 Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss I didn't have a whole lot of experience with the old Black Box Nintendo games other than Mario and Duck Hunt anyway, but since I'm a golf dork, I remember I made sure to seek out Golf for NES and really enjoying it. And it's since become a bit of a cult classic over the years. It's one of those cozy games with no time limit, so you can take as long as you'd like to set up the next shot and get to know how the course was designed and what club works best for what yardage and to what wind. It's a very chill game. Fast forward to 2006 and the course was recreated in Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, both as a regular golf game, and in Frisbee Golf, and it was really cool to see some love shown to the original NES Golf. But that's not the only first-party NES Golf game. There's also NES Open Tournament Golf, made in September of 1991, or in other words, around when John Daly won the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick. This game hasn't seen as much love as the original Golf, but it's still a very good golf game, especially for the NES. You play as Mario, and there's three different courses to choose from, US, UK, and Japan, and evidently, they're supposed to be laid out in order of difficulty, but all three of these courses are pretty tough. It's a simple three-click swing meter, press A to get it going, press A again to set your power, and again to set your aim, but another major factor is how you prepare before each swing. You can adjust aim, placement, the kind of spin you want, and what club you want to use. Each shot brings its own set of challenges. Sometimes you're going to go way into the wind on a par-5, so you know you have no chance of getting near the green in two, and sometimes you've got the wind to your back on a par-3, and you have to club way down and hit it with some topspin so you don't launch it over the green. Or even when conditions are calm, you can choose to run the ball up to the hole with topspin, or hit it high into the air and pull the string and spin the ball backward toward the hole. That's the core gameplay here, planning out how you want to approach each hole based on the conditions you're given, then just executing the shot. And the game's physics here aren't bouncy and wonky. They're consistent and fair. So as long as you execute your swing as you should and plan your shot according to the wind in the whole location, then you'll do well with this game, and it's fairly nuanced too. The manual has a chart that shows the distance you'll lose for each type of club depending on your lie. There's a match-play campaign that has five computer opponents you have to beat, and the manual describes them as Luigi, Steve McQueen, Mark Cuban, Tony Hawk, and Billy Idol if you were into disco. When you beat one of them in match-play, you'll play a mini-game of either closest to the pin or longest drive. There's also exhibition tournament modes, a practice mode so you can practice specific holes. The game keeps track of stats, and you can even switch around the match-play opponents if you'd like. But best of all is that the game saves your best shot so you can watch the replay. I play in an NES open tournament that my friend sets up every year. Shout out to the renaissance. And I didn't realize that this game actually saved highlights. Over now to the par three tenth, two seventeen, and left to right wind. Snustrunt going with a three wood. Here we go. He's got a little bit of a fade to it, and it's going right at it. That's going right at it. It's in the hole! Unbelievable! What a shot! Yeah, that's right. I just called my own hole in one. Hey, it was the first in tournament history. It's a pretty big deal, okay? Well, not really, but it was a pretty cool moment. So yeah, either you like golf games or you don't. I don't think NES open tournament golf is going to win anyone over or anything. But if you did golf games, then you should give this one a shot if you haven't already. Yeah, the game is a little dry, and the presence of Mario doesn't really add a whole lot. But if I had to compare this game to a 90s PGA Tour player, it'd be Corey Pavin. Yeah, he doesn't bomb it off the tee, but the guy was an elite ball striker and still won a ton of tournaments, including the 1995 US Open at Shinnecock. He was a solid player for many years. Plus, look at that mustache. He's like the third Mario brother. So there you go. NES Open is the Corey Pavin of golf games. All right, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.