Mario Golf (Game Boy Color) Playthrough
261A playthrough of Nintendo's 1999 golf game for the Nintendo Game Boy Color, Mario Golf.
This playthrough shows everything from the story mode that can be accessed without using a Transfer Pak to exchange data with the N64 version. Since there is a ton of stuff to wade through, here are some timestamps:
_Marion Club_
Star Challenges 8:32
Tournament 20:06
Vs. Putts Match 39:17
Tiny-Tots Golfing Ground 58:16
Windy Valley Special Hole 1:02:36
Golf Clinic 1:05:47
_Palm Club_
Star Challenges 1:07:05
Tournament 1:17:53
Vs. Grace Match 1:38:00
Mini-Mini Lake Course 1:55:22
_Dune Club_
Star Challenges 1:58:30
Tournament 2:10:01
Vs. Tiny Match 2:31:38
Alternate Rules Game 2:51:53
Club Maker 3:27:49
Raven Woods Golf Course 3:28:48
_Links Club_
Star Challenges 3:31:23
Tournament 3:42:45
Ending 1 4:02:19
A Special Invitation 4:09:20
Vs. Gene Yuss Match 4:09:44
New Star Challenges 4:35:14
Golf Guru's Pitch & Putt 4:48:39
_Peach's Castle_
Tournament 4:57:12
Ending 2 5:17:49
Vs. Luigi Match 5:29:53
Vs. Mario Match 5:46:52
Vs. Wario Match 6:08:56
And finally, Windy Valley again for the final Star Challenge that I had forgotten to do earlier 6:23:23
The 2023 Masters tournament coinciding with the release of the new Mario movie was too perfect of an opportunity to pass up, so here is a playthrough of one of my favorite Game Boy Color games.
I bought Mario Golf not long after it came out with the hope that it would be a worthy successor to the two previous golf games that starred Mario, Golf for the Game Boy (https://youtu.be/v2CI3YAoJwo) and NES Open Tournament Golf (https://youtu.be/R65RVmmZyKM). I really got into both back in the day, and I was feeling the itch for a golf game that could hook me like that again.
I had my doubts, because really, how could any 8-bit golf game possibly improve on what had already been done in NES Open back in 1991? But somehow, Mario Golf managed to find a way.
The cartoony graphics, the intuitive, streamlined mechanics, and the speedy pacing lent the action an arcade-style feel without sacrificing the depth and nuances of the underlying simulation, and the structure provided by the RPG trappings made it feel like a unified game with a tangible goal to shoot for instead of a disjointed collection of pixellated golf courses to play in isolation.
Needless to say, they had me, hook, line, and sinker. I played it pretty obsessively for a few months until I had an insanely high-level character that could hit the green on most of the par 5 holes from the tee box. I knew every course and challenge inside and out. I could hum along with every single tune.
It was great. So great, in fact, that I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed when I later tried the N64 version. That was an excellent game, but its (at the time) amazing 3D graphics didn't capture my imagination in quite the same way the GBC game's charming characters and world did.
Camelot's care, enthusiasm, and passion can be felt bleeding through every aspect of the game, and it's hard to imagine that even Nintendo themselves could've done a better job. Mario Golf on the Game Boy Color does golf right - a huge achievement on its own - but what makes it so special for me is how true it stays to the warmth and the personality that defined 1990s-era Mario.
*Recorded with a Retroarch shader to mimic the look of the original hardware.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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