Welcome to the FAQ for MARIO GOLF For your Nintendo 64! ------------------------------------------------------ Version 1.2, By Dane Lagasse ------------------------------------------------------ UPDATES ** Version 1.2 Again corrected some errors. A mini Course guide has been added. A whole new section called "Spinning the ball." ** Version 1.1 Corrected some spelling errors. A few other minor updates to certain parts. ** Version 1.0 The first version. Eventually all sections will be updated. ------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. How to contact me 2. Game controls 3. Starting a new game 4. Working on your golf swing 5. On the greens 6. Miscellaneous 7. Courses 8. Spinning the ball 9. Tricks and Cheats 10. Credits Copyright Info ------------------------------------------------------ Note from the author: Hey all, Dane here. You should really try this great game, whether or not you're a golf fanatic. It has the arcade elements essential in any game featuring Mario and the gang, and the sim elements essential in any golf game. Now, let's learn how to play! ------------------------------------------------------ 1. HOW TO CONTACT ME Name: Dane Lagasse E-mail: dlagasse@canoemail.com ICQ: Visit http://wwp.icq.com/33842490 and send me a message via my web pager. Note: I do not usually just add people to my ICQ contact list, so your best bet in getting in contact with me is using my web pager. As always, I welcome any e-mails I get. Feel free to request an FAQ for any game, or send me questions about any game. I'm also open to suggestions about my FAQs. ------------------------------------------------------ 2. GAME CONTROLS ** Hitting the ball Control Stick: Aim your shot A Button: Press once to start the cursor moving, press again when it reaches the leftmost point, and a third time when it comes back to the start B Button: Toggle power shot on or off Z Button: Hold and move control stick to determine point of contact with the ball. Start Button: Pause the game C Left and C Right: Change club selection R Button: Switch to grid view ** Putting Control Stick: Aim your putt A Button: Press once to start the cursor moving, press again to determine the power of the putt B Button: Toggle power shot on or off Start Button: Pause the game C Left and C Right: Change putter selection ** While not hitting C Buttons: Make noises to supposedly psyche the other player out Control Pad: More noises ------------------------------------------------------ 3. STARTING A NEW GAME ** Training Mode Play in any of the courses you've opened. ** Ring Shot In a test of accuracy, you must shoot your ball through a number of rings and still manage to make par. ** Speed Golf Rip up the course as fast as you can. If you make 18 holes in under an hour, you can earn course points and you can view your time in the clubhouse. ** Get Character This mode is HARD. You have to challenge a character in 18 grueling holes, and if you emerge victorious, you can play as that character in other modes. ** Match Game In this mode, you compete a full round of golf and whenever you win a hole, you get a point. The round will be stopped if the leader is so far ahead, a catch-up is impossible. ** Club Slots This mode is for 2 players and up only. A slot machine determines which clubs each player will use before each hole. ** Stroke Play This is just plain golf. Complete 18 holes with as few strokes as possible to win. ** Skins Match This is another multiplayer game. The winner of each hole wins a skin, an amount of money. The person who has the most skins at the end of 18 holes is declared the winner. ** Tournament This one-player mode pits you against other golfers. Get a birdie or better, and you win a Birdie Badge. This is the best way to win course points that go toward new courses. As you can see, there are MANY modes to choose from, which makes the replay value for this game almost unbelievable. I guarantee you'll never get bored. ------------------------------------------------------ 4. WORKING ON YOUR GOLF SWING ** Hitting the ball See section 2, "Game controls", to learn how to hit. ** Correct Timing You'll have to practice with the swinging mechanism in Mario Golf because it's not as simple as the first golf game for the N64. After you press A for the first time, the next time you'll be determining the distance your ball will travel. If you can get it all the way to the left, your ball will go as far as possible. The third time you press it, you're determining accuracy. If you get this off even a little bit, your chances of duffing (basically screwing up) are much higher. Get both of these on perfect when using a power shot is truly a sight to see, and you will not use up one of your power shots when you do. All I can instruct you to do is to practice as much as possible before entering the major tournament modes and before trying to win a secret character. ** Power shots When you first step up to your ball, by default, the power shot option will be set to OFF. Press B to turn it on. Your shot will go much further than normal, but you only get 6 power shots for 18 holes. However, if you get the shot perfect distance and accuracy, the number of power shots won't be decremented. ** Club selection Selecting your club will depend on what type of ground your ball is currently lying on. The computer will select a usually OK club for you to use. Generally, it's not a good idea to use a wood (W) in deep rough, or just plain rough for that matter. Definitely not in the sand. The general rule is: the closer to the hole, the higher the number of the club. I know in real life, some people like to chip with their 5 irons (I). My suggestion? Don't. Use the basic clubs such as the pitching wedge (PW) or 9 iron. And DON'T use your driver on the fairway. It won't go anywhere. ** Player selection I suggest using Mario. He's everyone's favorite player and mine. Usually, when you win characters, they're better than the ones that are selectable from the start. ** Special situations When in the sand, use your sand wedge (SW) to chip the ball out from the sand. It's pointless trying to make a shot toward green from a fairway bunker. Your main goal here should be to simply get out of the sand. When your ball lands in the water, 1 stroke will be added to score and you'll have a shot near the water you went in to. There is NO way you can hit out of the water, so stay clear of it at all costs. ------------------------------------------------------ 5. ON THE GREENS (Putting) ** How to putt correctly Look up on the left side of your screen. It will say how far it is to the cup. Now look on the bottom left corner. It will tell you what putter you have. (30 ft putter, 200 ft putter, etc) This will involve some math skills. If you are using your 30 ft putter (the ball will go 30 feet if hit perfectly), and you are 15 feet away from the hole, you should wait til the cursor is in the middle of the power bar before pressing the A button again. Let this concept soak in and you'll get it. This goes for all clubs, not just your putter. ** Looking at slopes On the first greens you encounter, they will be more or less straight. Later on, however, the greens will become more wavy. There is no accuracy A button press when putting, so you must aim with the control stick before your putt. ** Wet greens When it's raining, the water will make the greens slower. Aim for about 3 feet after the hole. Note that the fast your ball is moving, the less it will be affected by slopes on the greens. ** Mind game When you're not putting and one of your friends is, press the the C buttons or the control pad to "distract" them. While this usually won't mess up their putt, it really does annoy them and therefore I recommend it. Try out Mario's "Fooooooore!!!!"... That seems to really work. ------------------------------------------------------ 6. MISCELLANEOUS ** Wind - friend or foe? Another factor in how far your ball goes is wind. It can be your worst enemy or your best friend. For example, if you're against the wind, your ball won't go nearly as far, so use a club that would normally go flying past the point your aiming to. If the wind is blowing in the same direction as your ball, it will go much further than normal. (Try using a power shot with the wind in your favor and get it perfect, sweet!) And sometimes, when the fairway curves to the left and the wind is blowing to the left, it can be truly rewarding. If you're aiming straight and the wind is blowing to the side, aim to the opposite side. Simply thinking logically when wind is a factor can save your score. ** Getting new characters When trying to get a new character, golf intelligently. Don't try anything different than what works for you. Don't take too many risks, like trying to use a power shot that would JUST make it over a water hazard. Trust me, you don't have to be superman to get these characters. I recommend practicing a LOT before entering this mode. It is HARD. ** Mini-golf This is a very original multiplayer concept. You putt inside letters and numbers against 1 to 3 of your friends. Sounds easy, huh? Not quite. The walls can easily bank the ball further away from the hole than you were when you started. I suggest getting the August issue of Nintendo Power to help you out. It provides graphical help that is impossible to show in a text file. ------------------------------------------------------ 7. COURSES ** Toad Highlands The first Tournament course open. Very forgiving and is only a warm-up for what's ahead. Few bunkers and water hazards make it a good course to practice new things. ** Koopa Park After getting 50 course points you unlock Koopa Park. You'll notice a difference between Koopa Park and Toad Highlands. Stay out of the water and on the fairway and you should be OK. ** Shy Guy Desert Here you'll have to get 300 course points to access Shy Guy Desert. Keep your sand wedge handy because you'll be needing it often. Thoughtless shots will often end up in the bunkers, so plan your shot by pressing R when it's your turn. ** Yoshi's Island You'll have to be good to get Yoshi's Island. REALLY good. I'm talking 1000 course points good. But if you manage to get this course, trees and water hazards will try to hold you back from finishing. These four courses alone should give you hours of play. Have fun! ------------------------------------------------------ 8. SPINNING THE BALL ** Topspin Move the cursor to the top of the ball. Your ball won't get up in the air, so wind won't affect it as much. Still, I wouldn't recommend using it as often as you would hit the middle. ** Backspin Move the cursor to the bottom of the ball. If you need to clear a tree, use the backspin to send it up into the air. If the tree is really close, however, you may want to use sidespin, which is described next. Also useful in deep rough. ** Left Sidespin If you want your ball to curve to the left, move the cursor to the RIGHT side of the ball. Useful for going around corners and twisting around trees. ** Right Sidespin If you want your ball to curve to the right, move the cursor to the LEFT side of the ball. Does the same thing as left sidespin, only opposite. ------------------------------------------------------ 9. TRICKS AND CHEATS ** Password Screen On the main menu, hold Z and R and then select Clubhouse by pressing A. The cheat menu will be in the Clubhouse menu. ** Nintendo Power Tournament Once you have the password screen activated, enter KPXWN9N3 as your password to access the Nintendo Power Tournament. When you finish it you will get a password. ** Koopa Park To play in Koopa Park, enter your password as QTM5V4H. Please note that this code has NOT been tested and may not work. If it does or doesn't, please e-mail me at the address shown in section 1, "How to contact me." ** Replay hole If you're not doing any good on a hole, wait until it's your turn and Save and Quit. Now select "Continue" from the main menu to start at the tee box for that hole. ** Change costumes To change the costumes of your character, simply hold down one of the C buttons while choosing your character. ** Golfing Lefties To golf left-handed, hold down the L button while choosing your character. Personally, I think they look better right handed. Note: There are some other "cheats", but none that really are worth putting down here. Visit www.n64cc.com or www.den64cheats.com if you'd like to see them. Most of them are just what you need to do to earn new characters, which aren't will cheats at all. ------------------------------------------------------ 10. CREDITS ** Special thanks Thanks to N64 Code Center and Digital Edge N64 Cheats for the cheats. Thanks to GameFAQs for hosting this FAQ. Visit those sites: http://www.n64cc.com/ http://www.den64cheats.com/ http://www.gamefaqs.com/ Also, thanks to the official Mario Golf site for a lot of the information. Visit that site: http://www.mariogolf.net/ ------------------------------------------------------ Dane Lagasse dlagasse@canoemail.com Remember, feel free to e-mail me about anything that you think is wrong with the FAQ, or just anything about this or any game in general. Thanks for reading, and have fun with Mario Golf! ------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 1999, Dane Lagasse Not affiliated with Nintendo or Camelot in any way. This guide is completely *unofficial*.