Take me down to the New Donk City, where the grass is green and the shots are chippy

Mario Golf: Super Rush got its first bout of post-launch content last night: the previously shown New Donk City course, based on the city from Super Mario Odyssey. And you might think a city, with its urban sprawl and massive skyscrapers, would make for a bad—or at least, unconv??entional—golf course.

It does, and that's why it works so well.

When I played through Mario Golf: Super Rush back at launch, I had a good time playing some normal, regular, let's-take-turns-teeing-off golf. It was the other issues that made it a lackluster experience for me, and?? I've only played a couple rounds of 18 since then. Part of that was easily the roster of courses.

Most felt pulled in two directions: trying to be a golf course, and trying to be a Speed Golf course. Mario Golf: Super Rush introduced the Speed ?Golf mode as a fun, party-game alternative to standard golf where you sprint between shots, occasionally dodging?? hazards and messing with your friends.

It's a neat concept, but one I just didn't?????????????????????????? find myself wanting to play, and in turn, most of the courses felt a little flat when playing standard golf. Each range would have a standout or two, or possibly some tricky environmental problems to navigate like the grates on the Bowser course. But it lacked that Mario universe charm.

Booting up New Donk City, I wasn't sure if it would really nail?? it. But after playing a standard round of 18 with some friends, I'm hoping it's the sign of what's in store for future updates.

Playing in the city means navigating around lots of unconventional hazards, like a car parked in th?e street or a signpost blocking your short shot. Even though the map itself is fairly small and contained, you end up playing across it over multiple holes. It ends up making great use of small space to create new problems to solve.

A favorite of mine calls for you to tee off with a building in the dire??ct patch of your shot, so it already checks the golfer's ability to curve their shots. On others, a missed angle meant placing your golf ball in an alley or around the corner, and now you have to navigate around the city layout.

We quickly developed a game of intentionally hitting objects to bounce the golf balls to where we wanted them. Huge trick shots were sunk by "donking" them off buildings, as we called it. It really feels like a reward for having a steady grasp of the game's physics when you "donk" a shot off a ?building and onto the green.

The greens also felt much more challenging, with some surprising hills and lots of issues to dea??l with if you fell off and onto the outlying rough. But my favorite moments were the skyscraper holes near the end of the back-n??ine, where we were hitting shots from the roof of one tall building to another.

It's not just the spectacle, but the challenge that demands your ??accuracy and ability to read conditions like wind and gravity. I'm not necessarily saying New Donk City is difficult to play through; my first? run ended up being a pretty good score, compared to my first run of other courses.

It's the inventiveness, the cheer, the atmosphere, and the general earnest fun of New Donk City that has already made it a standout course for me. Where the desert map felt more like a barren golf course with some Mario accouterment, New Donk City is the weird, wacky golf course I was looking for in the base game. It's got some fun set dressing, including the very-human-humans of New Donk City (it's weird that there are real, non-Mario-proportioned humans there, right?), and there were plenty of moments where I remembered a fun Moon I grabbed in Super Mario Odyssey while golfing through an area.

Mario Golf: Super Rush still has a ways to go for me. The online is still a bit of a mess, as we had someone lose connection halfway through, replacing them with a bot. We eventually had to quit out and remake a lobby, as we couldn't figure how, or even if, they could rejoin. The Ranked Match option is also a nice post-launch goal to chase, even if putting Yoshi color options behind an online ranki???ng system doesn't feel great.

I just hope this is a sign of what's to come for Mario Golf: Super Rush. Its fellow Switch sports spinoff Mario Tennis Aces needed the same updates and support, and given how fast this update hit for Mario Golf, ?I'm hopeful. I'd like this to eventually square up with its predecessors, but for now, I'm happy to just have a course I'm eager to play another round through again.

(Oh, and I also tried ou?t Toadette. Seems fine, but I'm sticking to my boy Bowser.)

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Plus, some improved motion controls

It hasn't been long since Mario Golf: Super Rush went live, and Nintendo's already got an update to pull players back to the links. A free u?pdate going live later today will add a new character, course, and mode to the Mario golfing experience.

New Donk City is the setting of the new course being added today. The metropolis from Super Mario Odyssey will host some Mario Golf action, complete with speed pads and obstacles lining the st?reets.

Toadette also joins the roster as a playable golfer in today's update. She's got a turnip-chucking Special Dash and what looks like a charging Special Shot, where she slams the ball with a pickaxe. It might not be regulation, but whatever works, works in Mario Golf: Super Rush.

//twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/142326766406828??4422

Ranked Match also arrives today, allowing players to compete in various golf settings to earn rank. From Nintendo's screenshots today, it looks like there are separate ranks for Standard and Speed Golf, and whether you're using buttons or motion controls. It looks like once you hit A- or higher in Ranke??d Match, you can choose Yoshi's color. That's a pretty neat reward for being a master golfer.

Nintendo has also said improved motion controls are on the way. No specifics as to what they're addressing, but any tuning will hopefully help out those who ?love using the motion controls.

Mario Golf: Super Rush only launched back in June, and it's already getting an update that's addressing some of the issues I personally had with it; namely, lack of courses and modes to keep me invested. New Donk City looks fun and charming, though I'm interested to see whether it's b?uilt more with Speed o?r Standard Golf in mind. Ranked Match is an interesting idea though, and linking some rewards to it might get me to start playing some rounds again in the evening.

Nintendo says there will be more updates later this year, so there's still more to come for Mario Golf: Super Rush. Between this and the New Pokemon Snap update this week, though??, it's been a good time for free updates coming to the Switch.

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A shaky fore-ay

Mario might be known for his platforming abilities, but I've always been just as ??keen on his side ventures into sports. The various Mario sports spin-offs can have a way of turning athletics into spectacles, brimming with charm while still retaining the core of what makes these activities appealing. They are on the arcade side of?? things, not simulation.

When Mario Golf: Super Rush is at its best, it nails this. It can be goofy, fun, and a nice mix of classic golfing with some Super Shots and challenging course obstacles. But when it feels like it's hitting the rough as often as it lands on the green, it gets harder to ignore th??e downsides.

Mario Golf: Super Rush provides a few different wa?ys to smack tiny orbs across the links. Classic golf is pretty much exactly what you expect it to be: players take turns teeing off across a set number of holes, ranging from basic courses to more complex ones with different obstacles, layouts, and environments to overcome in search of the green.

Mario Golf: Super Rush (Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Camelot
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: June 25, 2021
MSRP: $59.99

Golfing feels really good in Super Rush. It takes a while to really dial in certain aspects of it, and playing through the single-player campaign can help a lot in that respect. I'd also really recommend using a Pro Controller if possible, and especially the button controls over the motion controls. I'm glad that th?ere are motion controls for some goofy antics, b??ut they definitely feel more novel than anything.

Clubs feel distinct, adjusting shots for wind speed and the slope of the green feels great, and overall, I enjoyed my time whenever I was just chipping away across the courses. Each member of the Mario cast brings their own talents as well, and I really like the selection. Sure, you've got Mario, Bowser, Peach, and Luigi, but there's also Charging Chuck and King Bob-omb. Those are good, solid cuts from Mario lore. I do wish they had a bit more character to them, as their celebrations (or bouts of depression from a triple bogey) are a little und??erstated, but Super Shots seem to be where that went. Each golfer has their own, with effects ranging from laying down a sheet of ice or smokescreen to transforming other balls into eggs or stars. Golf is more fun when you're not just sinking putts, but ruining your friends' putts too, right?

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ePrWcWJm8E

Course selection in Mario Golf: Super Rush is a little slim—the lineup is expected to expand over time post-launch—and while there are some highlights, like a course resembling ?Bowser's face, some of the courses feel a little more designed for Speed Golf. This version of golf is one of the new play modes, where instead of teleporting to your ball's resting place and taking turns, every player runs around and has to chase after their shots, navigating the course and its hazards in the process.

I don't know that I ever really gelled with Speed Golf. It's not a bad addition, but it certainly has some ups and downs. In some cases, it's fun to hold off on a shot until everyone is lan??ding on the green, then smacking them all with a Super Shot and watching them scramble. Or you can Super Dash into someo??ne else on the way to your shot, bumping them around in the scramble for the green. The urgency and chaos is appealing, and there are some neat obstacles to navigate in the process.

That said, Speed Golf can also feel very repetitive, especially due to how often it's employed in the single-player campaign. Frequently, I felt myself falling i??nto a cycle of hitting the ball and dashing to it, without really taking strategy or alternative options into account. It can also make a good shot feel extremely anticlimactic; in one instance, I teed off and was notified that I landed a hole-in-one, as I was still walking across the course, no replay or anything.

Battle Golf is a variation of Speed Golf, where everyone plays at the same time, only there are a bunch of flags, greens, and holes littered around a hazard-laden arena. You battle the other players to be the first to three holes sunk, so it's as much about speed as it is precision. It's a bit like the Mario Party of Mario Golf, and while it was ?fun t??he first few times, I didn't have much desire to go back to it.

The Golf Adventure mode is the single-player campaign, something that's likely to be of interest to folks who dug the Game Boy Mario Golf or, more recently, Golf Story. The single-player mode definitely ?takes after those, as a "golf RPG" that sees your Mii traveling between courses, competing with franchise favorites, and completing challenges that aren't just hitting par or better.

While it has some good ideas and, in some areas, really fun twists on gameplay, it's also short, not too in-depth, and rehashes some of its twists. Your Mii can g??row in different areas over time, though by adventure's end, you'll probably be fairly maxed out in most respects,?? and have an arsenal of clubs with different effects, like added spin or making your shots more susceptible to wind.

Some courses will have a timer, where you have a limited amount of time to make it to your ball and hit it again or you'll fail out, or a set amount of time to complete a certain number of holes. The desert area introduces "thirst" as a concept, where if you take too long to golf, you'll run out of water and fail. So, two variations on the same essential ??concept.

The challenges I enjoyed more were ones that got me to rethink how I play, or play in different ways. Batting m??y golf ball up and down cliff sides using tornadoes was an interesting hurdle to overcome, as was a series of courses where my team would fail if no one managed to hit par. They added a bit more tension and stakes, and forced me to use some of the more interesting clubs in my bag, without feeling like another ticking clock. There are some later-in-the-campaign twists that both add a little bit more zaniness to the story and some weird new mechanics, but ultimately it was the challenges of my golfing ability that stuck out the most.

That was my takeaway from Mario Golf: Super Rush as a whole. Some parts of it were some really solid, fun golf, and other parts just felt like they missed the mark. It reminds me a lot of the previous Mario sports game on the Switch, Tennis Aces, where most of my fun was playing against frie??nds in some good ol' fashioned tennis bouts. As is, it's a little slim, with single-player not taking up more than a handful of hours to see through, and really only the multiplayer to keep you going beyond that.

It also just needs a bit more Mario charm. Courses range from the sort of hazard-laden, gorgeous links you'd expect from a Mario sports game to underwhelming ventures with a few Mario cosmetics littered about the area. Celebrations are re-used and static. It's missing some of that spark that makes Mario Kart and the older Mario sports games really pop.

Mario Golf: Super Rush is still a fairly solid golf experience, but it will need some of that aforementioned post-launch support to match up with previous sports spinoffs for me. It satisfies a craving for some arcade-style golf multiplayer, and I can see myself having some fun playing an 18-hole trek with friends online a few more times. I'm just hoping for some more reasons to kee??p me coming back.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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A lot more than just standard golf

The Mario sports spin-offs have always taken a broader, zanier approach to their respective athletic past-times. In the latest trailer for the upcoming Mario Golf: Super Rush, it defin??itely seems like the trend is carrying forward, with a surprising number of modes to boot.

Today's trailer showcases some of the modes included in Super Rush, both multiplayer and single-player. On the competitive side, we've already seen Speed Golf, the fast-paced race to the finish where golfers can use special abilities to get ahead. Battle Golf is one step further: a Speed Golf variant with multiple holes to capture, in an almost Mario Kart-like battle arena.

Of course, there's still standard golf with a host of quality-of-life features. Mario Golf: Super Rush will also have a solo mode called Golf Adventure, where players can take their Mii through the ranks at a country club, completing a varie?ty of challenges an??d leveling up in the process.

As someone who bounced off Mario Tennis Aces after a week or so, I'm eagerly looking forward to this one. The single-player side seems like it's got some interesting challenges to hold the player's attention, and I am all about the bonkers battle modes. I'm really just here for the incredibly good golf attire—did you see Bowser's visor?—but it looks like Mario Golf: Super Rush is gearing up t??o bring s??ome more good golfin' to the Switch on June 25.

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Story mode?!

The Nintendo Switch has been missing some good go??lf games, but that's going to change this summer. 

There is a lot here to be excited about beyond just getting a new entry in Nintendo's best Mario sports franchise. Mario Golf: Super Rush will include motion controls for anyone who still has fond memories of playing golf in Wii Sports. There are als?o new tools to help you gauge your shot and figure out the terrain of each?? hole.

Perhaps most exciting is the re?turn of a story mode. Play as your Mii and level up as you challenge and interact with the heroes and villains of th??e Mushroom Kingdom. If you're confident with your Mii, you can take them into multiplayer mode as well.

Speaking of multiplayer, Speed Golf looks like an outstanding addition to the franchise. In this competitive mode, you race against other players to be the first to knock your ball into t??he hole. Power-ups will help give you the advantage, but the better shot you ar?e, the better chance you'll have to emerge the victor.

Mario Golf: Super Rush will launch on June 25 for Nintendo Switch.

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