History VideoGame / MarioGolf

** This sentence is grammatically correct, but it contains some awkward phrasing and could benefit from some stylistic changes. Here's a revised version:

** The N64 game was the only one to completely lack original golf outfits for Mario characters, but this would change with the GBC game, in which Mario and Luigi wore golfing outfits, while Peach got a Golf Minidress starting in ''Toadstool Tour'' in place of her usual PimpedOutDress. By the time of ''Super Rush'', all characters received new, unique Golf uniforms, with Peach's replacing her previous Minidress

** The N64 game and its GBC counterpart also are the only games [[LimitedWardrobe to completely lack original golf outfits]] for Mario characters, this would change starting with ''Toadstool Tour'', where Peach would get a Golf Minidress instead of her usual PimpedOutDress, and ''Super Rush'', which gives everyone Golf uniforms (replacing the beforementioned minidress as well).

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: ''Super Rush'' allows you to automatically sink a putt if you’re less than a meter away from the pin.

** The [[VisualPun icon]] for the "Links" Club in the portable games is a [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Triforce]].

* NintendoHard:
** Any "One-Stroke, One-Putt" challenge in the franchise, often required to unlock the par three course for normal play in that game. You must complete 9 holes with heavily random winds, using a maximum of two strokes each. This would be tricky enough - but the first stroke MUST reach the green, and the second stroke MUST be a sinking putt. Even ending on the fringe on the first stroke is deemed a failure, and - regardless of the cause - failure in general means starting over from the first hole. Combine this with what are often lengthy sequences of text, saving, loading screens and animations before getting to try again, as well as the fact that since this challenge unlocks the course this takes place on, you cannot practice individual holes that give you trouble, all in all makes for a brutal, patience testing experience if you want to unlock every course for general play.
** The fourth putting challenge in Castle Club requires the player to sink seven out of ten putts that, unlike the above challenge, are randomly generated. It's already more demanding than the other putting challenges, which reward close approaches as well, but most of them are over fifty feet long and involve multiple significant slopes on the green. And also unlike the above challenge, this one does not allow you to use any mulligans from Kamek.

[[caption-width-right:299:Time to hit some balls rather than bricks for a change!]]

* ''Mario Golf'' (1999) - UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole, and Nintendo Switch Online.

* ''Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour'' (2003) - UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube
* ''Mario Golf: Advance Tour'' (2004) - UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance
* ''Mario Golf: World Tour'' (2014) - UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS
* ''Mario Golf: Super Rush'' (2021) - UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch

Camelot also developed the golf portion of ''VideoGame/MarioSportsSuperstars''. Another golf-related ''Mario'' game was ''NES Open Tournament Golf'' (developed by Nintendo R&D2), known as ''Mario Open Golf'' in Japanese, released for the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem. ''We Love Golf!'', another golf game made by Camelot and published by {{Creator/Capcom}}, was more or less ''Mario Golf'' [[DivorcedInstallment without Mario]]. The first ''VideoGame/HotShotsGolf'' was also made by Camelot, but for Nintendo's rival [[Creator/SonyInteractiveEntertainment Sony]]. As such, ''Mario Golf'' gets some of its DNA from it. During the weekend of July 9th, 2021, ''VideoGame/Tetris99'' celebrated the release of ''Super Rush'' with a limited time theme.

* SoreLoser: Every character in ''Toadstool Tour'', if they get a bogey or a double bogey. Special mention goes to Bowser Jr., who outright throws an ''epic'' kicking and screaming temper tantrum.

** For the N64 version, which was the first in the series, it had playable normal human characters, which seems rather bizarre when you put them side by side with the more colorful cast of characters from the Mario universe. The concept of having human characters was kept in the GBC and GBA titles (which revolve around building characters with RPGElements), but not in ''Toadstool Tour'' (though you could transfer the human characters from the GBA game to it), ''World Tour'', or ''Super Rush''.

** Some characters {Luigi, Harry, Bowser in ''64'', Mario in ''GBC'') would actually express ''disappointment'' if they achieve par. In subsequent games, all characters (even [[SoreLoser Bowser]]) are all quite happy to make par.

* The N64 game also had an unique Mini-Golf game where the characters' goal is to sink the ball in Mini-Golf themed courses using only Putters. It hasn't been brought back for any future installments.

%%* IdiotHair: Neil.
%%* InsufferableGenius: Gene. Putts is a very mild version.

* LimitedWardrobe: Peach and Daisy are the only ones who dress with sports attire in most of the games while the male characters keep their usual clothes (even Rosalina in ''World Tour'' just came with her regular dress). Averted in ''Super Rush'', where everyone gained proper golf wear.

* MetropolisLevel: ''Super Rush'' has New Donk City as an all par 3 course, with the city's layout ported wholesale from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey''. Some holes require players to curve their shots over or around buildings, while others take place on the rooftops.

* MythologyGag: Mario's clothes from ''NES Open Tournament Golf'' are unlockable in ''World Tour''.

** ''Super Rush'' features a course based on New Donk City with the layout taken directly from ''Super Mario Odyssey'', just with tee boxes and greens slapped over it, as well as Dash Panels to speed characters up during Speed Golf and Jump Panels so characters can [[RoofHopping jump from building to building]] in the rooftop holes.

** Metal Mario is just Mario with a metallic texture applied to his model.

** When using her special shot, Pauline belts out a verse from "[[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey Jump Up, Super Star!]]".

** The N64 version was notable for having semi-secret characters (including, among others, Mario and Luigi) not be available in the 1-P Mode unless you defeated them in Get Character Mode. It also had completely secret characters in Maple, Donkey Kong, Bowser, and in the case of the North American and European versions, Metal Mario. The first two handheld versions included the champion characters and some prominent Mario series characters (Luigi, Waluigi, and Bowser in the GBA version and Wario in both versions). In fact, the only characters who avert this in both games are Mario, Peach, Yoshi, DK, and Baby Mario.

* ShownTheirWork: The handheld games and ''Super Rush'' include an in-depth golf dictionary, which shows the developers really went the extra mile when it came to understanding how to play golf.
** For such a "casual" golf series, it contains a LOT of correctly-used golf parlance, and a very in-depth glossary to go with it. There are many little touches; the scorecard shows that tournaments are played in pairs, pin locations change between sessions, and the star (pro-level) tournaments in ''Toadstool Tour'' feature faster greens than normal, reflecting the practice of cutting them shorter than usual for a big tournament.

* The N64 game also had an unique Mini-Golf game where character compete to sink the ball in Mini-Golf themed courses using only Putters. It hasn't been brought back for any future installments.

** ''Toadstool Tour'' has one of the most insane examples of this in ''all'' gaming when it comes to unlocking the MAX difficulty in the American version. To unlock it, you have to beat ''every'' Star Tournament with ''every'' character. This makes for a grand total of a whopping '''102''' Star Tournaments to be won. Understandably this was completely toned down in the Japanese and European versions (that came out afterwards), where to unlock the MAX difficulty you just have to beat Bowser in his Character Match. Similarly, this requirement was understandably completely axed for future games.

** For the N64 version, which was the first in the series, it had playable normal human characters, which seems rather bizarre when you put them side by side with the more colorful cast of characters from the Mario universe. The concept of having human characters was kept in the GBC and GBA titles (which revolve around building characters with RPGElements), but not in ''Toadstool Tour'', ''World Tour'', or ''Super Rush''.

** ''NES Open Tournament Golf'' is a realistic golf game that doesn't have any ''Mario'' flair.
** ''64'' doesn't have an option to star characters, which would become a feature in all games starting with ''Toadstool Tour''.

* SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage: The Latin American [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRo8UTGZzx0 commercial]] for the GBC game has Mario speaking in Spanish. It just so happens that Creator/CharlesMartinet is fluent with the language.

* RegionalBonus: Metal Mario is exclusive to the North American and PAL versions of ''64''.

** The N64 version was notable for having semi-secret characters (including, among others, Mario and Luigi) not be available in the 1-P Mode unless you defeated them in Get Character Mode. It also had completely secret characters in Maple, Donkey Kong, Bowser, and in the case of the North American and PAL versions, Metal Mario. The first two handheld versions included the champion characters and some prominent Mario series characters (Luigi, Waluigi, and Bowser in the GBA version and Wario in both versions). In fact, the only characters who avert this in both games are Mario, Peach, Yoshi, DK, and Baby Mario.

** ''Super Rush'' has a somewhat minor example in unlocking the Super Star versions of the characters, to do so, you have to get 3000 character points. You get 10 points per hole played, so you need to play 300 holes with every character to unlock their Super Star version.

* GenderNeutralWriting: Toad’s commentary in ''Super Rush'' uses "they" as a pronoun for all characters.

* OriginalGeneration: The N64, GBC, and GBA versions have this type of characters to serve as opponents, helpful advisors, playable Story Mode characters, and to provide a larger selection of available golfers in the N64 version.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: During the Mario Open, Bowser was somehow able to get a hole in one on the second hole. How he was able to accomplish such a feat on a 383 yard par 4 hole is never explained.

** The N64 version is the only installment where Mario, Luigi and most of their friends are unlockable in single-player mode. Peach and Baby Mario are the only ones who are available from the start in all modes.

* InstantCostumeChange: In ''Super Rush'' when either using a speed boost or hitting a star swing, Luigi (who is in golfing clothing) would use an Ice Flower and transform to Ice Luigi, changing his outfit to Luigi's clothing as Ice Luigi.

* MundaneMadeAwesome: As a result of letting Creator/MotoiSakuraba (best known for battle themes making heavy use of electric guitar) compose for a ''golf'' game, the music is ''very'' peppy for a golf game. Combined with the standard casual ignorance of the laws of physics of a Mario title and the announcer, golf has never been so epic.

* ShoutOut:
** Bowser grabbing the camera after getting a birdie could be a reference to ''Film/HappyGilmore'' where the eponymous character (played by Creator/AdamSandler) does this after a successful putt.
** The [[VisualPun icon]] for the "Links" Club in the portable games is a [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Triforce]].
** When you hit the ball into a flower patch in ''Toadstool Tour'', VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} can be seen flying out.
** The leaderboard in ''64'' features several character names from ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' and ''Franchise/StarFox''.
** ''World Tour'' has a lot of references to previous Mario games, more than you would think at a glance. Wario's animation when you start a game for instance has him perform his shoulder dash attack from ''VideoGame/WarioLand'' as he rushes off to golf, while Mario's Double Bogey animation has him turn into [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros Small Mario]] after being hit by a Koopa shell.
** DK Jungle is a tremendous love letter to ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' fans. It features a lot of elements from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' in particular, such as Screaming Statues, Chomps and Barrel Cannons. Not only that, but TNT Barrels, which hail from the original trilogy instead of ''Returns'', are on certain holes, which explode if your ball touches them.

* SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage: The Latin American [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRo8UTGZzx0 commercial]] for the GBC game has Mario speaking in Spanish. It just so happens that Charles Martinet is fluent with the language.