It’s golf time again in the Mushroom Kingdom! Yup, after nearly 7 years, Nintendo have announced a new game in the Mario Golf series, due out on Nintendo Switch in June 2021:
As you can see, it’s an interesting one in many ways.
On the positive side, it seems like the developers are really trying to recapture much of what fans liked about the original titles. There’s a full fledged story mode with RPG elements, which feels like something straight out of the GBA games. There are wacky character costumes and outfits, akin to the ones in Mario Kart and Mario Party 2.
The game has a story mode where you can upgrade your character’s skills
And there are various unique mechanics and changes to mechanics there too. These include being able to analyse the entire course before making a move, as well as the strange ‘Speed Golf’ mode, where players have to dash after their shots, complete with powerups to collect and use along the way.
It’s certainly trying to be more ambitious in some areas, especially with characters like King Bob-omb seemingly making their spinoff debut as well:
King Bob-omb is playable in Mario Golf: Super Rush
Tee off at the same time with up to three other players* and race through the course to get your ball in first. Outpace and interrupt your opponents with dashes and special shots. Luigi, for example, can freeze the green and King Bob-omb can pelt the course with bombs.
Yet at the same time, it’s also a game we’re rather confused and concerned about too.
Since while the mechanics seem unique enough, the courses themselves… kinda don’t. In fact, the courses seem rather generic from what we’ve seen so far, with the ones in the trailer feeling like they could come from any old cartoon golf game.
The game’s courses can look nice, but they also seem a tad generic
And that’s worrying to us. After all, Camelot have already been guilty of making sports games a bit generic in the past with Mario Tennis Ultra Smash, and with Mario Golf: Super Rush following the same title format, we worry they might be about to make that mistake again here.
The graphics don’t seem super hot either. Oh sure, they’re not the worst the system has ever seen, and they don’t always look bad per se.
Yet as various people online have pointed out, they don’t seem to be quite up to par with the likes of Mario Kart 8 or Mario Tennis Aces either, with a fair few rough spots where character models and course textures are concerned.
The game’s courses seem a little rough at the moment…
As do some of the character models here…
So we’re a bit worried there as well.
Either way though, the game does appear to have a lot of promise so far, and it should definitely be a nice change of pace when it launches on June 25th 2021.
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