Six Great Golf Games Released in the Past Six Years

The golf season is in full swing, quite literally at that. Thus, it's no better time than the present to step onto the tee box and swing for the green in one with a special article devoted to the best golf games released in recent years. SPC has a list of the six greatest golf games, whether arcade, sim, or otherwise too crazy to even classify! From old favorites like Mario and the Everybody's Golf crew, to new, fresh faces in the world of golf video games, this list of six has something for everybody!

Mario Golf: Super Rush (NSW)

Let's start off with the most recent golf game to release: Mario Golf: Super Rush. While the overall level of content in this otherwise stellar golf game was lighter than expected, especially when compared to past installments of the Mario Golf series, the actual golf gameplay was very much well under par. Forgoing the typical three-click system of traditional arcade golf games, Super Rush brought with it a two-input system to start the shot gauge and set the power, while accuracy was determined by the red risk area of the gauge. If the power on the gauge was set in the red risk area, the chances for an off-course shot was higher. It's a shot system that requires some learning, particularly for those accustomed to past Mario Golf games' three-click system. Once you did overcome the initial learning curve, however, you could pull off some impressive and incredible shots.

Furthermore, the six courses on offer in Super Rush range from traditional to zany, much like Standard Golf compared to the more insane, included Speed and Battle Golf modes. From Rookie Course and Bonny Greens' simple undulating hills and greens, to the more wacky Mushroom Kingdom obstacle-laden Bowser Highlands, the courses here may not all be the most imaginative, but they are all enjoyable and entertaining to play on, delivering challenging drives and putts for those who wish to take them on. With the promise of more courses and content via DLC, I anxiously look forward to the future of Mario Golf: Super Rush, as what's here currently is a solid foundation. It's just missing that extra oomph to sink its shot into astounding golfing greatness.

Everybody's Golf (PS4)

From developer Clap Hanz, we have the seventh mainline installment of the Everybody's Golf franchise, formerly known in North America as Hot Shots Golf. The simply titled Everybody's Golf did away with characters to collect and add to your roster of golfers. Instead, the game was all about creating your own custom golfer, outfitting them with a surplus of clothing, accessories, and other goodies, and putting them through the ranks from rookie to seasoned golf pro. This journey would take quite a bit of grinding through playing the same beginning courses again and again, ad nauseum, sometimes doing the front-nine, sometimes doing the back-nine, and the occasional play of the entire course. However, your skills would improve, your club set would get upgraded, and you'd soon find yourself sinking impossible putts, performing insane drives, and making your CPU opponents into mincemeat on the links.

Like Mario Golf: Super Rush, Everybody's Golf started with six standard courses. These took place around the globe in themed areas, such as a tropical series of islands, a course nearby a bustling metropolis, and also a canyon course. Three or so other courses would get added to the game, but unlike Super Rush, these would be paid DLC. At the same time, Everybody's Golf released at a $40 price tag, as opposed to Super Rush's $60, so I guess just like a birdie on one hole followed by a bogey on another, it all evens out. 

Clap Hanz Golf (iOS)

It only makes sense to make the next golf game we talk about one that was the first self-published title from the developer of Everybody's Golf: Clap Hanz. The not-so-cleverly titled Clap Hanz Golf is currently an Apple Arcade exclusive game, and it suffers from some of the same grind that Everybody's Golf's solo mode offering did. That said, the grind is mostly enjoyable due to the fact that there is a lot of variety in Clap Hanz Golf's campaign. Outside of traditional 3, 6, or 9-hole rounds--which is perfect for the bite-sized mobile gaming scene--there are also driving challenges, versus play matches against the AI, characters and costumes to unlock, and whole slew of different round modifiers to mess with your game, such as out of bounds rules for landing in the rough or a bunker! 

Clap Hanz brought some innovation to the golf game scene by having its players utilize more than one golfer per round. In fact, in the standard campaign, you choose a different character per hole in a given round, and this is performed at the very beginning of a round. Thus, there's some strategy to be discovered here, whether it's using your best power hitter on a Par 5, but risk their accuracy costing you a penalty by landing in a water hazard. If you fancy a normal round of golf, Clap Hanz Golf has that, too, with traditional one-character score attack-like rules. All this and a touch-based driving, chipping, and putting system that definitely takes some patience and practice to come to grips with makes Clap Hanz Golf a solid round on the links and great game for Apple Arcade.

PGA Tour 2K21 (Multi)

Feel the rhythm of your swing with this next golf offering, delivering to players a much more traditional, realistic golf experience with PGA Tour 2K21. By using the analog stick, players hold the stick back, and then thrust it forward to do all the major actions that one would need on the golf course (e.g. putting, chipping, and driving). The rhythm of your swing matters, as if you input and initiate the movement to quickly or slowly, your shot will suffer draw or fade. 

PGA Tour 2K21 allows players to enjoy the thrills and successes (as well as the occasional failure) on the PGA Tour with a full-fledged career mode, offering week-to-week events all leading up to the PGA Tournament. The customization on display is tremendous, allowing players to tweak how easy or difficult the gameplay is, such as allowing or disallowing the camera view to show where the ball is estimated to land, allowing or disallowing shot previews completely, and much, much more. Additionally, online play is full of creative gameplay types, and a fully featured course creator multiplies the amount of time one can spend with this true gem of a golf game even further. 

Golf Story (NSW)

For those disappointed that Mario Golf has long turned its back on the RPG modes seen in Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color and Advance Tour on the Game Boy Advance, Golf Story is not just suitable alternative, it's also a darn near fantastic replacement! Offering an in-depth story across multiple courses on different country clubs, with unique characters, hilarious scenarios and dialogue, and even adventures outside of the realm of traditional golf, Golf Story succeeds in teeing up a captivating 10-15 hour journey from golfing rookie to golf prodigy. 

Even if you don't have a fascination with golf, there's a lot to like and even love about Golf Story. However, those who yearn for a cartoon-y take on what can be an otherwise dull sport will discover great top-down golf mechanics reminiscent of the Game Boy Color and Advance Mario Golf games, plenty of secrets and side quests to find, extra modes like mini-golf and disc golf, and standard play for fun solo rounds on the game's six courses. 

What the Golf? (Multi)

We conclude this lovely look at six great golf games released in the past half-decade and some change with a very atypical approach to golf games. In fact, What the Golf? is basically a golf game for those out there who don't like golf! Taking a wild swing at golf, What the Golf? takes players through a non-traditional take on the sport through bite-sized levels or "holes" that not always have you hitting a golf ball. One hole you'll naturally strike the golf ball, while on another, you might be hitting the golfer instead of the actual ball! Some holes take place in a 3D space, while others are completely 2D. Each group of holes is themed, as well. One of my favorites is a clever riff of Super Mario Bros, while another takes a Portal-inspired approach and just runs with it to awesome effect. You really never know what to expect with What the Golf's impressive and oftentimes hilarious variety, and that's really what makes this goofy golf game so stupendously special.

Review Round-Up - August 2020

The Won-Stoppable 101 reunited on SuperPhillip Central for one seriously insane superhero adventure.

New month? Check. Time for another Review Round-Up? Double check! It's the beginning of September, but before we say goodbye to August totally, let's take a look at the games reviewed last month as part of the Review Round-Up!

Four games were reviewed and each received a unique grade. We started things off with an oldie but an... average-y (?) with Bomberman Jetters on GameCube and PlayStation 2. The gameplay was slow, the camera needed some work, and the maze-like levels frustrated more than they engaged, thus the game received a C.

Following that Retro Review were two Nintendo Switch eShop games, one was a clever take on the Metroidvania genre taking place in the deep with Shinsekai: Into the Depths (earning a B) and the other was a Mario sports-style RPG in Golf Story (earning a B+, the best grade of the month).

Finally, it only seemed fitting that a site named SuperPhillip Central would review a game featuring a band of one-hundred superheroes with The Wonderful 101 Remastered from Platinum Games. The game made some needed changes from the Wii U original, and now more gamers can play the game with its release on the Switch, PS4, and PC. The grade for this occasionally frustrating remaster was a satisfying B-.

Closing out this edition of the Review Round-Up, take a look at these excerpts from all four reviews published this past August. Lastly, a reminder that the SPC Review Archive is your destination for every review ever posted on this site. See you next month, Review Round-Up!

Bomberman Jetters (GCN, PS2) - C

Bomberman Jetters doesn't make the case for itself a much-needed sequel to Bomberman Generation or make the case that the GameCube needed a second Bomberman game to begin with. By no means is it terrible, but a lackluster story mode really hurts the overall package despite Jetters having a rather entertaining multiplayer component. If you are still in possession of your Nintendo GameCube, have it still hooked up, in working order, and REALLY need a Bomberman game for it, take a look at Bomberman Generation instead.

Shinsekai: Into the Depths (NSW) - B

As a game originating on iOS devices via the Apple Arcade initiative, it didn't take much housekeeping for Capcom's game to arrive on the Nintendo Switch in a positive manner, but Shinsekai: Into the Depths is a successful port of a sublime and creative take on the Metroidvania genre. Aquaphobics may feel some unease playing this particular title, but for everyone else, Shinsekai: Into the Depths delivers an engaging, if not short-lived underwater adventure worthy of diving in and enjoying.

Golf Story (NSW) - B+

Even without its Story Mode attached, I believe there would be enough here with Golf Story to make for a good game of top-down golf. Thankfully, however, there's no need to be concerned with that, as not only do you get a good game of golf with Golf Story, but you also get an overall well done Mario-style golf RPG as well (though not without its issues, of course)! With its strong mix of rewarding exploration, creative scenarios, and solid golf mechanics, Golf Story, for the most part, comes off of the golf course and into the clubhouse a champion.

The Wonderful 101 Remastered (NSW, PS4, PC) - B-

The Wonderful 101 Remastered is a second chance for Platinum Games' oft overlooked "mass hero" action game to gain an audience. Whether it deserves one is in the eye of the beholder, but for me, even with all of the obnoxious and borderline rage quit-inducing moments that the game supplied me with, a replay on my Nintendo Switch version saw me happy to revisit The Wonderful 100 and save the universe from GEATHJERK once more. It's certainly nowhere near the most accessible and beginner-friendly game out there, but give the game a chance (and a FAQ a look) and you might discover a game that surpasses your expectations. Just don't be surprised if your frustration becomes as big as many of the spectacles, scenarios and showdowns The Wonderful 101 Remastered has to offer!

Meanwhile, newcomer Sidebar Games sank its putt to deliver a highly satisfying
golf RPG reminiscent of the Game Boy Mario Golf titles.

Golf Story (NSW) Review

Following the announcement last week of Sidebar Games' Sports Story and the following disappointment from fans from that announcement, I wanted to finally check out the developer's first game, Golf Story, and see just what all the aforementioned disappointment was about and what I've been missing all of this time. Now that I've played the game... darn it, now I'm disappointed about the delay of Sports Story, too! See why with my review of Golf Story for the Nintendo Switch. 

A solid time on the links

As a famous Rolling Stones song goes, "You can't always get what you want." And boy, do many Mario fans know that. Between the lack of traditional Mario RPGs nowadays and the lack of Mario sports RPGs in the vein of the Game Boy Mario Golf and Mario Tennis games, Nintendo has left a massive hole in many fans' hearts. Thankfully, Sidebar Games is more than happy to provide a solution to the latter with its own original take on Mario Golf-style sports-themed RPGs with Golf Story. I'm pleased to say that the developer mostly succeeds here, nailing its first shot off the tie with fantastic results.

Golf Story's... story sees you playing as a golfer who wishes to make it to the pros, but first he must find a coach to teach him the ropes and get his game in working order. From there, the golfing adventures takes players across a world map filled with unique courses, characters, and quests to take on and complete. In all, the campaign of Golf Story lasted me just over ten hours to complete, and most of it kept me entertained from beginning to end. The story itself is humorous more often than not, taking you through a colorful world of kooky characters where your golfer pretty much plays the straight man to the insanity of their world. That said, the game does have a nasty habit of being a bit verbose to the point of annoyance at times, occasionally trying a bit too hard to make the player laugh and becoming long in the tooth in the process.

The world map in Golf Story connects all of the game's courses together.

A major piece to Golf Story's Story Mode is exploring the many courses that open up one by one in your golfer's adventure. Along the way, you'll encounter numerous NPCs which task you with completing various quests that mostly have to deal with golf-related objectives that instill the fundamentals of the game to you. Whether it's learning how to hit fairways, make difficult chip shots, play out of bunkers, practice proficient putting, or a myriad other important concepts, you'll need to take on a heavy number of challenges if you want to make pro. Many of these occur on the links themselves, while others bring some more creativity into the mix, such as having you need to hit bait into specially marked areas of water for fish to consume, which helps teach you precision driving and chipping.

Use Precision Mode to more accurately aim your shots in this chipping-intensive quest.
Just mind the slope and the wind!

Then there are other types of golf like Disc Golf and Mini Golf introduced to keep the fun coming. Other quests remove golf entirely from the equation, having you take on fetch quests, engage in foot races, and even control certain machinery to complete the quest offered. The point here is that the variety is strong in Golf Story, giving players enough to keep the experience fresh enough to remain enjoyable. Additionally, the bonus of being able to tee off anywhere in a given area to complete certain challenges and further progress makes for a gameplay mechanic that is oftentimes cleverly used throughout the Story Mode.

Completing quests not only progresses the game, allowing you to compete in more significant challenges like Match Play events against characters and full-fledged nine-hole rounds on courses, but it also gives your golfer experience points as well. Like a traditional RPG, once you earn enough experience points, your golfer levels up, granting you points to use to increase various stats, such as power, accuracy, control, and spin. 

Words to live by for this old man perhaps, but not for THIS golfer!

When it concerns the actual golf in Golf Story, what you get is a simple yet engaging three-click system (or I guess in this case, a "three-press" system). Pressing the button once starts the gauge, a second press will set the power and distance of your shot, and the final press of the button will set the accuracy. It's nothing that players of modern arcade golf games like Mario Golf and Everybody's Golf won't feel accustomed to or familiar with right from the beginning. Making Golf Story's system an easier time is the ability to utilize Precision Mode, which grants you the ability to adjust the distance of your shot in order to visualize where it will land by manually sliding the distance marker of your shot. While this does help set up your shots more easily, it's definitely not an "instant win" feature, as you still need to factor in other variables such as wind velocity, hazards like trees, rocks and bunkers, and when it concerns the green, its slope direction and surface speed. 

Everything in Golf Story is done in this top-down perspective--putting, driving, chipping, etc.

The courses of Golf Story run the gamut of both locales and challenge. You have the starting Wellworn Greens, featuring wide open fairways, minimal hazards, and easy-to-reach greens; and then you have more fantastical courses such as the prehistoric Lurker Valley with tar pits to lose one's ball in, the high cliffs and steep chasms of Cheekybeak Peak (also featuring the titular birds which will scoop up your ball and transport it to a usually less than stellar lie if your ball stops near them), and the winter wonderland of Coldwind Wastes, complete with slippery ice and snow that will stop a ball dead in its tracks if it lands inside. 

Golf Story is a gorgeous game with splendidly done sprites and colorful environments. While the music didn't impress me at first, with its flatulating brass and uneventful tunes, as the game progressed, I became a fan as tunes became catchier and had better sounding instrumentation. The game's music simply didn't leave me with a good first impression, but by the end, I was in love. Another part of the presentation that I loved is something I don't go into much with regard to Nintendo Switch games, and that's the HD Rumble. If you can, play Golf Story with the Joy-Cons, and specifically with them detached. The way the rumble accents text bubbles, whether they're expanding or contracting based on the way a character speaks and the emotion they exude is impressive, but more so is how the controller vibrates with an ebb and flow as you sink a putt into the cup or make strong contact with the ball. It's amazing and one of the best uses of HD Rumble I've experienced with the Nintendo Switch--obviously so for me to mention it in one of my reviews.

Even without its Story Mode attached, I believe there would be enough here with Golf Story to make for a good game of top-down golf. Thankfully, however, there's no need to be concerned with that, as not only do you get a good game of golf with Golf Story, but you also get an overall well done Mario-style golf RPG as well (though not without its issues, of course)! With its strong mix of rewarding exploration, creative scenarios, and solid golf mechanics, Golf Story, for the most part, comes off of the golf course and into the clubhouse a champion.

[SPC Says: B+]