Golfamania (Sega Master System) Review
A golf RPG? Well, sort of…
~by tankMage (July 2024)
Score: 70/100 (Decent)
Golfamania manages to channel a lot of the things I love about the SMS into one game. The graphics and music have a great Master System vibe that makes the game unique. It also features some interesting RPG mechanics that set it apart from other 8-Bit golf titles. Unfortunately, the game only allows one player and there’s only one course, so Golfamania didn’t quite live up to its potential.
Classic SMS graphics and music.
I really like the rich color palette of the SMS and it works perfectly for this game. This probably isn’t a great comparison, but the graphics remind me a bit of a 1980s cartoon like Transformers. One thing I didn’t like was how there’s several portraits you can choose from to represent your golfer, but he’ll look the same on the course regardless of the portrait you chose. At any rate, the animations and the scenery look really nice.
Four game modes and a good course.
Golfamania features the usual game modes one would expect from this kind of game: Practice, Strokes, Match, and Pro Tournament. There’s also a nice course to play on, but it would have been better if they included more courses. This seems to be a really common problem in golf games from this era and I’m not sure why it’s the case. I do not think this game was limited to one course due to file size issues, because Golfamania is only about 800 kb and there are plenty of much larger SMS games.
Tough, but fair.
This was one of the more difficult golf games I’ve played, but it’s also very even handed. You can choose which club you wish to use, though you can’t use drivers unless you’re on the fairway. It’s also possible to aim the ball almost anywhere and you can hit just about any point on the ball.
I also really like how they did the meter. The meter consists of a moving arrow and a target zone that determines how well you hit the ball. The arrow goes really fast at full power, so it takes skill to get good shots. However, you can also reduce the power of the swing, which will make the arrow move more slowly at the cost of the ball not traveling as far. It’s a really good system, but it takes practice to hit the sweet spot. Luckily, the meter keeps moving until you press the button, so you can take your time.
The computer is usually a very competent opponent that always hits the ball perfectly. That said, it makes poor decisions sometimes and doesn’t always pick the best strategy, so it’s a beatable opponent. In fact, I’ve seen the computer get stumped on the putting green and give up.
All in all, I feel like this game had a great combination of holes and mechanics. Whenever i failed, I felt it was my own fault and not a consequence of bad design.
Good music, bad selection.
Whoever wrote the music for Golfamania did a great job, but there’s only a scant few tracks. Of course they get boring very quickly, which is a shame since they were about perfect for this type of game. While I like the Master System’s sound effects, they always seemed very limited to me. In the case of Golfamania, they work fairly well all things considered. There’s even a super fuzzy 8-Bit voice that says “Great Shot” when you hit the ball perfectly.
Golfamania is worth a try.
I’ve reviewed five golf games before this one and I have an idea of what makes a title in this genre good or bad. When all is said and done, Golfamania falls somewhere in the middle. It’s a shame the devs weren’t able to squeeze a bit more potential out of this game, because I think a few more courses, more tunes, and a two player mode would have made it shine. As it is, Golfamania is a fine game SMS fans might appreciate.
Thanks for checking out my review of Golfamania for the Sega Master System!
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