Day 239, Game 239 - NES Open Tournament Golf

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If you're an Italian plumber named Mario, who tends to work more jobs and have more careers than you could realistically handle at once, you're probably a pretty tired guy. Nothing but work, more work, and saving the princess ... over and over again. That's your life, seemingly whether you like it or not. 

So if you had any free time, which I'm sure is few and far between, what would you do to occupy yourself and just relax? Sit on your front porch and sip lemonade? Take Yoshi out for a leisurely stroll? Organize your coin collection or tend to your piranha plant garden? How about none of the above.

No, if you are Mario and are looking for a hobby, the only logical thing to do is take up the game of golf. Yes, golf. Mario's secret love, which oddly enough, he seems to be really good at. I guess if you think about it, golf is one of the few sports where being athletic isn't exactly a necessity, and since Mario isn't in the best shape of his life (or was he?), this is a match made in heaven.

Yes, I played the classic NES Open Tournament Golf game, which was originally released for the NES (obviously), but I played on the 3DS thanks to that awesome Ambassador Program that I wrote about a few days ago. Honestly, I had never played this game until I got it for my 3DS, but if I had, I completely forgot about it. Regardless, I'm glad I went back and played eventually.

It's actually made me realize how golf games have have taken so much from the early beginnings of golf video games and ran with them. Sure, they are bigger, better and overall just far more amazing then the older games, but that is to be expected. But the ideas implemented in the first golf games are still being utilized, which is awesome to see. Also, you get to golf with Mario and Luigi, and what's better than that? 

Speaking of characters taking on different jobs, they have Princess Peach and Toad as caddies, but they also depict one of Mario's arch-nemesis, Donkey Kong, as an accountant, responsible for handing out prize money. Seriously. I wish I could make this stuff up, but this all comes from the crazy mind of Nintendo, which is more unpredictable than you could ever imagine. 

Overall, I like golf games. I love the Tiger Woods series, and Wii Sports Golf was more fun than it should have been, so it was fun to see where golf games all started from, for the most part. It's a fun golf game, and it's Mario, which is a win-win situation. Plus, it's a lot better than watching Mario drink lemonade on his porch. 

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