I played this game for hours upon hours and no matter what I did I could not score in the positives. What type of game is it when you give it your best and can not score more then zero point...Ohh, golf is scored that way!

Humor aside, I am not a golf fan. Out of all sports, golf actually rates for me just below wrestling, racing, football and baseball. Let us get into what I think of this game.

The first focus is on the graphics. Simply awesome! They are clear and crisp. When you hit your ball behind an object, that object becomes opaque so you can see to shoot around it. The animation is smooth, however sometimes as the ball rolls it seems a smidge jerky, however it may just be the terrain.

The sounds are the normal sounds of nature. Birds are chirping. The wind is blowing. The golfers are taunting you for listening to the birds and wind. If you have played any Mario games before, the music is not overly original.

The control can be either easy or difficult. You can play through a complete 18 holes just by pressing your A button if you wish to do it the easy way. If you like to play it dangerously, then using the B button will allow you to adjust every aspect of your swing. In either case, you get to control the distance and direction you hit the ball.

The fresh factor is only relevant here if you have never played golf video games before. While it is true that some characters are new to this version of Mario Golf, no ones varies dramatically in talent. The ball gets to where you hit it and that makes things too easy and kills the replay value.

Game life...If you are dedicated, you can play to get every character handicap as well as the hidden characters. You also have the option of playing mini-games, some of, which require one to hit balls through targets and some that actually challenge your skills. It is a good party game if you have three or four players.

In the end, you have a game that was made very well, however it requires 3 players or more to be some serious fun. Get it if you like golf. Get it if you like Mario. Get it if you liked Mario Golf for the Nintendo 64, but did not own the game.