Neo Turf Masters review by Pslock

After a rather anxious wait, the US/NA version of SNK's Big Tournament Golf (Neo Turf Masters) has finally arrived, though in annoyingly small quantities it seems. Well..the wait was worth it, as NTM is unquestionably one of the best handheld golf games ever made and should certainly satisfy any golf-game fans craving.

NTM is a golf game that falls into the school of golf games that aren't so much super-realistic, as they are more fun and playable to those who aren't even big fans of the actual sport. In fact, before the release of NTM, one of my favorite golf titles ever was "HAL's Hole In One Golf" for the Super Nintendo, which was a simple, but effective and fun golf experience. I see alot of HALs golf in Neo Turf Masters, but a little more where it counts. NTM contains 3, 18-hole courses (Japan, US, Germany), which is great, because many times golf titles will usually only use one course. None of the courses are really harder or easier than each other...they all have their own unique features that make some holes difficult, and some holes easy. The game can be played with a choice of 6 golfer types. Each golfer has different statistics with how he handles certain situations and clubs...this aspect alone is very intriguing, as it adds an interesting strategy element to the game, since each golfer type controls differently. As a single player, a person can choose Stroke PLay (where you choose a course and simply play the holes), Tournament (where you compete with other golfers and try and win an entire tournament), or the very cool Handicap mode which, though apparently designed to assess your golf handicap, is great because it gives you a course of 18 holes randomly taken from all 54 holes available. There is also a difficulty level (Easy, Normal, Hard) but, like in most golf games, all this seems to effect is wind conditions on the courses. Actual gameplay looks good and controls wonderfully. The great control stick on the Neo Geo Pocket Color allows for wonderfully accurate adjustments of your aim and putting strokes. The graphics are nice an colorful, but a few little touches are nice like actually seeing moving water and fluttering hole-flags in the view window. Hitting the ball is pretty much like most golf games...there's a hit-strength meter, but instead of a meter for which way the ball leans (Hook/Slice) the second meter judges your topspin/backspin on the ball, and ball hook/slice is a manual command. Also, as in most golf games, the computer automatically picks a good club for you but, at times, you'll have to use some golfing common sense to pick out a better club or somthing that works for your strategy better. (For example, even if you're an inch away from the putting green, the computer will always give you a Sand Wedge) The actual hitting aspect is amazingly subtle....wind conditions, backspin, topspin, hook, and slice all have effectively "real" effects on the ball. Everything works together very well, for an amazing portable golf experience. On top of standard single player options, there's a two-player link up mode (which requires 2 NGPC units, 2 copies of the game, and a link cable) which has the added feature of rewarding winners with mysterious "bonus" clubs that perform better than the average clubs. Once you have completed an entire set of these bonus clubs, you can choose to actually use the set in any way you choose, but it can only be used once. These bonus clubs can also be won in the single-player Tournament mode, from what I've been hearing. All of your data is saved on the carts battery, but saving while in the game (you have the option of saving after each shot) appears to save in the NGPC's on-board temporary battery memory, and starting the NGPC with another game will effectively "erase" the game you had in progress. This is not discussed in the manual, unfortunately. Overall, Neo Turf Masters is simply a great, addictive golfing game that should win over any fan of the genre. However, it's not completely perfect....there are a few minor gripes:

Sandtraps (bunkers) are all exactly the same shape and size. This is rather strange as water hazards take on several shapes.

There is no "terrain" anywhere on the hole but the green. IN other words, everything is essentially flat, with no hills and terrain height difference. This, too, is rather odd as even though the NGPC might be able to effectively display such elements graphically, they could have just used arrows to indicate the flow of the ground (as was done in HAL's Hole in One golf).

While the greens are fun, they're very unrealistic in a wild sense. The greens around holes in NTM look more like the bumpy, weird terrain of a miniature golf course, than a full sized golf-green.

As already a few people have pointed out in various places, when you're on the green, the computer tells you at what point to hit the ball to give it good distance to make the hole which, in a sense, takes away alot of challenge on putting....there should have been a toggle option to turn this feature on/off.

The computer (like in many golf games) will too often limit your club selection. For example, the putter has an average range of 27 yards, and if your ball lands JUST outside of that range (in relation to the hole), you can't select the putter and are forced to use the Sand Wedge.

However, none of this minor flaws really bring the impression of the game down....Neo Turf Masters is unquestionably a wonderful golfing game that easily competes with anything on the handheld market golf-wise. If you enjoyed games like HAL's Hole in One, or Hot Shots Golf, you'll be pleased at this portable package of golfing mastery.