Mecarobot Golf

As we have seen with other golf games I've played in the Defunct Games Golf Club, nothing pisses me off more than a game that's half-assed, especially when it comes to content. If even a golf game on the Intellivision (like Chip Shot) can provide plenty of reasons to return to the game, there's absolutely no excuse for games from the fourth console generation to skimp. Even though I have been angered by content-lacking golf games in the past, one of the worst I had played so far in that regard is an obscure Super Nintendo game called Mecarobot Golf.

I had reason to be encouraged at the start. The robot on the cover looked neat, and the game was published by Toho, the same company responsible for Godzilla and all the kaiju that battle him. I thought that this would have been the forerunner to games like 100 Ft. Robot Golf (which I had reviewed previously) on the Playstation 4. Wouldn't it have been cool to play a round of golf as Jet Jaguar or Mecha-Gidora, maybe on an oversized course?

Click For the Full Picture Archive
Well, scratch those awesome ideas. All you do is play a standard round against an unbeatable robot. The single course provided is standard in every way, nothing distinct about it. On the upside, there are decent weather effects, and the course slightly alters based on the month the game is set. The game does make use of Mode 7 effects to scroll the course for each shot to provide a little more visual flair. However, the Mode 7 slows down the game too much, and the animation is so choppy that it gave me a headache after four holes. As if the lack of additional courses wasn't bad enough, Mecarobot Golf even lacks many of the basics. There are two variations of stroke play, one with help and one without. There isn't even any multiplayer at all! That is flat-out unforgivable!

The only thing that saves this game from scoring an "F" is that the mechanics are fairly decent. The controls are simple, though requiring the use of the shoulder buttons to aim is just stupid. The three-click swing is decent, though short shots get very irritating due to arbitrary speed increases. Worst of all is the putting. There are absolutely no guides to show the slope of the green. Even Great Golf got that part right! I was never able to leave a hole with fewer than four putts.

The more I thought about Mecarobot Golf, the angrier I got. This is a 16-bit golf game with no character choices, no additional courses, no additional modes, no multiplayer, and no chance at all of beating the only opponent. This translates to a game that you have no reason to play, period.