Let me get this point across right at the start, I’m not a big fan of Mario Golf: Super Rush at all. The game itself is pretty good for what it’s trying to be and for what many of its target audience wants it to be, but I just think that there could have been a lot more or that it could have been done a bit differently.

There was one point where I was pretty excited for the game so I ended up picking it up the day it was released and expecting big things. I’m an decent fan of Mario and I love sports games, especially most golf games. Over the last few years, Everybody’s Golf and Golf Story really made me start to enjoy the genre a lot more and I thought that a unique arcade gold game mixed with Mario characters would be fun.

But I guess I was wrong, because to me it just seemed like Nintendo used the excuse of having Mario attached to the cover to not really flesh out the golf side of the game. First off, let me do things a bit differently with this review to better get my point across and talk about both the graphics and sound together because they are the two things that I enjoyed the most about the game.

GRAPHICS: 9/10
SOUND: 8/10

The game looks and sounds great, especially for a golf game. The animation is all great, especially in all of the cutscenes. For instance, the opening movie is amazing and was lots of fun to watch. The in game graphics are really good too. Each course looks great, each character looks great and is pretty well animated, and the cartoonish look of some actions work very well. There weren’t many big issues that I had with the graphics at all.

As for the sound, the main menu theme song is amazing. I remember the first time I played, I just stayed on the main menu for a few minutes just rocking out to that track. It’s really good and a fun listen. Many of the other songs and in game sounds are pretty good as well and the occasional voices are a nice touch as well.

There are also a few gameplay aspects that I really enjoy such as the Golf Adventure, Speed Golf, and Battle Golf but this is where some of my main issues come into play and why I don’t like the game as much as I would have hoped for.

There isn’t enough to do in the game and many of the things that you can do have a much greater focus on the multiplayer aspect than other Nintendo games like Super Smash Bros or even Mario Kart. For me at least, it took away from the single player experience and also took a bit away from the value.

I mentioned that I liked Golf Adventure, Speed Golf, and Battle Golf, but Adventure Golf was the only game mode that I 100% really enjoyed. Adventure Golf isn’t just a campaign within Mario Gold but it’s basically its own self contained golf game. It’s very much like the entirety of Golf Story or Everybody Golf mixed with the Mario flair all rolled into one game mode. It’s very easy to get a hang of and lots of fun from start to finish.

But if you’re playing by yourself, then that’s where the fun kind of ends. The game mode that I ended up playing the most was Speed Golf. I really like the concept, running around the course was lots of fun, and the thrill of a time based standing added a bit more to the overall experience. But if you’re playing by yourself, it gets stale after just a single match, especially when much of the AI is super easy. After you complete one course, you’ve pretty much done all there is to do on that course and have no reason to do it again in that mode

So you move onto a new course but then once you complete all of them, that’s it, it’s over. It becomes less fun if you try to play more by yourself. The same goes for Battle Golf. It’s another really fun and unique game with a fresh concept but will get very repetitive if you play against the AI and don’t even get me started on standard golf because it has the same issues of repetitive gameplay but less of the fun and flair that you would find in the other modes.

Unless you’re playing the adventure mode, the game is going to get stale very fast if you’re by yourself. The meat and potatoes of Mario Gold is the online functionality and yes, if you have a bunch of friends who also have the game that you can play with, or you love playing with random people around the world, the game has more value for you.

But then the same thing happens, it just takes longer to happen. If you’re playing with one other person or a group of people, how many times can you play the same mode on the same course until the lot of you get bored? A Nintendo game like Super Smash Bros Ultimate have a plethora of different game modes for both offline and online play. Modes that have features that make it so that each time you play the same game, it’s a whole different experience. A golf game like Golf Story has a unique sense of flair and creativity so that each round of golf can go either way and outside of golf is its own game.

But with the Mario game, like I said earlier, it’s as if Nintendo banked on people thinking that the Mario brand is enough to get people hyper interested in the game, but I don’t think it was enough. If you’re playing with friends, you will get a lot more enjoyment than if you’re playing by yourself but with only a few main online modes (Standard, Speed, Battle, and ranked which is basically standard but ranked) there’s only so much that you can do.

If you’re interested in the game but you only plan on playing offline, then the $60 price tag might be way too high for the amount of content that you get out of the game. You’ll get an enjoyable experience out of Golf Adventure but in the regular Play Golf mode, you might only play on each course once or twice and that just doesn’t seem worth it.

Just look at howlongtobeat and see what people are posting. More than 50 people put in their times for just the main story, which I’m assuming is just Adventure Golf and the average was only eight hours. Completionist came closer to 10 to 15 hours with everything included. That’s just not really worth it for what you pay or what you want. Compare that to the other two games and you know that something went wrong. Golf Story, a game that at times cost only $10 could take you 20 hours to do everything while Super Smash Bros Ultimate can set you back dozens of hours at minimum.

DEPTH: 7

As it stands, there is a decent number of things to do, you just get bored of the quick. There’s Standard Golf, Speed Gold, and Battle Golf for both offline and online play while you also have Adventure Golf. If you don’t want to play with friends you can also play with random people across the world and do ranked battles too.

To get a grade for everything else, I basically had to break down each individual gameplay aspect into a bunch of small sub sections. There’s two sections, offline Gameplay and Online Gameplay. Offline is further broken down into Play Golf and Adventure Golf while Online is broken down into Play Golf and Ranked.

Offline Play Golf is the worst of the bunch in my opinion. You should honestly never touch Standard Golf against the AI. Offline Standard gets a 3 while Offline Speed and Battle both get a 5 since they will get too repetitive after one round per course. So, Offline Play Golf gets a 4 from me.

Adventure Golf on the other hand is amazing and like I said earlier, it’s basically its own entire game rolled up into one game mode and gets a 9 from me. As a whole, Offline Gameplay gets a 5.5 from me. Offline is technically better if you are able to play with a lot of people or play online and ranked but will face the same repetition issues down the line. Standard Golf will be a bit more fun with a friend and both Speed and Battle will allow for far more antics with more real people involved. As a result, those three online modes get a 5, 8, and 8 from me, or a 7 overall.

Ranked is basically the same as Standard but it means you probably already invested dozens of hours and are really good and/or don’t care so that also gets a 7 from me so the overall Online Gameplay section gets a 7 from me.

OVERALL: 7.3/10

The game does have plenty of fun moments but can get boring fast, whether or not you are by yourself or with a friend. The game still costs $60 and if you’re playing by yourself, it’s not worth it at all. You’d get the most enjoyment out of Adventure Golf which might not even push you 10 hours and you’d get some enjoyment out of the other offline modes but for single player only gameplay, it might only be worth $20.

If you’re also playing with friends or online, you’ll get a lot more content and enjoyment out of the game, but in most cases it won’t be enough to justify that high of a cost. My overall grade for Mario Golf: Super Rush is a 7.3 out of 10. Hopefully the new updates that added more content to the game can help out.

zanderlex : Excellent well thought out reviews my freind. I gotta say we agree on a lot about the game. I feel that if this game was a 20 bucks on the eshop type deal it would be worth the cost of admission today but for 60 bucks I feel ripped off. It's not a bad game or anything it just gets old really quick and has no real depth. Sort of like a Wii sports game but just one sport. Certainly not as bad as 1-2 B***h (My term of endearment for 1-2 Switch) keep up the good work, glad to see you're not afraid to talk real about a nintendo game and not resort to saying it's good just cause it's nintendo like a lot of game "journalists" do.