NES Game Reviews #40 – Golf
Growing up in a household where both my brother and father are golf obsessives, you’d think I’d also have a fondness for the sport. Well I don’t. The appeal never rubbed off on me. The game seems unnecessarily long, excruciatingly tedious and involves being up before 7 on a Sunday – no thanks!
I actually came to playing this one purely out of necessity. I had been playing through Ultimate Air Combat, but that night I had been to the pub and had a few too many glasses of fruit juice, and for some reason my concentration was not up to its usual standards! A few failed attempts at a level on UAC made me realize I needed something a little less twitchy. Golf! jumped out at me from the game shelf.
There’s not a great deal to say about Golf that isn’t obvious. It’s golf! 18 holes, the full range of clubs to choose from, sand, water, rough hazards adorn most of the holes. An ‘out -of- bounds’ shot from the drive will lead to a stroke added and a retake however from any other shot, you’ll gain a stroke but be able to play from the nearest fairway.
You don’t have a great deal of directional control for your shot, it’s either straight forward, northeast or northwest. There’s wind strength and direction to contend with, but it seems the more accurate you are with the power meter, the less affected the ball is by wind.
When you putt, the game zooms in on the green and your angle of view improves, as does your directional control. Arrows on the grass indicate the slope of the green, so you need to adjust your putt accordingly. Again power plays a part here in the affect that slope takes on the ball. I did find it confusing that the power meter changes from fairway to green, meaning the first time you play you’ll likely mess up your first few putts.
Since there’s no competition mode, completing this one is simply a case of finishing 18 holes. I finished my round with +22, a fairly unimpressive score, considering it was my first play-through and allowing for excess in fruit juice, I’m gonna forgive it.
Overall this is golf in a basic and perfectly acceptable form for the NES. There’s no bells and whistles, it is what it says: Golf!