The Mario we know and love gets his very first golf game.
PLAYERS: 1-2 alternating
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
DEVELOPER: Nintendo
GENRE: Sports
RELEASE DATE: September 1991
The original Golf was Nintendo’s attempt to put their mustachioed stamp on one of Japan’s most beloved sports. It was a miserable failure. Any golf game where it’s hard to swing the ball at all should be placed in the annals of forgetfulness. But Golf was a relative financial success, enough to warrant NES Open Tournament Golf, a sequel that expands on options, yet fails to simplify the swinging system. I could end the review right here. It doesn’t matter how many options NES Open brings to the table: the swinging system that was so frustrating in Golf returns to infuriate the percentage of gamers like me. But for those who are able to make the swinging work for them – and there are apparently a fair portion of you, given these games’ befuddling popularity – let’s run down the options. There’s Match Play, Stroke Play, Tournament, and Club House. Match Play and Stroke Play are basically interchangeable, while a Tournament expands on the previous two (honestly, there’s not much of a difference between playing a Tournament and Match and Stroke Play – more holes?). Club House is where you want to go if you want to invest heavily in NES Open. Here you can register a character, pick clubs, train, and view your stats. It’s a nice feature for golf junkies, but worthless for us butterfingers who can’t swing a virtual/real club. Let’s end the review: NES Open won’t win any points from me, but if you can figure out how to play the game, I imagine you’ll find a golf game slightly above par.
ME: D
YOU, PERHAPS: B
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3 replies on “#440 – NES Open Tournament Golf”
There’s a new golf book out called ‘Unconscious Scoring’. How snooty, and also hilarious!
And that’s not Donkey Kong
This game deserves at least a b-. It took me a while to figure out the swing system, but when u do, u realise its easily the best golf game on the nes.
One of the most fun sports games of the 8-bit generation. I did grow up with this game, but I was a bit of a dumb kid and still adored this, so I almost wonder if you were just using a controller/ setup with input lag? I normally don’t care about such things, but this simple swing mechanic is all about timing, so that could be a deal breaker. Now, when I say simple I don’t mean easy. My scores in this game are accurate to my real life golf scores: super high. But it’s a blast.