"Jack Nicklaus Golf" (Game Boy)

Not too bad of a golf game, featuring plenty of options with clubs, courses and more. Even though more features could be added, it's a golf game that deserves some respect for sports video gamers.

My own personal experience with golf is, so far, miniature golf. Saying that means I know very little about the sport, besides grabbing a club and hitting the ball atop a tee and hope it lands on the putting green. Along comes this game featuring golfing legend Jack Nicklaus to introduce us to this pastime.

Upon starting the game, you get an option to "Start a new game" or "Restore game." I'm guessing you're not continuing a game you played previously, so choosing to start a new game, you get to choose any of the following four courses: Jack's Greatest, Castle Pines, Desert Mountain and Muirfield Village. I never found any difference in terms of difficulty, but I will say that out of the four, I found Muirfield Village to be a bit of a challenge. After choosing what course you want to play, you have the option to make this a Skins Game, requiring two, three or four players, or just Stroke Play with the options to have one, or up to four players. Since I was the only one playing, I never bothered with the Skins Game, so I chose the Stroke Play. Now comes setting your player up: male/female, name, beginner/expert, professional/men's/ladies and having a computer player or not. I don't want to be bothered having a computer player, so I went to play golf by myself without any delays and hang-ups. Next is the option you'll see a lot: Play A Round, Practice A Hole, Driving Range, Practice Green, Change Course and Change Players.

As you can tell, this is a very option-heavy game asking you what courses, how many holes you want to play and if you want to practice before playing the real game. It's okay, at least there's a lot to do in this game.

To get the feel of the game, I recommend practicing and doing the driving range. It really helps you get used to the controls, along with managing the strength meter on the left side of the screen, the target you want the ball to shoot at and what club you want to use.

The controls are fluid but so-so. What I don't like is the weird motion of the ball going into the hole when you're on the putting green. Also, the fact that the ball gets completely deflected by trees is a little amusing to me, since the ball won't go through them. The music is fine but I wouldn't listen to it again. Thankfully, music doesn't play when you're golfing so that's good. The graphics are decent for a Game Boy game. The details of the trees, the water, the houses/buildings are well done for a game that isn't in color—not even on the Super Game Boy. As for the game screen:



Looks like a busy screen but all the information is there. You get the strength meter, the target to where you want the ball to be directed at, along with the distance in feet/yards on how far you hit it, how many strokes under/over par, the direction of the winds, you name and your club. LEFT and RIGHT on the D-pad control the direction to where you want to ball to be hit towards, and UP and DOWN changes your club. When you're set, press A to trigger the strength meter. Press A to set how strong you want to hit the ball, and press it again for how accurate you want the ball to be struck; The higher you mark the arrow on the strength meter, the stronger the ball will be hit.

I never shot an eagle but I have shot birdies. The video below isn't one of them but it's my most proud shot of the entire game:



Can you do that, or better? Show us!

There really isn't any storyline ending with this game (after all, it's a sports game). It's just a nice, modest game of golf. Due to the tedious nature of this game, this is best to play on your Super Game Boy past midnight during a Friday night when it's raining/snowing outside. Pretty cozy, isn't it?

While it's not too bad of a game, this is why we rated this game as such:



Why does the password have to be so long? Game continuation via passwords were a big problem back then. Yeah, as if another low-life was going to hijack your progress or something. I will never know or understand why, but long passwords ARE UNNECESSARY.

Anyway, this is actually a good game for golf. Perhaps because we played, then reviewed this, while the weather was cold, windy and rainy, making the slow pace of this game fitting. To those who like high-paced action will find this game a drag and sleep inducing.

Other than that, especially if you want to learn the sport of golf, give a shot!

Kris Caballero

Founder and operator of KCU Network, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog created back in late 2005. Despite publishing articles and reviews from time to time for the network's website, Kris enjoys studying the sciences, namely Math, playing old video/DOS games, reading non-fiction books and listening to sports radio.

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