As technically the first Mario Sports game, Mario Golf gets the whole subseries off to a pretty mediocre and confusing start.
Starting off with the positives the game looks pretty good for an N64 game and has really good visual presentation. Everything from the textures to the UI is rally clean looking and has almost as much charm as any other Mario game on the platform, almost. The game also has a good amount of content in all its unique courses, modes, and characters that have different playstyles for the player to master and choose which they like best. And finally, the core gameplay of Mario Golf, while it does have its negatives as well that I'll get into in a moment, is still pretty fun and satisfying. The game has several complex systems for the player to figure out in a natural way as they play the game, even several courses in I was still figuring out new things I could do to get better shots and it was pretty fun. The process and feeling of figuring everything out by the end felt a bit like finally grasping how to effectively play a fighting game or finding the correct strategy to beat a Soulslike boss, albeit to a much lesser extent though.
Unfortunately, though the game's depth is a double-edged sword and is for the most part more of unnecessary hinderance than an endearing feature. As I already mentioned the game has several complex systems to learn how to use but as the game goes on it expects you to learn them for yourself or you will constantly be getting left being by the CPUs in one way or another. I did start to get the hang of it with time but by the time I felt confident in my abilities the game was over and I had done everything it had to offer. Another big problem I had with the gameplay is that it doesn't feel like Mario Golf, it just feels like Golf. There are no fun gimmicks that would only happen in a Mario game, no interesting stage hazards or chaotic items or cool character specific signature moves that have some effect on your golf shot that we've come to expect from Mario Sports games, no this one truly is just golf with Mario characters in it. Now again, this was the first Mario Sports games so I can cut them some slack for not having those things yet, but having played newer entries in the subseries first that do have these kinds of things that make them stand out, it makes me question why anyone would ever go back to this game.
Mario Golf is a good first attempt and foundation for the Mario Sports subseries, but it's not one I can ever see myself going back to. I'm hesitant to call it a bad game, but it's certainly not a great one by today's standards either, so I'll allow it to sit here in the middle of the road as a perfectly mediocre 5/10.
Starting off with the positives the game looks pretty good for an N64 game and has really good visual presentation. Everything from the textures to the UI is rally clean looking and has almost as much charm as any other Mario game on the platform, almost. The game also has a good amount of content in all its unique courses, modes, and characters that have different playstyles for the player to master and choose which they like best. And finally, the core gameplay of Mario Golf, while it does have its negatives as well that I'll get into in a moment, is still pretty fun and satisfying. The game has several complex systems for the player to figure out in a natural way as they play the game, even several courses in I was still figuring out new things I could do to get better shots and it was pretty fun. The process and feeling of figuring everything out by the end felt a bit like finally grasping how to effectively play a fighting game or finding the correct strategy to beat a Soulslike boss, albeit to a much lesser extent though.
Unfortunately, though the game's depth is a double-edged sword and is for the most part more of unnecessary hinderance than an endearing feature. As I already mentioned the game has several complex systems to learn how to use but as the game goes on it expects you to learn them for yourself or you will constantly be getting left being by the CPUs in one way or another. I did start to get the hang of it with time but by the time I felt confident in my abilities the game was over and I had done everything it had to offer. Another big problem I had with the gameplay is that it doesn't feel like Mario Golf, it just feels like Golf. There are no fun gimmicks that would only happen in a Mario game, no interesting stage hazards or chaotic items or cool character specific signature moves that have some effect on your golf shot that we've come to expect from Mario Sports games, no this one truly is just golf with Mario characters in it. Now again, this was the first Mario Sports games so I can cut them some slack for not having those things yet, but having played newer entries in the subseries first that do have these kinds of things that make them stand out, it makes me question why anyone would ever go back to this game.
Mario Golf is a good first attempt and foundation for the Mario Sports subseries, but it's not one I can ever see myself going back to. I'm hesitant to call it a bad game, but it's certainly not a great one by today's standards either, so I'll allow it to sit here in the middle of the road as a perfectly mediocre 5/10.