Golf (1984 video game)

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Golf
North American box art
Developer(s)	Nintendo R&D2 HAL Laboratory
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Producer(s)	Masayuki Uemura
Designer(s)	Kenji Miki Shigeru Miyamoto[5]
Programmer(s)	Satoru Iwata[6]
Composer(s)	Koji Kondo
Platform(s)	Famicom/NES Arcade (VS. System) show Other platforms PC-88 Arcade (PlayChoice-10) Sharp X1 Famicom Disk System Game Boy
Release	Famicom/NES JP: May 1, 1984 NA: October 18, 1985 EU: November 15, 1986 Arcade (VS. System) JP: July 26, 1984[2] NA: October 1984[1] EU: 1985[3] show Other versions Arcade (Ladies Golf) NA: December 14, 1984[4] Famicom Disk System JP: February 21, 1986 Game Boy JP: Nov 28, 1989 NA: February 1990 EU: 1990
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Golf^[a] is a golf-based sports simulation video game developed and released by Nintendo in 1984 for the Famicom in Japan. Later the same year, it was ported to the Nintendo VS. System as VS. Golf or Stroke and Match Golf, released in arcades internationally,^[3] followed by another arcade version called VS. Ladies Golf.^[7] The original was re-released for the NES in North America in 1985, and for the Famicom Disk System in 1986 in Japan.

The game was re-released across many years for different Nintendo consoles. It is a hidden Easter egg in the Nintendo Switch firmware as a tribute to the game's programmer, the late Satoru Iwata.

Gameplay[]

The main player wears a white shirt and shoes with blue pants and uses a white ball, while the second player wears a red shirt and shoes with black pants and uses a red ball.

The selects either single stroke play or the two-player selections of doubles stroke play or match play. The player is then placed at the tee of the first of eighteen holes.

In 1991, Nintendo identified the golfer as Mario in a gameplay guide book.^[8] Nintendo's Wii game Captain Rainbow identifies the golfer as Ossan,^{[citation needed]} which happens to be one of the generic hero names during the development of Donkey Kong.^[9] The Game Boy conversion would feature Mario on the Western cover art, but not the Japanese version.^{[citation needed]}

Development and release[]

In 1983, the Famicom had only three launch games, and its library would soon total seven, including Golf. Shigeru Miyamoto said he was "directly in charge of the character design and the game design",^[5] and Satoru Iwata said he was the only programmer.^[6]

Golf has been re-released on many other consoles after its release. Hudson Soft released a conversion of the game for the Japan-only PC-88 and Sharp X1 in 1985.^{[citation needed]} Golf was converted to the Japan-only Family Computer Disk System on February 21, 1986.^{[citation needed]} It was re-released for the Nintendo e-Reader for the Game Boy Advance. Both the NES and Game Boy versions were released on the Virtual Console.^[10][11]

Golf can be unlocked in the 2001 video games Dōbutsu no Mori for Nintendo 64 and Animal Crossing for GameCube. The latter supports Advance Play using a GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable, allowing Golf to be played on a Game Boy Advance.

In 2002, Golf was re-released for the e-Reader on the Game Boy Advance.

It was re-released on the Nintendo Switch in the Nintendo eShop on October 25, 2019 by Hamster Corporation as part of its Arcade Archives series.^[12]

The game is a hidden Easter egg in the pre-4.0 firmware of the Nintendo Switch, in tribute to Satoru Iwata. Iwata was the sole programmer of Golf (as one of his first projects for Nintendo) and later became Nintendo's CEO. It can be accessed on the Switch home menu if the system clock is set to the July 11 anniversary of Iwata's death, and then the user moves Joy-Con controllers to imitate the "Direct" action that Iwata popularized during his Nintendo Direct.^[13][14][15] This version exclusively has the option for motion controls.

Reception[]

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AllGame rated the Game Boy version 4 out of 5 stars.^[16]

The Famicom version yielded 2.46 million copies sold in Japan.^[17]

Legacy[]

Golf is the first golf video game to feature a power and accuracy bar for swinging the club, which has been used in most golf games since.^[18]

3-dimensional versions of Golf's courses appear in the nine holes of Wii Sports,^[6] the "Classic" courses in Wii Sports Resort, and in Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics.^[19]

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Golf at MobyGames
• Golf at NinDB