When comparing Golf Story vs Mario Tennis Aces, the Slant community recommends Golf Story for most people. In the question“What are the best couch/local co-op games for the Nintendo Switch?” Golf Story is ranked 21st while Mario Tennis Aces is ranked 34th. The most important reason people chose Golf Story is:
Completing quests for NPCs awards you with the staple role-playing currencies of choice - money and experience. Money is used to buy new golf clubs which provide interesting and unique bonuses, such as being able to curve your shots better, hit a ball further, or putt with more accuracy. Experience is used to level up your character's stats such as how far you can drive the ball, purity to help correct slices, accuracy, and more. There's a lot of different stats to keep an eye on and clubs to play around with, so it adds a nice layer of depth that should keep your RPG cravings satisfied.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Includes interesting RPG elements that add a nice layer of depth
Completing quests for NPCs awards you with the staple role-playing currencies of choice - money and experience. Money is used to buy new golf clubs which provide interesting and unique bonuses, such as being able to curve your shots better, hit a ball further, or putt with more accuracy. Experience is used to level up your character's stats such as how far you can drive the ball, purity to help correct slices, accuracy, and more. There's a lot of different stats to keep an eye on and clubs to play around with, so it adds a nice layer of depth that should keep your RPG cravings satisfied.
Pro You can golf anywhere you want in the game world and in doing so possibly even unlock secrets
While you're out and about exploring and doing quests, you are free to drop a ball and take a swing anywhere in the game world for practice or just for fun. Golfing isn't just limited to courses and quests, meaning you can set goals for yourself like trying to hit a specific tree or shooting the golf ball over the heads of NPCs. This might unlock some bonus content, as various objects in the game world reward bonuses such as money, experience, and access to secret areas if you hit them with your golf ball. Between quests and courses, just start swinging your club and you may be surprised at what you can find.
Pro Golfing itself feels satisfying and controls incredibly well
The golfing itself comes together in a satisfying way that feels intuitive to control, easy to grasp, and just plain great when you see your carefully set up shot hit its target. Hitting the ball uses timed button presses to control things like accuracy and swing strength, making it a minigame in and of itself. You can also set the direction, arc, and spin of the ball for total control of each shot. Once you've got everything adjusted, you take your swing, watching the ball soar into the air.
Pro The approach to RPG elements is a novel spin never seen before in a golf game
Instead of shiny gear and weapons like standard RPGs, Golf Story chooses to equip you with a wide variety of different golf clubs that provide stat bonuses or unique effects like hitting a ball further or putting better. Rather than stats such as strength, stamina, and intellect, your character has a more golf focused skillset including slices, accuracy, and distance. It's a novel approach that combines golf with beloved RPG elements in a way that's never been done before.
Pro Charming 16 bit style
The pixel art graphics look like they came straight from the SNES era, which will be a huge plus to gamers who prefer a retro style. The tilesets are colorful and varied. Sprites are detailed, and are a definite nod to the days of old school gaming as they have a slight bounce when they walk. Animations are smooth and great to view, such as how a trail of changing colors appears behind the golf ball while it's in midair.
Pro Humorous writing
While the premise of the story is simple - you are a guy trying to achieve your dream of becoming a golf pro - the humor in the actual writing is very apparent and there are more than a few laugh out loud moments. First of all, every NPC has their own creative way to put you down and insult your golf games, which results in some pretty funny dialogue. Nobody thinks can you make it as a pro, and they don't hold back with the insults.
Almost everything in the game is handled with a humorous spin. Whether it's the elitist trainer who gets overly upset every time you refer to the disc in disc golfing as a "frisbee", angry geese acting as a hazard on the course, hilarious rap battles revolving around golf with such lines as "shooting star / try shooting par / the tour don't play handicaps / brah", or trying to hit a kid in the ear with your golf ball to rescue him from alligators, the writing is unique and really stands out.
Pro Lots of variety in the side quests will provide hours of fun
Running around the overworld, you'll run into a lot of NPCs who will ask you to perform sidequests that will put your skills to the test. They might ask you to hit a ball to a certain location, bounce it off something, complete timed events, or ask you to pick up golf balls in a maze. There are so many NPCs and so much variety in the activities that you will always have a fun way to take a break from the main story. Completing these objectives awards money, experience, and special items so it's always worth checking them out, and it's a great way to build up your skill for the main story courses.
Pro Animated NPC dialogue boxes are a great touch
To convey the mood and emotion of each NPC, an animated dialogue box will appear over their head that grows, shrinks, tilts, and moves with their speech. For example, when they're angry the text is big and bold and the box may slightly wobble from side to side. It's executed extremely well, helping to draw you into the emotions of each NPC without the need for any voice acting.
Pro Local multiplayer mode lets you compete against a friend
The local multiplayer mode allows you to go head-to-head against a friend on 9 hole course. Before the match, you can select the golf clubs you want to use, adjust course settings such as wind speed and slope, and choose to play on any course you have unlocked. It's a great way to continue to fun with a friend after you've completed the story mode, and you can play on the same device since it's turn based.
Pro Couch co-op with a friend is tons of fun
Playing with a friend right beside you makes the game much more enjoyable. Reacting to each other in real-time is just better than playing against a computer opponent. There's no online co-op -- only multiplayer matches against random people -- meaning you'll have to be in the same room together to play.
Pro Solid roster of Nintendo characters to play as
There's a good variety of characters you can play as. If you're familiar with first party Nintendo games, then you'll see a lot of familiar faces here, like Yoshi, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Luigi, Peach, and of course Mario. Everyone has their own playing styles, with bigger characters like Bowser and Donkey Kong favoring hard-hitting power shots, and others like Yoshi and Mario that have a more balanced approach. You can go with whichever style or character you prefer, practicing with them until you master everything. Getting to see all of these characters together in one game is great for fanservice as well.
Pro You can compete against others online in multiplayer
When you run out of single-player content to enjoy, you can hop online to play against random opponents. The main game mode is the tournaments you can play, which rewards you with special characters if you score well. Online connectivity is good too, especially with the choice to drop out of matches beforehand against players who have bad connections. Playing online is a really great way to test your skills and improve your play, since anyone you get matched with is an actual player who has their own strengths and weaknesses.
Pro Intense and engaging tennis matches
Mario Tennis Aces is incredibly addicting to play. Matches are fast-paced and exciting, with one particular mechanic that keeps things unpredictable. Every time you successfully hit the tennis ball to your opponent's end of the court, you build up a power meter that you can use in a couple of different ways.
When you want to quickly finish off a match, you can slow down time and take aim at a vulnerable corner of your opponent's court for an instant win. Or, if they try to do that to you, you can instead expend some of your power meter to quickly reach the ball and hit it back. Things can get pretty tricky when you both use up your power meters at the same time, leading to some satisfying wins.
Cons
Con Story is not as great in the latter half of the game
While the story starts out pretty strong, having struggles, hardships, and general drama between characters, most of the problems get solved way too early, shifting focus to winning the golfing championship. As a result, the latter half of the game lacks the driving force of proving someone wrong or overcoming a trauma, so it might not feel as interesting.
Con No online multiplayer
Unfortunately, the game is limited to local multiplayer mode, and no online mode exists at this time.
Con Slopes and hills are hard to see on the golf course
The game is 2D, so sometimes things like small hills and slopes on the golf courses are hard to see. This makes it hard to predict how your shot will roll or bounce once it lands on the ground, making for some unpredictable golfing.
Con Disc golfing minigame can be confusing
One of the minigames requires you to golf with a disc, and due to the controls, can tend be a bit on the confusing side. The disc can controlled in the air, but it responds to controls based on the way the disc is facing. For example, if the disc is facing south, pressing left will move the disc right. All in all, it just doesn't feel good to control since you will constantly be dealing with the way the disc faces in relation to the buttons you're pressing.
Con Very wide skill gap between experienced and inexperienced players
Mario Tennis Aces can be unwelcoming to new players. While playing co-op or online, it's tough to catch up with everyone else who knows how to time their power shots with the meter. If you don't pick up on this mechanic fairly quickly, you may feel like you're getting left behind. You don't necessarily have to use the mechanic if you and a friend agree not to, but this sadly makes matches pretty dull. Running against computer opponents is a good way to get your feet wet before moving up to other levels of play.
Con Limited gameplay options for solo players
If you're the type who prefers to game alone, then Mario Tennis Aces might not be for you. There's only one single-player mode, while the rest of the game is mostly dedicated to co-op and online play. The solo mode is also extremely short, clocking in at around four hours. Aside from that, there really isn't much else for you to do.
Con Certain characters are locked behind online tournaments
The primary way to unlock new characters is to win tournaments, but this isn't entirely fair. They're only available for a limited amount of time, with the rewards changing from tournament to tournament. Even though some of these characters are in the actual game as opponents in the single-player adventure mode, you can't get access to them unless you unlock them through these tournaments. If you don't like playing online, or if you don't have the means to pay for Nintendo's online service once it's implemented later on in 2018, then you're basically out of luck.
Con Single-player adventure mode is pretty difficult
The game's adventure mode makes up for its short length with some real difficulty. It's a rough introduction to the gameplay, as some of the matches and bosses are really hard. There's plenty of variety to things, like courts that have certain hazards in your way and uneven terrain such as tall grass, as well as inventive boss designs like a giant squid that shoots out tennis ball-shaped blobs of ink. But all of these things can get quite overwhelming, especially if you're using the single-player mode to get better at the game.