This game made me go get glasses. No but really, I have an astigmatism (in both eyes?) that on top of the already terrible font Nintendo has been pushing the last few years, the seemingly ridiculously tiny UI scale in this means I genuinely cannot read basic information like wind direction and speed while playing on our living room TV.
It kinda goes without saying but I'll continue anyways, the presentation as a whole is utterly lacking in much of the character Ninty shoved into basically every sports game pre-U era; I like how @letshugbro put it, "like reading a McDonalds ordering kiosk".
At launch the content was laughable, being at most on par with Toadstool Tour (2003) but with comparatively bland environments and lacking most of the side challenges iirc. They've added a few new courses and characters since I think, but one thing I deeply miss from TT and 64 is the character taunts; I miss sounding like I'm smashing a mayo jar with Petey.
Another thing I deeply miss is the clear and easily presented information, the decision to remove the swing arc (as in, the line that shows the exact trajectory of the ball minus wind influence) is baffling to me; as well as removing innate hooks or curves from characters and instead giving them gimmicky and often situational "power" balls that range from sometimes helpful to useless (power shots are gone); by extension they also removed the ability to see how much additional curve you're applying changes the ball trajectory. You have no way to gauge a shot except to purely chance it or play it extremely safe and don't risk curving/hooking. And while it technically exists, they neutered the functionality of the elevation grid surrounding the ball impact site, by making it only apparent if you manually point at where you want it to show up with a janky first-person viewfinder and selecting it. You cannot move the grid around once placed, you have to repeat this entire process every time you want to simply check terrain. I don't know how the N64 title understands and executes this infinitely better, but here we are.
I don't understand the argument I saw at launch that "they're trying to be more realistic" while simultaneously adding more absurd mechanics and simplifying the actual swing process. I haven't played the signature "super rush" mode yet but from what I gather it doesn't interest me at all and the gimmick wears off almost immediately. The "campaign" is a joke and I'd prefer the old rival progression of 64 and TT.
It's whatever, the fact they wanted $50 for this though is ridiculous and the game makes me just want to go back and play 64 or TT purely for the better controls and UI.
It kinda goes without saying but I'll continue anyways, the presentation as a whole is utterly lacking in much of the character Ninty shoved into basically every sports game pre-U era; I like how @letshugbro put it, "like reading a McDonalds ordering kiosk".
At launch the content was laughable, being at most on par with Toadstool Tour (2003) but with comparatively bland environments and lacking most of the side challenges iirc. They've added a few new courses and characters since I think, but one thing I deeply miss from TT and 64 is the character taunts; I miss sounding like I'm smashing a mayo jar with Petey.
Another thing I deeply miss is the clear and easily presented information, the decision to remove the swing arc (as in, the line that shows the exact trajectory of the ball minus wind influence) is baffling to me; as well as removing innate hooks or curves from characters and instead giving them gimmicky and often situational "power" balls that range from sometimes helpful to useless (power shots are gone); by extension they also removed the ability to see how much additional curve you're applying changes the ball trajectory. You have no way to gauge a shot except to purely chance it or play it extremely safe and don't risk curving/hooking. And while it technically exists, they neutered the functionality of the elevation grid surrounding the ball impact site, by making it only apparent if you manually point at where you want it to show up with a janky first-person viewfinder and selecting it. You cannot move the grid around once placed, you have to repeat this entire process every time you want to simply check terrain. I don't know how the N64 title understands and executes this infinitely better, but here we are.
I don't understand the argument I saw at launch that "they're trying to be more realistic" while simultaneously adding more absurd mechanics and simplifying the actual swing process. I haven't played the signature "super rush" mode yet but from what I gather it doesn't interest me at all and the gimmick wears off almost immediately. The "campaign" is a joke and I'd prefer the old rival progression of 64 and TT.
It's whatever, the fact they wanted $50 for this though is ridiculous and the game makes me just want to go back and play 64 or TT purely for the better controls and UI.