Absolute chaos. That’s the only way to describe a typical round of play in Super Battle Golf. It is absolute insanity in the best possible way. The game is quick, it’s snappy, and (for my part) golfing is only about half the experience. The rest of the game is about speed and taking out your friends, although not permanently. It’s kind of a great time, and it completely caught me off guard.
I don’t mention it a lot, but I have a standing game night with a small group of friends every Thursday. It originally began when the pandemic hit and we found it difficult, even impossible, to game in real life. We usually play various TTRPGs, but some nights our schedules or just the overall gaming mood pushes us toward playing something with less overhead. Thus, this past week we found ourselves all grabbing and joining a round of multiplayer Super Battle Golf. On the tin, it looks a lot like the old Mario Golf 64 I remember enjoying when I was a kid, but in actuality it’s that plus a whole lot more.
If you’re not a big fan of golfing games, that’s OK. Honestly, it’s probably a good thing. Super Battle Golf is of course a golfing game, but there are so many other factors and abilities at play that you can enjoy it regardless. In fact, I’d say it’s a party game first and foremost and a golfing game second. The first thing that is a bit different from many serious golf games is that play is simultaneous, not turn-based, so you aren’t waiting and watching your friends (or whoever you’re playing with) hit their shots in turn order. No, no, no. You are all racing to be the first person to sink one in the hole. There is a par for every hole, and the game is keeping track of your strokes. But the real points come from being first… and from knocking the other players around.
The game features most of what I remember enjoying in a golf game. You have your power meter for how hard you’ll strike the ball and an angle you can adjust. There’s some hot keys to quickly jump the angle up and down while holding the aim button, but you can also use your mouse wheel to give it some fine adjustments. During a match, you’ll find yourself really using those shortcuts because ain’t nobody gonna give you time to adjust your shot for the perfect play.
If you are within striking distance while aiming to hit the ball, you’ll also see a little flag on the power bar giving you a general idea of how hard to swing. It’s something that I found incredibly useful since without a lot of play, it’s difficult to judge how hard a full swing hits compared to a lighter tap. You also don’t change clubs based on distance or anything like that, so you don’t need to know about or bother with switching clubs in and out. Just swing and choose your power.
Gameplay is simultaneous. All players can move freely to run around and get to their ball and make the next shot themselves. Other players are not allowed to interact with your ball either. There’s a nice big marker that always shows you how far you are from your ball and where it is. The same is true of the flag for the actual hole you’re aiming for, so you’re always aware of relatively how close you are, or not, to the hole.
That takes care of the golfing side of things, but now we get into the battle side. There are a good number of different powerups available, and the ability to customize the drop rate is really awesome! You can even choose who gets which power-ups. For instance – and I’m thinking in terms of Mario Cart – you know that if you’re in last place, you have a greater chance of getting the giant Bullet Bill power or others to give you a bit of a catch-up mechanic.
Similarly, when you’re in first, you rarely get anything other than coins. Here you can actually customize those things, which is really great. On top of that, you can even choose to disable all combative powers so that the game basically plays more like a typical golf game. Very cool to try out a pure round of who’s actually better at hitting the ball into the hole.
And actually that’s the real vibe of the game: It felt a lot like playing Mario Cart. From all the players lining up at the tee off point to the timer counting down before the first shot, to the absolute hilarity of attempting to even hit the ball, it’s really a race to the finish line… where the finish line is getting that ball in that hole!
Some of the powers are speed boosts or even a golf cart to help you along. Others include an ice ray, a shotgun, and even an orbital laser! That one functions similar to the blue shell. It’s going to wreck someone specifically, and its radius of effect is large enough that it’ll probably knock a few nearby other players out as well.
The powers themselves in action are the true star of the game. When you’re running neck and neck with another player trying to beat him to the next power-up, and then that power-up also ends up being a rocket launcher that you can turn and blast your buddy away with? It’s pure joy.
Lastly, players don’t have a health bar or anything like that, so you aren’t actually trying to kill or remove each other from the game. Instead, it’s more like you’re slowing each other down or interrupting each others’ shots. And the interruptions are beyond comical to the point of absurdity. It’s crazy but fun, and it’s jarring to be lining up your shot only to be literally shot (by the duelist or shotgun powers) and find yourself flying through the air.
It’s also really nice and easy to set up a round. You have the ability to choose whole themed courses or even mix and match them. They also have ratings to see how difficult a hole is to play as well, making it pretty quick and easy to create a match for everyone.
The final note I should mention is about playing on Linux. Don’t forget to check the compatibility mode! I played an entire evening with the default settings, and my shots were erratic, the swings were uncontrollable, and the overall play was insane. Then I switched Proton’s compatibility mode, and everything was gravy.
Super Battle Golf isn’t free-to-play (a rarity for me, I know!), but it is only $8 on Steam, and there are surely worse ways to spend $8 than on a fun time with friends or even joining a random hosted game. It’s quick and easy to play – and it’s basically brand-new too!
