Collection essentials #88: NES Open Tournament Golf (NES)

This is probably the best golf game on the NES. It’s also very notable for being the first ever sports game released in the U.S. where you play as Mario. Previously Mario had appeared as a referee in “Tennis” for NES, but that doesn’t count. Several years and a couple console generations into the future, you’ll see that Mario sports games wind up becoming a big thing. Nintendo had made a few sports titles before this, including the aforementioned “Tennis” and one just called “Golf”, but these games were just okay at best and I chose not to mark them as essentials.


The game features three courses. In addition to obvious multiplayer modes, there’s a single-player tournament mode where you compete against a crowd of computer-controlled players (no, you don’t watch them all). There’s a surprisingly wide array of features here, including the ability to customize the set of clubs you use and the ability to save replays of your best shots. The characters provide a welcome bit of personality to the experience, too.


Sadly, I have very little hands-on experience with this game so I don’t have much else to say. I never played or even knew about it as a kid, which is a shame because my dad and I would have absolutely loved it. Still, Mario’s first sports game as a participant is one I gotta have.

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