Moving aside from visuals, it’s of course very important for the game to feel fun and it does manage to accomplish that! It can take a while to properly gauge the wind, but it’s very easy to understand the basics of the game and to go out swinging. The last two released in the 4.0.0 update are especially charming and incredibly fun to look at and play on. Thankfully, the five courses released as free updates feel much more ingrained in the world. It feels less like these characters are playing on courses that belong in their world and more like they’re just playing in an unrelated golf game. However, in doing so it loses the charm that you come to expect and looks worse for it. It certainly feels like there was a strong emphasis on making the courses look great. Even with some weak textures here and there and an awkward-looking shiny effect for the stormy Wildweather Woods course, it is the best that the Mario Golf series has ever looked. The rest of the courses skew more towards a realistic design (giant Sandmaarghs aside). The only course at launch that felt at home to me was the lava-featuring and trap-filled fortress that is Bowser Highlands. The six courses that were available at launch are mostly distinct from each other, but they don’t exactly feel like they belong in this game. There have been plenty of courts, courses, and fields that might seem a little less cartoony, but you understand how the characters fit on the playing field overall.Īlthough you can come across Ty-foos and Piranha Creepers that act as obstacles on certain courses, they feel very tacked-on at times. Previous entries in many Mario-related sports series have done a great job at balancing strong visuals and the whimsical environments of the overall Mario universe. The regrettable part is that the opening sets a high bar and is arguably the best-looking part of the game. Even better, it shows off the game’s mechanics and the incredibly fun Battle Golf mode. It’s super stylish and just oozing with character. With Nintendo’s announcement that Mario Golf had received its final free update (version 4.0.0) in November, I thought it would be worth revisiting the game and seeing how it fared after six months.Īs soon as I jump back into it, I’m immediately reminded that this game has one of my favorite openings to a game in recent memory. The optimist in me said the game might become more well-rounded over time with updates and support as Mario Tennis Aces had.

The realist in me said that it was due to the pacing of the overall game among other issues. It was certainly fun at times, but it wasn’t nearly as fun as I was hoping.

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite stick the landing for me. I’m not into tennis by any stretch, so if developer Camelot could make a tennis game a consistent party game for me and my friends, I was excited to see if they could do the same with golf!

Part of the reason for this excitement was due to how much I loved playing Mario Tennis Aces. I’ve never been into golf as a video game or the real thing for that matter, but I couldn’t help but get excited with each trailer that would be shown off on a Nintendo Direct. Like many others, I was caught in a whirlwind of excitement this year as the launch of Mario Golf: Super Rush approached.

Mario golf switch update