestre, an option where it is not the points that count, but the ability to complete the holes. with a predetermined number of total hits, and the bosses, present for the first time in a chapter of the Mario Golf series, albeit with the light.
Golf Up, Superstar!
Mario Golf: Super Rush offers a starting roster of 16 characters, available immediately. To the classic roster formed by Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser and so on come baptized on the green Plakkoopa, King Bob-omb and Pauline (Donkey Kong's damsel in distress, back from a nice parenthesis in Super Mario Odyssey) and others are expected, given the Camelot's willingness to support the game with new characters and new paths over the months.
Like the Mii, the protagonists for the golf outfit exception have stats that make them slightly different from each other, starting with the "class" they represent. Bowser and Plakkoopa are among the strong characters, who manage to send the ball farther than the others, while others like Bowser Jr. focus on effects. The Speed and Stamina stats show their usefulness in mobile modes where the bag is chasing the ball, such as Speed Golf.
Each golfer has his own Special Shot, which sees the character light up and make a particular animation, hitting the ball hard and applying effects to it with the aim of modifying the playing field and disturb the opponents. Pauline sings Jump Up, Superstar! by sweeping away the other balls he encounters, Luigi can freeze the impact zone to make his rivals slide, Bowser Jr. fills the area with smoke making it difficult to get a good score and Rosalinda transforms the balls of others into stars, which roll notoriously worse of golf balls. Special Shots are one of the most refined and fun parts of the game, and they shine especially during Speed Golf, the queen mode of Mario Golf: Super Rush.
Gotta Go Fast
In Speed Golf, rounds no longer exist: speed counts. It is indeed one simultaneous mode in which the characters throw the ball at the same time and start running all the way trying to reach it quickly through unique shots and at the same time pester others and prevent them from getting a good score.
In the paths there are obstacles and objects to collect, hearts and coins, which respectively restore the Resistance bar to be able to run even longer and the Special Shot bar. The presence of thematic courses and the possibility of customizing the number of holes and from which one starts, even casually, helps to perceive each game as different, which give their best together with other players.
Golf battle instead it is a Speed Golf concentrated in an indoor course in which you have to steal the hole from your opponents, and score the required number of points to get on the pedestal.
And the more frenetic mode, in which your ball can change position at any moment due to banana peels, explosive bob-ombs and such "go-go events" that have an effect on the course, such as a shower of bombs or the classic star effect. The only drawback of this mode are the paths: only two and very similar to each other, one simpler and the other technical, with more natural obstacles.
All of this can be done by playing against the CPU or with three other players, either using the Joy-Con as a controller and taking advantage of motion control in Wii Sports style. In this case Super Rush will take on a more simulative and immersive aspect, allowing you to hold the Joy-Con vertically like a golf club, at the expense of losing the ability to give an effect to the ball. Holding the Joy-Con feels like you are really on the green to beat the Putt for the Birdie. To try.
We also had the opportunity to play online through a room with which we were able to have fun with some colleagues and confirm the potential of Speed Golf. Rooms can be created and searched with or without a password to play all the modes in Free Golf, and up to two players with the same console can participate in the same room by sharing controllers or Joy-Con. It will be necessary to see if the voice chat will be implemented or not via the smartphone app of the Nintendo Switch Online.
Mario Golf: Super Rush was destined to spend the summer with us, and maybe even beyond: it is one of those games that are easy to learn but difficult to master, in which matches can be questioned at any time, be they relaxing. or busy.
Mario Golf: Super Rush is in short the sum of all the Mariesque golf games released so far. This new chapter for Nintendo Switch distorts classic golf by giving it more fun and stimulating modes, both played in groups and alone, and has its spearhead in the advertised Speed Golf, also thanks to the articulated roster of characters. The Adventure mode is basic and good for understanding mostly the rudiments of this sport, but it is simplified in order to make the game accessible to the vast audience of players who own the Nintendo hybrid, who will be able to learn new terms and apply them both on TV and in portability. in the various experiences offered on the green.
► Mario Golf: Super Rush is an RPG-Sport game developed and published by Nintendo for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 25/06/2021
