Neo Turf Masters
1996
Audio: English, Japanese
- sport
- arcade
- action
- single player
- multiplayer
- co-operative
The story
Neo Turf Masters is a golf video game by Nazca for the Neo Geo, released in 1996. This is also one of the first two titles by Nazca, the other being the popular Metal Slug before & between being acquired by SNK. The game is a fast paced, arcade-style golf game. Players choose from two game modes, stroke play for one or two players, and match play for two players only. Competing on one of four fictional golf courses located in the United States, Japan, Australia and Germany, players choose from one of six players with different attributes: "Young Hero" (George Spinner, USA) "Technician" (Thomas Stewart, United Kingdom) "Veteran" (Frank Adams, Australia) "Shot Maker" (Robert Landolt, Germany) "Power Golfer" (Fernando Almeida, Brazil) "Putt Master" (Toyoshige Takeno, Japan) Unlike many golf games of the era which used a two-click swing system to determine the hook or slice of the ball, Neo Turf Masters uses a single click for the power of the shot, and a second for the height of the shot; hook and slice are selected with buttons B and C before making the shot. This makes the game much easier to pick up and play well than its contemporaries, but it compensates for this reduced difficulty with fiendish (if somewhat unrealistic) course layouts and highly variable wind.
What it’s like
Bright, flat-colour arcade art on a Neo Geo cartridge: sunlit fairways in saturated greens, cartoonishly chunky sprites, and course backdrops that shift from American plains to Japanese hills to Australian outback and German forest. The sound is bouncy, synth-leaning arcade music with crisp clicks for each shot and the pleasant plonk of a ball dropping onto turf. Play is quick and tactile: one press sets power, a second sets height, and the wind picks at every drive, so the rhythm is brisk and a little competitive rather than contemplative. The tone is light and cheeky, with exaggerated characters and an arcade swagger that never gets tense for long, though courses can be sneakily cruel and wind swings can sting. Violence and gore are absent; the only danger is a ball in the rough. It suits an afternoon with a friend on the couch, a quick round between other tasks, or a nostalgic retro session, and fits people who want approachable sports fun with a fast pace and a bit of mischief.
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