Mario Golf: Super Rush review: Par for the course

Title: Mario Golf: Super Rushz
Developer: Camelot Software Planning
Publisher: Nintendo
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: June 25, 2021

It’s been seven years since Mario and the patrons of the Mushroom Kingdom have taken to the many golf courses in their world to have some fun and over-the-top sessions of golf. Speaking in a home console sense, then it would be 18 years. The typical all-star Mushroom Kingdom cast has definitely upped the ante since then, but not without its tradeoffs.

Mario Golf: Super Rush does a lot right in terms of its presentation and gameplay. First off, the game allows you to easily set up and customize a session of golf if you wish to. Pick standard, speed, or battle golf. The latter two are two nifty additions to the franchise and really change the pace of how a typical golf game goes.

Speed Golf plays very identical to the standard mode, except everyone shoots their shot at the same time. Upon the ball landing where a player has hit it, they assume control of their selected character and have to manually walk or run to their ball for the next hit. In doing so, one can whip out a few tricks to get a boost or sabotage their opponents on the way to their ball to slow them down. Achieve the fastest overall time with each stroke adding 30 seconds to the overall time or have the highest score. It’s a very hectic experience, feeling like an exciting mix between Mario Kart and Mario Golf.

The other mode, battle golf, is speed golf but with the intensity turned up to 11. You’re basically in an arena with several different holes to score your golf ball into. However, each hole only can be scored one time. Once a player takes that point, the rest of the players have to scramble to the remaining holes in a race to get 3 points. Players can also once again run into each other and slow one another down to gain a competitive edge. Also, maintaining that battle mode aspect similar to something like a Mario Kart game, there are different hazards and things that go on to make the stakes more interesting.

This game also sports the Golf Adventure mode, a single player mode where you play as your Mii through the various courses in the game. At least there is a single player mode, but it feels more like a glorified training ground and a place to level up your Mii character to be on par with the rest of the cast. It’s really not much to write home about.

The game, while playing with buttons or motion controls, feels just right. Nothing feels clunky or unoptimized. There are various clubs to use per character to hit the ball just right. There are even many helpful tutorials and an abundant compendium to learn all sorts of golfing lingo in Mario Golf: Super Rush. You can learn how to angle and curve your shots, take note of the terrain and elevation to optimize ball placement, and make sure you don’t hit a messy shot.

The characters also have specific strengths, weaknesses, and unique abilities depending on the modes you play, including in the standard golfing mode. You have your power types like Bowser and Donkey Kong, all around types like Wario and Waluigi (which is a very weird choice), speed types like Mario and Luigi, or characters who excel in ball control like Peach and Pauline.

Mario sports and party games have provided countless hours and a plethora of memories for many through the test of time. They still do, even with today’s new installments to their respective series. However, it just feels as of late, these types of games on the Nintendo Switch are starting to just not have that kind of lasting power like their previous iterations.

This lasting power is mostly due to the fact that this game starts to get dry after a couple of hours, quite like Super Mario Party or Mario Tennis Aces. There are six unique stages and one starter course, giving not too much variety after a few plays online, with friends, or by yourself. The battle mode technically only has one course for it as well; it just sports different variants and hazards that happen throughout.

The character roster is also somewhat questionable, only sporting 16 characters. Why is it that games like Mario Kart have such an expansive roster, but then when it comes to the sports games, the roster is dramatically stripped? I mean, I really love the inclusion of characters like Chargin’ Chuck and my personal favorite, King Bob-omb. The other 14, including Pauline, are basically staples in any Mario game at this point.

There is going to be free post-release content, adding new courses and playable characters, but the base game right now feels a bit barren. I would not have minded if this came out a few months down the line with this promised content. I’m also disappointed to find out that the new modes only allow two people to play them per system. This means you can only play the standard golfing mode up to four people by taking turns. The other two require at least two systems and setups to do so.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.