“Mario Golf: Super Sprint” review: excellent core gameplay, excellent mode, but mediocre story adventure

Mario’s latest sports adventure game does not have the best story mode, but its core gameplay and modes are excellent.

The best thing Mario Golf: Super Sprint It is its absolute disregard for some of the basic rules of golf. Don’t worry, take your time, wait for your turn? Forget that. In a way, this is injecting the crazy energy of Mario Kart into golf, which is great.

For the record, the standard-released golf is there-but the real magic of Super Rush can undoubtedly be found in Super Rush’s more Mario-like mod.

Speed ​​golf is very simple-the important thing is time-not the score-so you just want to finish the course as quickly as possible, although every time you hit the ball will increase your time. Every player starts at the same time and is on the court at the same time. When you rush along the court to where the ball lands, you can slightly interfere with them between shots.

However, Speed ​​Golf doesn’t care about it-the point is that you get there as quickly as possible, and the trade-offs-do you take a detour to get some coins, let you use special moves faster, or do you prioritize catching the ball ? This also adds broader metadata to the course-because you may deliberately fail one hole to pick up coins to start faster and blow up another hole.

If Speed ​​Golf is more like Mario Kart racing, then Battle Golf is more inclined to adopt this formula, but what needs to be worried about is the energy boost and the traditional Mario hazards. However, the main difference is that in addition to everyone playing at the same time, you can also play each hole simultaneously in any order you like in a large arena. Each hole can only sink once, and the first player to reach a certain number wins.

This is a golf battle royale, to a certain extent-when you put another player in the same hole, it is difficult to express how exciting it is-the pressure must not only be correct, but also first Get there-because if you don’t, the hole will disappear and you have to aim for another score.

Battle Golf is further affected by dangers and special actions, which are no longer trivial matters, but can actually significantly change the flow of the game. I have seen a perfect ball blown out of the green by a bob-omb. There is nothing you can do but suck it up and continue. It’s messy, but in the best way-the same energy Mario has performed so well in a racing game, or an overly busy co-op in the new Super Mario Bros. game.

These patterns are great. In fact, they are the lifeblood of the game. Although traditional golf rules are available, if you really want to play golf directly, even for leisure and entertainment, you may better play the 2K PGA Tour game on a lower difficulty with assists turned on. Mario Golf has been simplified in an inherently unsatisfactory way-but when you consider all the other factors of speed golf and combat golf, you won’t notice this simplification.

In addition, the way everyone plays at the same time helps make this a frenetic and engaging online experience. There is a deep endurance management, the use of special skills, and even the balance of various character abilities. Just like Mario Tennis Aces, I think the high level of online meta in Speed ​​Golf and Battle Golf will really make people shine-this is exciting.

These modes are accessible through the most basic menu option in the world: golf. You choose from Mario’s favorite list, choose a mode, and play. However, the other big button on the main menu is for something completely different-the golf adventure mode.

Over the years, fans have been chasing the return of these modes-many of us have very fond memories of Game Boy and Game Boy Advance Mario sports games, some of which have mature role-playing game story modes in which the protagonist has joined Funny sports league of the Mario universe. Golf adventure is just that-although it never really reaches the exciting heights of those games.

This is the basic course: your Mii character joins a golf academy and works through levels distributed in several different course biomes. You can walk around and the golf course itself. There are equipment to consider, statistics that are upgraded with each round of golf getting EXP, and the role of chattering in the world.

It checked all the correct boxes, but it was kind of…good? Some kind of x-factor is missing here, and the built-in world and story mode just feel a bit boring. The quality of the story mode is also significantly lower than the gorgeous Mario and friends elements in the game. The main world is big and beautiful, but I don’t feel anything when I walk around it. Generally speaking, I just follow the red target arrow to point to the next actual golf course.

Once you are on the court, I think the main problem with adventure mode is that it takes a long time for your character to be really good at golf. If you start in adventure mode and then jump out as one of the famous Mario actors to participate in the first Battle Golf game three or four hours later, you will be amazed how they feel better and more refined in golf. Obviously, this is intentional-as you level up, your character will also improve-but to find a balance, don’t make the early stages of the game feel difficult. Super Rush is clearly below that target.

Also: man, voice. Characters in story mode rarely “bark” when you talk to them, but the character you talk to repeatedly has two voice clips. When I heard Hammer Bro say “Hey!” about the fifty time, my patience became less and less. This is a small complaint, but this element also shows that the story mode feels a bit cheap.

These problems are a pity, because the adventure mode has very good ideas and makes good use of the core concepts of the game. Traditional golf, speed golf, and combat golf all have opportunities to shine, and they are also properly introduced here-in some cases, the new mechanisms are layered on top of each other. For example, in a desert course, you have to manage your own moisture content-this is basically a shortcut to add another stress, if you accidentally play, you may run out of resources and fail.

There are many things to like about adventure golf. It’s a great tutorial, and it’s definitely fun—just longer than I want. However, although I thought I would play this game because of the story-driven adventure mode, it turns out that it is just a kind of casual fun — my real fun comes from the core Mario Golf with Mario characters — and those glories Pattern. These modes are also absolutely crucial, because their vitality helps to make up for the shortcomings of the small number of courses and adventure mode.

However, these core models are very special. This arcade sports experience really doesn’t happen anymore. Most sports games nowadays are simulation games-so I am very happy to get another game that carries the spirit of ancient, arcade, and stupid sports games. The shortcomings of the adventure mode are not enough to prevent me from recommending Mario Golf: Super Sprint-but just don’t expect an unprecedentedly great sports story mode.

The review code provided by the publisher. Test on normal Nintendo Switch (docking) and Switch Lite.