The first of two Top Pro Golf games. The second was localized with Chi Chi Rodriguez's name on it, and my impressions of it were bewildered. This felt better, and oddly had some additional trimmings that were completely omitted from the sequel, like a fun wireframe overview of the hole, and a proper elevation grid for putting. it still doesn't feel good to play though, and its course design couldn't be more ameteurish. And the power meter's fucked up in this one, you have to hold and release it to trigger, and it doesn't cycle indefinitely - you only get one chance to time it, and missing will whiff the ball. Just no reason to touch this in the grand scheme of things.

I wonder what the deal was for this series' development - 2 is so similar to 1, down to having the same music, that you'd almost think it was intended as an update than a sequel. even the PGA sequels did more to improve and build on content. My guess is, Chi Chi was intended to be a port of 1 with some changes, and it ended up different enough to backport for JP, labeled as a sequel.

Reviewed on Oct 17, 2022


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