Camelot has simply made a name for themselves when it comes to
Golf titles. Riding off the huge success of Mina no Golf/Hot Shots
Golf, and Mina no Golf 2/Hot Shots Golf 2, Nintendo made an
agreement with Camelot for them to develop a game that took
the famous cast of the Nintendo character line up, and placed
them within a golf engine based on Mina no Golf. The result was
Mario Golf 64 on the Nintendo 64, and Mario Golf on the Game Boy Color.
Mario Golf on the Game Boy Color can be summed up in one simple
word - "addicting".
Mario Golf may not have the best graphics or sound, in fact the
music ends up annoying for the most part, but what has been
captured in this cartridge is addictive gameplay. The defining
design of the game is the Career Mode. In the Career Mode, you're placed
in a simple overworld in which you travel from course
to course all while attempting to become the course champion.
You then face the person you stole the trophy from, in a one on one match.
Along the way, you'll encounter various putting and hitting challenges that will
help you refine your skill in the game. As you make your way
through each tournament, game and challenge, you'll earn
experience points that can be applied to various aspects of
your character, such as driving distance. To top
it all off, once Pokemon Stadium is released in March of next
year, you'll be able to import your character into the Nintendo
64 version of the game.
What defines this game is that Camelot has been able to
preserve the gameplay found on the Nintendo 64
counterpart, to make it almost like playing the same game
but on the go. Driving in this game is like most golf games
in that you select how powerful your swing is and then how
accurately you hit the ball. If you hit it just perfect, you'll
get even additional yardage in comparison to what the club is
rated. However, you're not just limited to selecting the power
of your shot. You can also select what type of shot you're going
to take with the club which will change the maximum yardage for
a full powered shot. On top of that, you'll have a limited number
of power shots for increased yardage. All of this adds up to a
wide selection of strategy of how to take on your opponent in a
tournament or a one on one match.
However, I wish I could say the game is perfect. As mentioned before,
where the game falls down is when it comes to it's visuals and audio.
While the graphics more than do the job, they certainly do look
dated and under detailed. They don't get in the
way of playing the game, but I do wish they were more colorful and
would get rid of some of the odd colored objects such as purple
trees. The music though, did get in the way. While you will hear
some classic Mario tunes, they are few and far in between and
wasn't worth keeping with what I thought was annoying music.
Other than that, it's hard to fault this game. What counts
is the gameplay and replayability, which is both amazing and addictive.
Even if you're not a golf fan, you may want to give this game
a chance, as its accessibility can even appeal to someone who
isn't a fan of the sport. I can safely say that this is one
of the must have games for the Game Boy Color and one of the
best Game Boy Color games released this year.
-- Marty Chinn
