Normally I'm not a big fan of golf games at all. Whenever I play one, I love driving but then I get to putting and suddenly I suck and rage quit almost every time. It's just too hard. The first golf game I ever liked was Everybody's Golf and I only discovered that around 6 months ago. Then around 3 months ago I heard people talking about how good this game is and I found it on sale so I gave it a shot.

Out of all the Switch games that I played, this was the first one where I wouldn't put it down or switch games until I beat it. I thoroughly enjoyed playing through the story mode and the game kept constantly pulling me back in making this not just a great golf game but also one of the best sports games that I have ever played.

GRAPHICS: 9/10

The graphics are exactly what you'd expect from a retro themed game, making me think back to old games like the OG Zeldas and newer games like Undertale, and Moonlighter, which is good. All of the characters, environments, and golf courses are simple, Charming, and colorful. The only thing I didn't like about the look of the game was that the characters may have been too simple and impossible to tell who they are.

For example, I had no idea that the guy you play as is a middle aged married man until half way through the game. For hours, I was thinking that you play as a young guy who waz trying to get big at golf after playing it as a kid. Other than that, the graphics were pretty captivating, especially for a sports game.

SOUND: 8/10

There's something about Golf Story's music that I really enjoy. I don't know if it's because some of the songs are actually catchy or if I played the game so much that the tunes were engraved in my brain. Each golf course has their own set of music and sounds in the 8-bit theme and they're pretty good, for example one of the songs I pretty much know by heart now is one of the songs from the Tidy Park course. It's a catchy song and It's both calm and relaxing, like most of the songs are which gives the game an even more fun and upbeat feel.

Other than the music, the generic sounds are another big aspect of the game, though there aren't that many. There's no voice acting and all the sounds are super generic but it's a nice touch being able to hear birds chirping or water splashing or the ball slicing through the air. When it comes to the sounds of the game, I wouldn't call it one of the best for retro themed games but it's still pretty darned good.

STORY: 10/10

It's called Golf Story for a reason, and it's quite possibly one of the best story driven sports games of all time. You play as a guy who loved golf as a kid but pretty much gave up on his hopes and dreams. Then, as a middle aged dude, you try to get back into golf as a super newb and your one goal is to go pro. The game follows you as you go from being a newcomer to a worn down golf course, to playing in small local tournaments, to playing in the pro league, with everything in between.

That's right, the story isn't just about Golf. There's so much character development for everyone around you that branches out into their own well developed plots. The game is also just as much real life sim, RPG, and even horror as it is a sports game. You get to battle ghosts, zombies, wizards, and birds all throughout the game, which just proves how crazy the world is.

If you didn't actually play any golf and you just watched all the plot points and little details, it would make for a pretty good movie or book, that's how good the story is.

ADDICTIVENESS: 10/10

The game is so much fun, and while I wouldn't suggest going back and starting the game all over from scratch, there are plenty of opportunities to relive the game. Unless you wanted to see the story unfold again, then replaying it would be worth it. As you complete each golf course, that course becomes unlocked in free play mode. So you can go back and play previous courses as much as you want with a lot of customization options available like day/night, wind, gear, and more.

There are almost 10 courses to play through so once you're completely done with the main game, you can spend many more hours going back through each course and trying for high scores and playing with different customization options.

I beat the main game a month or two ago and I still play the game every now and then simply to play golf on one of the course, I haven't even entered the story mode since I beat it.

DEPTH: 9/10

One of the coolest aspects of Golf Story is simply how much stuff there is to do. There's a large assortment of different maps to explore and play golf in and even if you don't do all of the extra stuff that they have to offer, many of the maps can take a couple hours to complete. If you didn't focus on any of the bonus content like challenges and mini games, the main story could still take you around 10 hours or more to beat because it has so much content and many things to do.

Beyond that, there's so many extra things to do. For example there are a ton of mini games like disk golf, mini golf, and galf. One round of Galf alone could probably take you around 10 minutes and is super challenging. Beyond that, there's also a number of quests and challenges for you to take on. Maybe you need to do a course with a specific handicap, maybe you need to help someone find something, or maybe it's battling skeletons and gangs.

All of these challenges award you with money and EXP and some might even reward you with an item. Once your level is high enough and you have a lot of stats, it's also fun to mess around with different combinations of gear as well as your skill point allotment to see what's the best fit for you.

DIFFICULTY: 6

Yes, the game is laid back and super relaxing but it's still a golf game and has its own set of challenges that you need to overcome. Many of the story based matches are relatively easy but if you have just one bad hole that could really mess you up, especially if it's half way through the match or near the end and those 15 to 20 minutes to go waste. There were plenty of times where I was having a good game and a 1 or 2 point lead but a difficult green on hole 8 or 9 would mess up my score.

There's also a bunch of challenges that are super difficult and the only way to get past those are by trial and error, sometimes 10 or more attempts before you can get it right. In fact there are some challenges and mini games that I simply have not done because of how hard they are. The story part of the game is somewhat easy though, with only a fee real challenges so if you stick to those it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

If you are finding the game to be too much of a challenge at times, there are 2 things that you can do. First you can go back and do other easier challenges in the meantime so that you can make money and level up to upgrade your stats and skills. You can also just take a break and mess around with free play until you're ready to take on the challenging stuff again.

OVERALL: 9.2/10

Overall, Golf Story is a great game to play if you want to escape from the real world but you still want to do real stuff. It's one of the most creative sports games out there for you to get your hands on and it's a lot of fun. You can easily get 30 hours or more out of this game depending on how you play, which is good for the price.

Even if you aren't a big fan of golf or even sports at all, I would still 100% recommend this because of all the other little things that make it great. Personally I think it's 1 of the best Switch games out there and my overall grade for Golf Story is going to be a 9.2 out of 10.

I also think it's worth mentioning that less than a month ago, the developers of Golf Story announced a new game called Sports Story that will come out this year, so they must have been doing something right.