Golf

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This article is about the 1984 video game. For the microgame with the same name, see Golf (microgame). For an overview of all golf-related titles in the Mario series, see Mario Golf (series).

Template:Infobox Golf is a game for the NES released in 1984. It is based on the sport of the same name. It was also ported to the Nintendo PlayChoice-10. The golfer has been identified as Mario in supplemental material, albeit not wearing his traditional shirt and overalls. However, the game Captain Rainbow would instead identify the golfer as Ossan, which happens to be a generic internal name Mario had during the development of Donkey Kong. Additionally, the Game Boy conversion of this game would feature Mario on the Western cover art, but not the Japanese version.

A copy of the original game was embedded in Nintendo Switch firmware. Activating it required the internal system clock to be set to July 11 - Satoru Iwata's death anniversary - and performing his iconic "directly to you" hand gesture with both Joy-Con controllers on the HOME menu. If successful, a voice clip of Iwata from a Japanese 2012 presentation would confirm the input, and an emulation of Golf with added motion control support would promptly boot up. Golf has significance as one of the first video games Iwata programmed himself for Nintendo while working at HAL Laboratory. This version of Golf was overwritten as of the 4.0.0 update, making it unplayable. Aside from the NES game's inclusion on the Switch, the Nintendo Playchoice-10 version was later included onto the Arcade Archives.

Gameplay

An in-game screenshot.

The gameplay of Golf is relatively simple. The player is given a ball, and a map on the right side of the screen shows the hole that they must hit the ball into. The obstacles on the way are also displayed on the map. The player will get more points depending on how many times they hit the ball to get it into the hole. Many different types of clubs are also available to choose from by pressing Up/Down on the + Control Pad.

Description from the Nintendo eShop

Bogey, par, birdie, or Eagle.
The score is up to you.
Golf is 18 holes of realistic links action. Each hole has tricky hazards, so strategy is a must.
Read the wind direction, check the distance, select a club, adjust your swing and keep your eye on the ball. Now drive it home.
From twisting fairways and hungry sand traps to big water hazards and deceptive greens, Golf is packed with challenges.

This version of the game does not have multiplayer functionality.

Levels

Golf features eighteen holes separated into nine labeled "OUT" and nine labeled "IN". Each hole features some green and some woods, and every hole except hole 11 features sand traps. Holes 2, 3, and 5 feature inland ponds, holes 7 and 16 feature rivers, and holes 6, 9, 13, 15, and 18 have water covering the majority of the map; the other holes do not have water. Once the player gets the ball close to the target (the actual "hole", marked by a flag) on each map, the section of the screen which previously showed a map of the entire course will show a zoomed-in map of the putting green.

VS. System

The game was released for the VS. System, also known as Stroke & Match Golf. Two versions of this game exist: VS. Golf features the same male character as the NES version, but VS. Ladies Golf features a female player.

Gallery

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  International NES logo

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  NES cover artwork

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  Famicom cover artwork

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  Famicom cover artwork (monochrome)

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  Artwork of the game's entire map

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  PC-8801 box art

• GolfJPBoxart.jpg

  Famicom box art

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  Alternate Famicom box art

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  Famicom Disk System box art

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  North American Game Boy box art (Player's Choice)

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  Japanese Game Boy box art

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  The title screen for the Game Boy version

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  The title screen for Stroke & Match Golf

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  VS. Ladies Golf

References in later games

• Wii Sports - Nine of the holes in Golf reappear as the 9-hole course in this game.
• Wii Sports Resort - The same nine holes that appear in Wii Sports reappear as the back nine of this game's course, and in the same order.
• Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics - The first hole from Golf reappears in the Golf game in this game.

Staff

Main article: List of Golf staff

Trivia

• Nintendo planned to release an 18-hole golfing game as a launch title for the Family Computer, but software companies declined the project and believed that it could not be done with such limited memory at the time. Then-HAL Laboratory employee Satoru Iwata was eager to prove this technical achievement and program the game himself, which required him to create a custom data compression routine.
• Golf is the second released video game that Satoru Iwata programmed for Nintendo, after Pinball.
• Similar to Ice Climber, the red-colored character on the North American NES box art is actually the second player.
• Golf is a playable NES game in Doubutsu no Mori for Nintendo 64 and its GameCube port, Animal Crossing.