Who else got Mario Golf? I wasn't going to get it but then randomly got it on a whim last night.
Mostly because I miss Wii Golf and another motion control golf game from Nintendo sounded good even though I read some mediocre reviews of the game. I played the heck out of Wii Sports golf back in the day - even though it just one 9-hole course, spent so many hours golfing on the Wii!
I gotta say while the motion control swings in Mario Golf are more advanced than in Wii Golf, it definitely doesn't feel as good, which is very disappointing. The whole motion control swing interface lacks player feedback so it's hard to get a feel for your swings. There's no feedback whatsoever for if you're holding your club slanted which will result in slicing, there is no real sense of making small adjustments to the power of your swing it is kinda just a crapshoot each time you swing and the meter just suddenly appears at the power you swung at rather than giving a sense of building up to the power or something (Wii Golf had a better sense of being able to see gauge your power during practice swings to get the right amount when you took your shot). I'm still not sure how to put top spin or back spin on the ball with motion controls or if it is even possible. The story mode only lets you do button controls as far as i can tell and the controller instructions only cover button controls in depth. Motion controls feel like a side option that they didn't full even build out, which sucks because Golf is one of the genres where motion controls makes for a lot more fun than standard controls.
There's not really any feedback sense of hitting the ball either. Just not much feeling tying the player to the fact that you're hitting the ball. Honestly, I think this would be a much better game if they just implemented the simpler Wii Golf controls as that had a much smoother more comprehensible interface.
So far only played a few hours. Started the story mode, played mostly just standard golf on the first two courses, and play like 12 holes of speed golf which was alright but just played the CPU.
I'm assuming with more content that Nintendo has stated they will be releasing for this game eventually it will feel like a more full game, but the "meh" actual golf swing mechanics, which is so important in golf games obviously, limits how fun this is. I was hoping for Wii Sports Golf fleshed out into a full game in the Mario universe with fun modes for multiplayer - that would be a blast. Seems like instead I got a worse experience than a golf mini-game from about 15 years ago that pretty much served as a great tech demo, and it is only partially fleshed out to a full game at launch at least. Plus the story mode is apparently from reviews I've read isn't very substantial, and the courses (granted I've only played the first two which look to be by far the most standard/plain golf course in the game) don't seem terribly inspired, though maybe they are, I'll have to see when i play the other four. I still have a lot more to discover in the game, like special shots and the other courses and story mode and battle mode and so on, but like, this is Mario - seems like they could have made full-on interesting platforming golf courses that are mini-Mario 3D levels but laid out as holes on a golf course. Just running across a course isn't all that great, they missed the mark by not turning that mode into a fun melding of Mario platforming and golf.
Between the lack of feel and feedback when swinging the club + the unintuitive motion control interface, the short story mode, the lack of content at launch, and no effort to push the envelope to really mesh Mario gameplay into Golf gameplay, it feels like Nintendo kinda just wanted to check this franchise off on the Switch library. A decent game that's fun to do multiplayer but doesn't try to do anything all that interesting or great. Hell, if all it did was switch to Wii Golf controls that alone would make the core experience much better, even if the content is only alright.
Not saying the game is terrible or anything. It's decent and now after a few hours of play has improved from my initial impression following the first couple holes I hit, and I'm guessing I'll like it more once I've gotten all the courses and know all the controls better and get used to it more, but with a bit more focus on the core gameplay interface and more content and more interesting courses it could have been a standout blockbuster for the Switch. Probably only worth $60 if you and some friends love Golf games and play local multiplayer a lot or you do a bunch of online gaming. As someone who mostly wanted a fun motion control golf experience with cool Mario levels thrown in, and will only occasionally get to play local or online multiplayer, well, if there had been a demo I would have tried that and saved the $60.
Sorry that was a bit of a rant, but who else got Mario Golf? Love it? Hate it? Thoughts?
