Mario Golf: Super Rush launched on the Nintendo Switch a couple of weeks ago, and fans have been enjoying it. The game sees favorite characters from the world of Super Mario and lets them relax by playing some golf. Nintendo was kind enough to provide me with a copy to review and my thoughts are below.
Let’s talk about the single-player experience first. The first thing that you’ll probably want to do when loading up Mario Golf: Super Rush is start off the Golf Adventure mode. This is a small campaign where your Mii starts out as a Rookie golfer and you’ll play through the various kinds of golf modes available and rise through the ranks. As you level up, you’ll be able to increase stats to fit your play style and improve your drive distance, control, spin, speed for running on the course in certain modes, and more. It’s not super exciting, but it is very helpful and is essentially a more fun tutorial. It works well overall, but don’t look for a fantastic story.
The main draw of Mario Golf: Super Rush though, is playing with friends and family. You can choose to just go and play one of the core game modes. There’s Standard Golf that plays like you would expect. You hit the ball, it flies through the air, lands, and then you’re magically teleported to the ball and keep shooting. You can also play Speed Golf which features a lot of the similar gameplay, but instead of teleporting to your ball, you have to run to your ball. In both of these versions, you gain energy to access your character’s Super Shot like any good Mario sports game. You can also adjust a ball’s curve and spin to give you good control over where the ball lands and how it rolls. There are also obstacles on the course to make things more challenging, although these vary depending on which course you choose to play.
Other things to note that I greatly appreciate are that you can choose to play three, six, nine, or 18 holes and you can change where you start to provide more variety as you play. You can also play with as little as one controller and pass it around or have a controller for each player (up to four). You can even play where everyone takes turns simultaneously, although this limits the number of human players to two.
I personally prefer the Standard Golf mode. Speed Golf often left me frustrated on the later courses. My ball would end up right next to a vertical rise that would be impossible for me to hit up in a hit meaning I had to spend at least one additional stroke just to get up it, and then I had to struggle with getting my character to climb up there after it. Even worse was the Crosscountry (XC) Golf mode in the Mii Adventure section of the game which was like Speed Golf, but you also had to complete the course in a set number of strokes. Yes, there’s more strategy as you have to plan out the order in which you go for the holes (there will be multiple holes for you to complete per round), but it was very frustrating to play.
The final main game mode is Battle Golf. This mode features nine holes that you and up to three others play for at the same time. It doesn’t matter the number of strokes, just who gets their ball in first. You’ll want to strategically aim for holes to get ahead of the competition and use items like Bob-ombs to make your opponents struggle. There can even be special events turned on that trigger every now and then and really cause problems for everyone. I found this mode to be best with all human players personally.
The game can be a lot of fun, but there are some areas that I would adjust. For instance, when playing simultaneously, there were several times where I wouldn’t get to see where my ball went towards the end as it would cut away to another player’s ball and then even after all humans sunk the ball, you would have to wait around and watch the CPUs finish as well. Also, during Battle Golf, after you sink a shot, you’ll do a little dance which is fun, but in that game mode you want to be able to keep going and try to get more holes to score higher. I’m sure this is done on purpose to help other players have a bit of help and help prevent quick snowballing, but it felt more frustrating, especially when you’re not ahead in the game. Other areas that I would like to see improvement include giving Donkey Kong a golf outfit (everyone else has one, why not him?) and I would’ve liked more variety in the Special Shots. Too many feel the same and it’s also annoying how some Super Shots are designed for Speed Golf and simultaneous play while others are a bit more versatile.
As a quick note, I did try the motion controls for the game. It plays a lot like Wii Golf back in the day. If you enjoy that, you’ll enjoy this. It’s not the worst feeling, but it is a lot harder than using the buttons. Plus, I didn’t see any way to access a Super Shot while using motion controls.
Mario Golf: Super Rush overall is a lot of fun, especially as a party sports game; the way that Mario sports games are really meant to be played. Yes, there are areas where the game can be improved, but if you’re just looking for a fun activity to play with friends and family, this game is great. Heck, even my preschool age kid loves playing the game. I’m interested to see what additional content Nintendo has in store. I would especially love to see Samus join the game and shot the ball out of her arm cannon for her Super Shot. Could be a great thing to include when closer to the release of Metroid Dread.
