Mario Golf: Super Rush

The much awaited return of Mario golf on a home console, Super Rush feels rather shallow at its heart compared to its predecessor, Toadstool Tour. While the addition of the vs. speed golf and battle mode are definitely fun distractions, the core golf game is there and intact and it still offers an excellent console experience with that same "Mario" veneer. Love the edition of golf ware just wish we could see King Bobomb, Boo, and Yoshi have at least a beret. Feels weird having half the cast dressed appropriately while the rest feel like they were lazily thrown in here. Also still waiting for the day I can see Birdo on a Mario roster again, whats the deal Nintendo?

Since the release of Mario Golf for the N64 and it's Gameboy Color counterpart in 1999, Camelot have had a long standing relationship with Nintendo in developing Mario sports games.

2018 saw the release of the Nintendo Switch's first Camelot Mario spin off, Mario Tennis Aces. Now the Nintendo Switch is no stranger when it comes to breathing new life into tried and true franchises (the two most famous examples being Super Mario Odyssey which brought 3D Mario back to his sandbox roots ala Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild which brought the franchise back to it's open ended gameplay roots ala the original Legend of Zelda), and I believe Aces was no exception. Sure a Mario tennis game isn't on the same scale as a mainline Mario or Zelda game, but this sense of "revival" was still apparent. Aces breathed new life into a franchises that, as far as I'm concerned, died after the release of Mario Power Tennis on the GameCube. Mario Tennis Open for 3DS and especially Mario Tennis Ultra Smash for Wii U just couldn't live up to the series' peak on the GameCube. So why am I talking about Mario Tennis and not Mario Golf. Well this is exactly the case for Mario Golf Super Rush.

The series peaked on GameCube with the release of Mario Golf Toadstool Tour and sorta lied dormant until the release of Mario Golf World Tour on 3DS, but just like Mario Tennis Open, it couldn't live up to the heights of the GameCube entry (I know World Tour has it's fans, I'm just not one of them). It only took them 18 years to release a worthy successor to Toadstool Tour on a home console. So two Camelot sports games get successful revivals on Switch: end of story, right? Not quite.

Similarly to Mario Tennis Aces, the thing that makes Mario Golf Super Rush such a solid Mario Golf game is the core gameplay. Hitting the ball, lining up shots, and sinking putts has never felt better, even by Toadstool Tour standards. I can't tell you how many hours I've put into stroke play over the course of the game's launch weekend. That being said, Super Rush doesn't offer much else. You'll often see reviews of this game stating how bare bones and stripped down it is, and they're completely valid. Since Mario Tennis Aces, Camelot have been doing what a lot of us like to call "release now, fix later." Mario Tennis Aces saw plenty of updates post launch that added new characters and, if I'm not mistaken, new game modes (or variations of existing ones). This is a nice way to incentivize players to keep coming back and expand longevity, but the result is a game that feels barren at launch.

Mario Golf Super Rush has the best core gameplay and mechanics in the entire series. Shaping up and making shots in stroke play has never felt better or more user friendly, however there's not much content outside of a lack luster single player adventure and battle golf and speed golf, which offer new twists on the golf formula by breaking the fundamentals of golf in the process - let's run around and hit the ball as fast as we can. I suppose kids these days don't have the patience for regular golf. (Disclaimer, they're both fun game modes and offer a nice distraction in their own right).