Mario Golf: Super Rush
Main game
2.87 average rating based on 142 ratings
- Developers
- Camelot, Camelot Software Planning
- Publishers
- Nintendo
- Franchises
- Mario
- Series
- Mario Golf
- Event
- The Game Awards 2021
- Platforms
- Nintendo Switch
- Genres
- Adventure, Role-playing (RPG), Sport
- Themes
- Party
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Mario Golf: Super Rush?
Potentially a fun party game, but an utterly disappointing 'GOLF' game
This review is for the Nintendo Switch version
More of a rant, but here we go:
This game is an utter disappointment to a Mario Golf Veteran who's played every game in the series (even the obscure Mobile Golf) that made me want to rant so hard to make a game review for this.
The story mode might as well not exist. While it DOES have more variety than Mario Golf: World Tour castle club, the plot has no cohesion. The first 30% of the game does give strong first impressions. You start out with (a rather fabulous) intro cutscene where Mario wins another tournament and you are a new Rookie Mii wanting to be a champion, which is the entire plot of the Mario Golf Gameboy games. You even gain exp and level your skills too. Cool! You then play a full 18 hole stroke-play tournament (with minor Speed Golf rules) at Bonnie Greens, which is how the bulk of the Mario Golf RPGs went too...
... Except that's the ONLY TOURNAMENT IN THE WHOLE DAMN GAME. Each new course has different requirements to proceed to the next one. Ridgerock lake has a cool Cross Country Golf idea where you play the ENTIRE course at …
More of a rant, but here we go:
This game is an utter disappointment to a Mario Golf Veteran who's played every game in the series (even the obscure Mobile Golf) that made me want to rant so hard to make a game review for this.
The story mode might as well not exist. While it DOES have more variety than Mario Golf: World Tour castle club, the plot has no cohesion. The first 30% of the game does give strong first impressions. You start out with (a rather fabulous) intro cutscene where Mario wins another tournament and you are a new Rookie Mii wanting to be a champion, which is the entire plot of the Mario Golf Gameboy games. You even gain exp and level your skills too. Cool! You then play a full 18 hole stroke-play tournament (with minor Speed Golf rules) at Bonnie Greens, which is how the bulk of the Mario Golf RPGs went too...
... Except that's the ONLY TOURNAMENT IN THE WHOLE DAMN GAME. Each new course has different requirements to proceed to the next one. Ridgerock lake has a cool Cross Country Golf idea where you play the ENTIRE course at once and have to sink any of the designated holes at your leisure. Great idea, but this course is pretty TOUGH for a game designed for "baby's first golf game" where I feel 90% of golf newcomers will rage quit at this mode alone. But after this... the story then derails into a DIFFERENT direction of how there are natural disasters happening at each course, and it completely forgoes the "Become the Golf Champion idea". The rest of the game is tied to beating arbitrary bosses, up through Bowser's Highlands! After you beat the Bowser's Highland boss? In about 5 hours, the story is over. No final tournament. You don't even play all 18 holes of Bowser's Highlands. The end...
...THAT'S IT?! Yep. No replayability to the story. You can't even play regular tournaments in Golf Adventure if you return to it, which even World Tour's Castle Club let you do... Well you can't even play ANY tournaments period because the game doesn't have this functionality (yet if DLC is a thing). This is a BASE STANDARD FOR ANY GOLF GAME PERIOD. Absolutely none of the other more traditional golf-based modes from past Mario Golf games (Ring Shot, Club Slots, Coin Shoot, 2 vs 2 doubles, even a damn training mode) are back asides from Skins. World Tour even took replayability a step further with bi-weekly online tournaments that gave you something to partake in. But in Super Rush, after the story... you have no reason to keep on playing unless you like to grind Mii levels or points to unlock Star Characters. And you don't even get Mii exp outside of Golf Adventure.
Oh and... online is terrible as well. The game has ZERO matchmaking, which even the barebones Mario Tennis Aces on release did! Everything has to be done in public rooms, like Smash Ultimate's Battle Arena. Good on paper, but there's gotta be more than 20 filters you can set which would spread an already rather niche genre's audience even thinner. Seeing stuff like this in other releases (GRID 2019 comes to mind), online will be dead in a month unless you pre-arrange in a Discord chatroom or something. However, I can say the most fun I've had with this game is Standard Play online rooms, as I've had close games with other random players of similar skill levels.
Not to mention... this game has ALMOST NO CHARM outside of the intro cutscene:
- Characters? Asides from the golf outfits for some characters (Boo should at least have a visor like they do in Tennis Aces), the character post-hole animations are very minimal compared to the hilariously over the top reactions in Toadstool Tour and World Tour where for a Double Bogey you'd have a boulder actually flatten Wario, or Bowser throwing a rage fit and 4th-wall punch-break the camera.
- Courses? Gutted as well. These are visually the blandest looking courses in the entire series (just look at World Tour), and each hole doesn't visually alter too much (just look at Toadstool Tour). Not to mention, the existence of Speed Golf kills course creativity. This means all courses have to be much wider without much crazy terrain we've seen in past games. Gameplay-wise though, I did find Ridgerock Lake and Balmy Dunes to be great technical courses before the gimmicks start piling in on Wellweather Woods / Bowser Highlands.
Oh and... even the controls are fundamentally changed from the past Mario Golf games. The older games in the franchise were built off a 3-click scheme. You press a button once to start a swing, then you press a button to set power, and then you press once more for an impact "accuracy" check to see if the ball goes as planned. You had to both plan and execute your shot! Super Rush entirely omits the 3rd accuracy press, and accuracy is RNG determined! This is the same with Auto "Easy Mode" swings in Toadstool Tour, but now you're forced with this control style. The amount of RNG spread does depend on your ball lie (i.e. shooting from the bunker vs fairway) and is okay in practice, but I still prefer when I had control of nearly every aspect of the swing in past games. Super Rush does have an advanced spin system where you can even make the ball unrealistically snake in mid-air.
My nitpicks don't end here. There are no alternate camera angles that zoom in more closely on where your ball lands, and you for the most part can't view the green terrain changes much when you're doing an approach shot. Also a minor nitpick detail that DOES bother me... the Mii's voice. World Tour Mii voice clips are taken directly from Mario Kart Wii, and the same voices match up depending on your Mii's shirt color. This is NOT true with Super Rush where they mismatched the Mii's voice from Mario Kart 8. This is the highest-pitched my Mii has ever sounded. It's just the lack of attention to details like this along with the no charm part which makes the game feel even more unpolished to me.
In the end, Mario Golf: Super Rush is a by the numbers sequel that pampers too much to the casual audience while making this game simultaneously a "baby's first golf" and "not-golf (Speed / Battle Golf), while failing to even be the bare minimum of a full-featured golf game. Maybe DLC will fix the issues, but the initial presentation has already soured my opinion on the game.
My advice:Unless you plan on playing this game in a casual setting like Mario Party, honestly just pick up any prior Mario Golf to this point. Even the non-Mario We Love Golf! (Wii), developed by the same Camelot, is more of a Mario Golf game than this. If you want to try a more RPG take on Golf, look into Golf Story too.
More personal rant: This game has made me have no confidence in pre-ordering games anymore unless it's something that I'm sure to 110% enjoy like Smash Bros, Mario Kart, or Forza Horizon. I even had tempered expectations for this release, and this game went below that. It even holds my title for most regretful game purchase even over "The Crew 2" and "GRID 2019" for me.
Sad to say because of the Switch Install-base, I feel like this will be the best-selling game in the franchise. A lot of people will disagree with me, to the point, it feels like the same situation in the Paper Mario franchise where I have to defend why I think Paper Mario 64 and the Thousand-Year Door are objectively better games in nearly every way (in my opinion) when most people only have played The Origami King.
Brief Final Thoughts
Waited along time for a new Mario Golf, being a big fan of the series despite little interest in golf. The gameplay was solid although special abilities were a bit of a disappointment. Courses are stunning to look at just lacking in choices with six from the base game, the roster is pretty strong and even features King Bob-Omb which was random but welcoming. Adventure mode initially had me hyped but it was over before It really got started and lacked any real depth that I was hungry for. DLC could bring this score up because the gameplay is already strong, a few more courses and modes and this could be a contender for best in the series.
Joillekin par riittää
This review is for the Nintendo Switch version
Mario Golf: Super Rush onnistui vaikuttamaan previkoissaan erittäin kovalta Mario-hupailulta. Todellisuus on jokseenkin toinen. Itse golfin peluu on pääpiirteittäin todella hauskaa, uusi Speed Golf pelimuoto on ihan hupaisa ja etenkin moninpeli tarjoaa kutkuttavaa kilvoittelua kavereiden kanssa. Iso miinus golfin peluussa tulee tosin ihan jokaisen lyönnin RNG-virhemarginaalista: olisi helpompi onnistua ja oppia pelaamaan, jos lyönnit eivät lähtisi paskansattumalla piirun verran pieleen. Muita miinuksia tulee köykäisistä tuotantoarvoista, tarinamoodin hukatusta potentiaalista ja yleisestä pelaamaan kannustamisen ja mielekkään unlockattavan puutteesta. Mutta jos kaljapeliksi haluaa hauskaa ja helposti opittavaa golffia, tämä kelpaa siihen hyvin. Toivottavasti ilmaiset DLC:t ja patchit tuovat lisää pöytään.
Fun game! Probably my fav Mario sports game for the Switch somehow.
Started this last night, multiplayer with the Mrs. Had a great time. Easy to play, trickier to master. One round in and she's already downed a couple of eagles bouncing them off the pole!
I think I can see why playing single player would be a drag. The environments are a bit bland (not that we've seen them all yet). The course soundtrack I may have to turn off too. It's probably a bit simple and dull on your own.
Will report back when we've unlocked and played all the courses!
EVEN MORE Pre-release rant incoming:
Another thing that's really concerning is we still don't know the full depth of the game's controls, especially if "manual mode" swing is in!!! Previous entries have a three-click swing option where you Press A to start your swing, press A to set your power, and then press A to try to time your swing for accuracy. Later Mario Golf entries introduced an easy mode option where you only need to set power, and then the accuracy will be up to RNG but will always be in the sweet spot range.
The reason manual swing is important in Mario Golf is that it reduce RNG factors. Plus it has a risk / reward factor. Characters with massive drive distance like Bowser have a much smaller sweet spot, meaning the accuracy window timing is much tighter. It also means that if you're hitting a ball from a rough, sometimes you might want to yolo swing with a Wood driver club. You might have a great payoff with great accuracy timing, but mess that up and you'll much more easily duff shot and hit your ball to even more undesired areas.
... And that's a big issue …
EVEN MORE Pre-release rant incoming:
Another thing that's really concerning is we still don't know the full depth of the game's controls, especially if "manual mode" swing is in!!! Previous entries have a three-click swing option where you Press A to start your swing, press A to set your power, and then press A to try to time your swing for accuracy. Later Mario Golf entries introduced an easy mode option where you only need to set power, and then the accuracy will be up to RNG but will always be in the sweet spot range.
The reason manual swing is important in Mario Golf is that it reduce RNG factors. Plus it has a risk / reward factor. Characters with massive drive distance like Bowser have a much smaller sweet spot, meaning the accuracy window timing is much tighter. It also means that if you're hitting a ball from a rough, sometimes you might want to yolo swing with a Wood driver club. You might have a great payoff with great accuracy timing, but mess that up and you'll much more easily duff shot and hit your ball to even more undesired areas.
... And that's a big issue from all footage I've seen from Mario Golf: Super Rush up to the E3 Treehouse Segment. There's only button presses to start swing and set power, and there's no accuracy check. None of the treehouse staff acknowledges that the "manual swing" exists. Our only saving grace is maybe this is an advance settings where you have to toggle it within an extra menu similar to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but it's still a joke that we're STILL ambigious if this is there or not! Even World Tour early on confirmed the manual swing in the interface.
If the accuracy swing check ends up being 100% gone, I'm sorry but this automatically means that Mario Golf: Super Rush will objectively be the worst Mario "GOLF" game even beneath the first entry Mario Golf 64 because you pretty much took a major amount of skill out from the game from a pure golf perspective. Pretty much you'll end up nerfing the entire skill-based fundamentals of the game (even for an arcade golf title), which is what I value highly.
NOTE: This is different from me outright saying this will be a bad game period, because hey the RPG mode might be cool, and Speed golf might actually be fun in its own way as a wacky "Mario" title.
Pre-release rant incoming:
As someone who really loved playing Camelot's Mario Golf games, I currently am hesitant with this entry even after seeing the E3 trailer. All of the trailers seem like they're pushing more with the gimmicky side modes like Speed Golf, battle golf, and even that New Donk City mini-course, instead of actually enhancing normal stroke play.
This game also seems to have the fewest number of holes. We seem to only have six 18H courses (on par with Mario Golf 64) with the basic environment being re-used twice when Toadstool Tour had eight and World Tour had nine 18H and seven 9H. Even the non-Mario We Love Golf has ten 18H courses! It's also weird seeing we don't have a Tropical themed course unlike literally every other golf game, and instead we get a depressing-looking rainy forest.
Not to mention, Super Rush's courses are going to be bland. It's already visually basic with the semi-realistic graphics push, especially if you compare the art styles with Mario Golf: World Tour which is colorful and vibrant. Even though people are excited about Speed Golf... I actually view it more as a negative in that this mode will limit the …
Pre-release rant incoming:
As someone who really loved playing Camelot's Mario Golf games, I currently am hesitant with this entry even after seeing the E3 trailer. All of the trailers seem like they're pushing more with the gimmicky side modes like Speed Golf, battle golf, and even that New Donk City mini-course, instead of actually enhancing normal stroke play.
This game also seems to have the fewest number of holes. We seem to only have six 18H courses (on par with Mario Golf 64) with the basic environment being re-used twice when Toadstool Tour had eight and World Tour had nine 18H and seven 9H. Even the non-Mario We Love Golf has ten 18H courses! It's also weird seeing we don't have a Tropical themed course unlike literally every other golf game, and instead we get a depressing-looking rainy forest.
Not to mention, Super Rush's courses are going to be bland. It's already visually basic with the semi-realistic graphics push, especially if you compare the art styles with Mario Golf: World Tour which is colorful and vibrant. Even though people are excited about Speed Golf... I actually view it more as a negative in that this mode will limit the entire game's level design. Course will HAVE to be wide and open to compensate for the fact 4-players will be sprinting on it. Not to mention you can't have any unique terrain like Cliffs and Island Chains if you have to be able to sprint each course from start to end.
I'm sure the game will be fun for the casual audience or people who are buying this as their first golf game, but I just don't really see how they're fleshing out the core stroke-play golf experience for veterans. I see this game being a hit just because of the marketing and the size Switch audience, and I suspect I'll be among the small vocal minority against this game because I have played the rest.
...Then again I've always stuck to playing Simple Mode in recent Mario Tennis games too.
Still will give the game a shot on release date... Maybe my mind will change after playing it, and maybe we'll see some new cool DLC updates.