Original Release: Nazca, 1996, Neo-Geo
Other Releases: Neo-Geo CD (1996), Neo-Geo Pocket Color (1999), Wii (2008), PS2/PSP (in SNK Arcade Classics 1, 2008), Android/iOS (2016), PS4/Xbone/Switch (2017)
AKA “Big Tournament Golf” in Japan, this top golf choice for the Neo-Geo was the product of former Irem dev team Nazca (better known for Metal Slug) and had to switch to its original Japanese name for its more recent releases (as the Masters tournament people objected)
Neo Turf Masters (Neo-Geo, Nazca, 1996)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
If you plonked down the $650 USD for the Neo-Geo console in the 1990s and wanted a golf game for it, you wound up with just two options. This one was broadly regarded as the better of the two, but it also took five extra years to be released and really it was just a slight upgrade of Irem’s “Major Title” (which was available in arcades all the way back in 1990 and had an SNES port as well).
Still, it’s a fan favorite golf game because of its pleasant visuals, simple and easy-to-learn gameplay, and catchy memorable soundtrack. Aside from the presentation its best quality is adapting golf very well to the unique demands of SNK’s main market of the time, its “MVS” arcade cabinets. It feels simple enough and fair from the first time you step up to it, with lots of 2D golf conventions like the sliding power meter, but there’s also little nuances to learn to get the best possible scores and it lends itself pretty well to 2-player battles. It also moves along at an extremely zippy pace, striking a great balance between fun visuals and editing out any unnecessary delays.
So you can play a “hot-seat” two player battle in which you take turns, or there’s a lone single player mode in which you pick a course and golfer and start out somewhere down the rankings and have to try to birdie your way back up. All of this is narrated by the cute Nelson … well, I don’t think you ever see her, but she sounds like a cute glasses girl.
The “arcadey” quality of it is that you get three “lives” (or “hole credits”) essentially with each quarter. If you merely hit par on a hole, you lose one life. If you birdie or better, you can gain one or two lives. But if you go below par, you can start losing 2+ hole credits if things go really sideways and find yourself needing to fish for another quarter. It’s fine for home play, but it could feel a tad greedy in the arcades as very small mistakes in timing or aim could sink you quick.
One of the things that adds to the feeling of cheapness is that the player stats matter more than you might think at first. You get five golfers to choose from with ratings in five different areas, but really two matter more than the rest: driving and putting. Strong drives are absolutely crucial to get birdies on more holes than not, but the tradeoff is that the strong drivers also tend to have lower “precision” ratings. But that just means that their meters are a little faster and harder to handle … but even the guy with the worst ratings in this area, the Brazilliy Madison who has the highest power but a 1* rating in everything else, is not hard to handle compared to numerous other 2D golf games. The place where you get gypped is when you get “ON DA GWEEN!” because sinking a putt seems to have a randomized element based on your putter rating. That’s why I tend to think the guy with the second-highest drive power, the Churman, is the best overall choice as he also has the second-highest putt rating and seems to get gypped way less on close putts. I dunno, I didn’t dive into the guts of the game to explore this, but Brave AI agrees with me on this one for whatever that’s worth.
So as with all the 2D golf games, you have to feel out its peculiarities of this sort just by playing and experimenting. Another area where this is much more appealing for modern home play, trying to do this in an arcade could rack up quite a bill back in the day. Another little tweak is that eyeballing the power meter to do math based on your estimated drive power and distance doesn’t always work out the way you’d expect, often it’s really best to just 100% it in the direction the game points you in.
As far as the overall pantheon of 2D golf games goes I’d say this one is upper tier, but not among the absolute best. If only because of the very limited single player experience (just four courses to go with the five golfers, unless you get the CD version and then it’s five courses). It’s a nice smooth experience though, can be a bit addictive in messing around and perfecting your scores, and the music has a good breezy jazzy Pilotwings vibe going on. I haven’t tried the mobile versions as of this writing, but it does seem like a title that would lend itself well to phones given the simplistic controls, oversize colorful graphics and overall light gameplay style.
Links
Remove shot timer when emulating
How to set up tournaments
Arcade flyers and cover art
CD version soundtrack
Videos