Mario Golf on the Gameboy Color did something very cool that pretty much every other entry in the series has overlooked. More than just a golf game, it incorporated story and role-playing elements as a means of spicing things up. During my time with that game, I felt truly invested in the trials and tribulations of an aspiring golfer trying to become the Mushroom Kingdom champion due to having an impact on my character’s story arc and development of his abilities. Almost two decades later, Sidebar Games picks up the torch on the golf RPG concept with Golf Story and runs with it.
In Golf Story, you step into the cleats of a lapsed golfer looking to reconnect with his childhood love of the sport. He starts out by playing at the golf course he and his father used to play at, though it’s now run by a sketchy mob-like figure who has really let the place go. Along the way, you will meet a lot of wacky characters, find yourself in increasingly odd scenarios you have to work your way out of, and you will play a lot of golf and golf-related challenges.
What makes it unique is that it plays a lot like a classic 16-bit era Japanese role-playing game, but with the golfing substituting for combat. The implementation of this is really smart, because you’re not just playing a 9 or 18-hole course each time. Instead, there are a plethora of golf-related challenges that are bit-sized in nature and give players cool ways of using their golf skills. When it’s actually time to throw down on a big course, there’s a weight to it, because you’ve spent all of this time working towards that moment.
The golfing experience isn’t entirely straightforward either. Yes, it uses standard golf controls and you have to account for environmental factors like wind. But there are other gameplay elements that can impact the experience as well. In the first course, there are pesky moles scattered throughout each hole, who will move your ball if you hit it too close to them. In another, you can actually bounce your shot off the backs of turtles for extra distance. This does raise the silliness factor quite a bit, but it still rewards players for making skillful shots.
What caught me most off-guard was how deep the RPG side of the experience goes. There’s a ton of hilarious dialogue and silly plot threads to work through that permeate through every part of the game. Whether you’re randomly playing frisbee golf as part of a side quest, or you’re playing in a head-to-head match with an AI opponent, the narrative is constantly present, making for an experience that feels cohesive throughout.
However, the game has a number of annoying user experience issues. For one, there’s no way to quickly retry a failed task. Instead, you’re kicked back to the overworld every time, and you have to mash buttons to get past the same dialogue leading up to the task. In cases where it’s mathematically impossible to succeed in a given task, the lack of a retry option forces you to play out a losing cause.
Simply having a retry option would take away much of the stress that comes with playing the game, as it’s a problem that persists throughout. Worse yet, if you fail a major challenge, such as a round of golf, the game awkwardly kicks you to the title screen without even giving you a game over screen. On top of that, if you’re performing poorly on a major course, there’s no way to quickly retry it.
Something that is downright silly about the game’s presentation is how putting is handled at specific angles. If your ball is at point blank range, but the ball is to the south of the hole, your golfer will completely obstruct your view of the ball and the hole. Yes, it’s a very short putt, but it’s infuriating that you can’t see where you’re shooting.
Another issue relating to the game’s progression is that it’s often not clear how to achieve certain objectives. In one, the game requires you to feed fish. While the game teaches you that fish will jump out of the air to catch your golf balls in certain spots, the objective doesn’t make it clear that only specific golf balls strewn around the world will count towards the objective. In another, the game requires you to make the turtles happy, with no indication of what that actually means. At its worst, I ran into a glitch where something I did that should have been a success wasn’t classified as such. Thankfully, there were other ways of completing that objective, but that’s a glaring bug to still be in the game.
Golf Story shines off the strength of its nifty concept, entertaining golf, and humourous dialogue. Unfortunately, the experience is marred with a number of silly user experience gaffes and even some glitches that can impede your progress. I really want to like this game more than I do, but these glaring issues are too difficult for me to ignore. Still holding my breath for the day Nintendo makes the true success to Gameboy Mario Golf.
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