The second episode of Dying Light 2’s Dying To Know series will be broadcast on July 1 at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET on developer Techland’s Twitch channel. Next week’s topic hints at a deep dive into the various infected people that you’ll encounter in the game, with an emphasis on the volatile humans who emerge at night.
“Night is coming, and with it, the nightmares, who hide in their nests during the day, awaken,” Techland said in a press release. “It’s a chance for us to get supplies to restore the remnants of hope in the hearts of the few loved ones we have and grow our lives on the rooftops. But before you hit the streets, you need to know what’s hiding in the darkness. The reward is high, but the price you will pay if you stay in the dark for too long will be even higher.”
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In the first Dying Light, daytime expeditions usually involved avoiding the hordes of infected people who roamed the streets. With strength in numbers, it was easy to pick off an infected person on their own and challenging to take on an entire horde.
Once the sun went down though, Volatile, Bolter, and Hunter variants would roam the streets. These infected were faster and more dangerous, but braving the streets while they were active would result in more valuable loot being found. Just don’t refer to them as zombies.
Techland also hosted its first Dying Light 2 AMA, which touched on topics such as handmade weapons and the ramifications of choices made in the game. The long-in-development sequel is coming out on December 7 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC.
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Fresh off of giving away Batman: The Telltale Series in June, Amazon is handing out the sequel, Batman: The Enemy Within, in July. Like the original, The Enemy Within is divided into five episodes and features clashes with classic foes such as The Riddler, Bane, and Joker.
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You’ve probably visited plenty of post-apocalyptic worlds in video games, but Rad is set in a post-post-apocalypse. Needless to say, the world conjured up in this 3D action roguelike is bleak and unforgiving. As a teenager tasked with saving the world, you must enter a shifting wasteland to take on all sorts of monsters with the help of your mysterious powers.
Tales of the Neon Sea is a gorgeous pixel art side-scroller set in a cyberpunk world inhabited by humans and robots. You play as a detective investigating a bizarre murder. Tales of the Neon Sea is an old-school adventure game with a fun story. Meanwhile, The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature is a creative narrative-based adventure revolving around the iconic monster.
Automachef is a clever resource management puzzle game centered on automating meal prep in the kitchen, and Portal Dogs is a puzzle-platformer starring a king who leads a pack of dogs who mimic his every move.
Tons of free in-game loot will be available in July, including the Druidic Settlement Bundle for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, mystery skin shards for League of Legends, and an exclusive player card for Valorant.
To claim the six free games and bounty of in-game loot throughout July, you need to be an Amazon Prime member. If you aren’t already subscribed, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial. All of the new free games go live July 1, so you still have time to claim June’s freebies.
July 2021 free Prime Gaming titles
Available July 1-31
Batman: The Enemy Within – The Telltale Series
Rad
The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature
Tales of the Neon Sea
Automachef
Portal Dogs
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In a recent The Tonight Show appearance, wrestler and movie star John Cena confirmed to host Jimmy Fallon that the rumors about his return to the WWE are true, but what’s still up in the air is the timeline for his next match. Cena’s news sparked audible gasps from the studio.
Fallon broached the question by resurfacing an Instagram post Cena made on May 8, bearing only the WWE logo with no caption. For over a month, this cryptic post has fueled these rumors, but when Fallon–who also added that Cena “is a great follow [on Instagram]”–asked about it, the wrestler responded without a moment’s hesitation: “I’ll definitely be back… I was feeling rather nostalgic about the WWE and I just wanted to post the logo, and some people took it as I was returning immediately, which, that’s not the case. But I haven’t had my last match, and I can’t wait to have my next match.”
The next Cena projects on the horizon to get hyped about are the Suicide Squad movie and its spin-off focusing on his character, Peacemaker. There’s a new trailer for Suicide Squad with an unusual roll-out–it can only be found as an ad on YouTube, but fans won’t have long to wait until the August 6 release for the DC movie to hit theaters and HBO Max. The Peacemaker spin-off is currently set to also premiere on HBO Max on January 22.
For more wrestling fun, check out GameSpot’s professional wrestling podcast Wrestle Buddies. Hosted by Mat Elfring and Chris E. Hayner, the duo discuss fun and comedic moments from WWE, AEW, Impact, ROH, and more. Check out the latest episode below where the Buddies talk to DC Comics writer Joshua Williamson about the time two invisible wrestlers had a banger of a match.
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The first trailer for The Harder They Fall has been released. The Netflix western stars Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country) and Idris Elba (Luther, The Wire).
The trailer doesn’t reveal too much in the way of plot, but it certainly delivers the action and style. It opens with outlaws Trudy Smith and Cherokee Bill, played by Regina King (Watchmen) and Lakeith Stanfeld (Judas and the Black Messiah), rescuing gang leader Rufus Buck, a real-life outlaw played by Elba. Majors plays another real-life figure, legendary Black cowboy Nat Love, and it looks like a hugely entertaining slice of western action, with an amazing cast. Check the trailer out below:
Netflix has released a synopsis for the movie, which reads, “When outlaw Nat Love discovers that his enemy Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) is being released from prison he rounds up his gang to track Rufus down and seek revenge. Those riding with him in this assured, righteously new school Western include his former love Stagecoach Mary, his right and left hand men–hot-tempered Bill Pickett and fast drawing Jim Beckwourth–and a surprising adversary-turned-ally. Rufus Buck has his own fearsome crew, including “Treacherous” Trudy Smith and Cherokee Bill, and they are not a group that knows how to lose.”
The Harder They Fall also stars Zazie Beetz (Joker, Atlanta) as Mary, R.J. Cyler (Power Rangers) as Beckwourth, and Edi Gathegi (StartUp) as Pickett, plus Delroy Lindo (Da 5 BLoods) and Danielle Deadwyler (Watchmen). It’s the directorial debut of Jeymes Samuel, the British musician also known as The Bullitts (and brother of soul superstar Seal). Samuel wrote the screenplay with Boaz Yakin (Fresh, Remember the Titans). The movie doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s set to hit Netflix in the Fall.
Rare’s cult-classic fighting game series Killer Instinct was revived back in 2013, but the reboot has seen very little new content added to it since its third season finished in 2017. Killer Instinct isn’t dead though, as Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently mentioned his interest in revisiting the series when the time is right.
“There are so many good games in our catalog that we’d love to revisit,” Spencer said in the latest Dropped Frames podcast via VGC. “The response when we did Killer Instinct at the launch of Xbox One was fantastic. Not everybody inside of the Xbox organization kind of saw what that game could become. I will just say, Matt [Booty] and I have discussed many times Killer Instinct and where we’d like to go with it.”
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According to Spencer, a Killer Instinct re-re-revival will need “the right team and the right opportunity” to be found. It took 17 years for the series to find a new home at Microsoft, and even in a genre dominated by Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and newer fighting games like Guilty Gear Strive, Killer Instinct still had a dedicated fanbase when developer Double Helix and Iron Galaxy took over from Rare. Double Helix was acquired by Amazon in 2014, so any new Killer Instinct games won’t be handled by the studio responsible for its first season of content. A documentary on the game was released last year and explored the rebirth of the series as well the legacy of the series.
If you’re in the mood for Killer Instinct or any other excellent Xbox titles worth trying out, don’t forget to check out the 20 best Xbox Game Pass games that you can play right now.
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There’s an art to how Nintendo usually iterates on its long-running series. That twist it almost always seems to discover makes us excited about what’s to come, while also looking back on fond memories already forged. Mario Golf: Super Rush, though, is an exception to that trend – it’s sporadically fun but it frustratingly falls short of the green more often than not. Its newly introduced Speed Golf mode is a bright point that shakes up the formula, while its lacklustre Adventure mode is a short and not overly sweet few hours. It makes for a package as a whole that offers some of the fun of the Mario Golf games of past generations, but when all is said and done it lacks the variety, replayability, and general amount of content needed to be considered a standout in the series.
The original Mario Golf (titled NES Open Tournament Golf) is the first game I really remember playing, as I graduated from crawling around and tangling in my dad’s controller wires to holding the pad myself. The core mechanics remain, and apart from the obvious visual improvements, it doesn’t feel a million miles away from how it did 25-odd years ago: Line up your shot, press A to begin your swing, then A again (or B if you want to apply backspin) to lock in the power of your shot.
It’s these simple button presses as the power bar fills up on the right hand side of the screen, coupled with the subsequent sound of club hitting ball that evokes nostalgia and takes me to a happy place. The standard modes of match play and stroke play also provide comfort and familiarity, and as with every mode (aside from story campaign) these can be played solo or with up to three other players for a relaxed time with Mario and friends, but they’re so old and worn that while they’re certainly comforting, they’re nothing to get excited about.
Need for Speed
The mode that does spark some joy is Speed Golf. Speed Golf is the new twist on the formula this time around, and it’s fair to assume is what inspired the “Super Rush” part of Mario Golf: Super Rush’s name. This fresh take on a round of 18 holes is where I found the majority of my enjoyment coming from. Instead of simply taking your shot, watching to see where it goes, and then magically appearing next to your ball, it places as much importance on what happens in between strokes as the swings of the club itself.
Of course, this is done in classic Nintendo fashion: there’s no jumping on your golf cart and slowly driving to your ball here (though now that I mention it I do like the idea of each hole being half Mario Kart track, half golf course). Instead, you’ll race competitors to your next lie, holding in B to dash for as long as your stamina bar will allow. You can also pick up hearts to refill that stamina, and coins which fill your special shot bar along the way. The placement of these items offers a fun tactical minigame to play within each shot, as you must weigh up which is the best “golf shot” to play in order to reach the hole against which will lead you to pick up more coins without taking too much of a detour and wasting time. One option could lead to a more traditionally beneficial position, but the other could grant you that all-important special shot that bit quicker.
As you might reasonably assume from the name, time is very much the key in Speed Golf, but the phrase “more haste, less speed” also rings very true. That’s because each shot you take adds 30 seconds to your time, so taking those extra few moments to line up a better shot will benefit you in the long run because the victor is determined by speed rather than who takes the fewest strokes. It’s a clever risk-vs-reward mechanic that keeps it fresh hole after hole.
Sometimes plans can be disrupted, though, thanks to the unique character abilities belonging to each of the 16 playable characters. These aforementioned “special shots” are not only highly accurate shots, but come with effects that can be used to sabotage your opponents. They’re available to perform across all modes, but it’s in Speed Golf that they really come into their own.
Luigi, for example, can turn the area around where his ball lands to ice, making for a difficult surface to putt and indeed run on if trying to get to your ball. King Bob-omb can spawn a series of (you guessed it) bombs around his ball that can knock opponents and their balls away if touched. For my money, however, the most effective of these special abilities belongs to Wario: he can usher in a massive thunder cloud over an area of the hole, and anybody who tries to strike their ball at maximum power while under it will be struck by lightning, costing them a stroke. (I hate playing against him but make no apologies for doing so myself.) Although some of these special shots do double up over the full roster of 16 characters (like Mario and Bowser who can both blast away balls on impact), there’s enough variety to keep things interesting and find something that works for you.
Each character also possesses their own special dash move when running between locations which grants a significant speed boost and knocks aside anyone in your path. These are less exciting to use, but do still give off the sort of serotonin-filled dose of schadenfreude that the blue and red shells of Mario Golf’s sister series, Mario Kart, supply all too well. All in all, I enjoyed playing Speed Golf and it definitely became my preferred mode to play, especially when compared to the relatively ponderous nature of the traditional modes.
One of the only real downsides to it is the fact that you can’t sit back and admire a beautiful shot you’ve made. I’ve only struck one hole-in-one so far in my time with Super Rush, and because it came during a Speed Golf round I never got to see what really happened. Sure, I was pleasantly surprised to see the words “Hole-in-One” flash up on the screen as I was running halfway down the fairway but the suspense of “will it or won’t it?” was lost. There’s no option to watch replays or highlights either across any of the modes, which just seems a little odd. I guess that mirrors real life as you walk up the hole to see the ball already sitting in it, but I’m not really playing a game with a giant ape one-handedly swinging a golf club towards a tornado for realism, to be honest.
Further moving away from any form of reality (not a bad thing!) is the new Battle Golf, which didn’t ever grab me in the same way. Mainly that’s because it’s so fast-paced that it’s normally over before you have a moment to really get into it. It consists of you and three other competitors battling out in an arena to be the first to put their ball in three holes. Seems simple enough – but wait, there’s a catch. There are nine flags dotted around the stadium to go for, but they disappear once one of the four players has holed them. It makes for a fast and frantic game mode where the key to success, unfortunately, is to steer clear of trouble and go where others aren’t. Avoiding confrontation kind of defeats the whole idea of it being Battle Golf.
The AI opponents are often not the sharpest tools either, and with no way of upping or lowering the difficulty I soon got bored of this mode. When the rounds rarely last upwards of three minutes, that means I became bored quite quickly indeed. Playing online against other humans does give more of a joyful spontaneity to Battle Golf, but it’s still all over far too quickly. It’s not a mode I can see myself playing much more of after my first few days, but it’s far from the dullest in Super Rush.
Story Time
Golf Adventure mode was what I was most looking forward to in Super Rush, with nostalgia of previous Mario Golf installments once again fuelling my expectations. Instead, I got a largely underwhelming four or five hours. Things start out promisingly, almost like a Pokemon game: you wake up in your home and are set off on your journey to become the very best by your proxy-mother, Birdo. Without spoiling what limited story there is here, you then go about earning badges to build your profile as a golfer before getting roped into saving the kingdom from an artificially engineered climate-change threat. It kinda comes out of nowhere and then finishes before you’ve been given a chance to ask as simple a question as “why?”
Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t going into this expecting storytelling on the level of Homer’s Odyssey, but something akin to Mario’s own Odyssey from a few years back wouldn’t have gone amiss, either. It’s not really even a Mario story at all – aside from a few extended cameos from some familiar faces it’s all a bit rushed, and I’m sure not in the way that “Super Rush” is intended. It starts slow, as you learn the ropes on beginner courses before developing into a series of repetitive and clunky boss battle encounters which have you dodging attacks and firing golf balls at enemies in moderate anger.
That’s not to say that Golf Adventure doesn’t have its high points. I particularly enjoyed a challenge that involved completing nine holes of the whirlwind and water-littered Ridgerock Lake course in under 40 strokes. The twist being that you could do them in any order and continued playing on from the green of each hole, only teeing off once. This turned this into a more puzzle-like section that had me genuinely thinking about what the best strategy to take would be. It’s a shame that this challenge type is only used once, however, because it felt like there was more for it to do.
In fact, lots of mechanics are brought in and used very briefly, and sometimes introduced then not used at all. For example, about halfway through the journey you’re given a club that has the ability to make your shots skim across the water, which sounds and looks very cool. So when I was given no real opportunity to ever use this past the tutorial section in which you learn how to use it, I was baffled. More confusingly, none of the other characters have the ability to use this technique in any of the other modes, meaning it’s rendered almost completely redundant. And this wasn’t the only time something like this happened.
I would say that Golf Adventure isn’t worth sinking the time into, but the truth is that it’s kind of necessary if you want to be able to enjoy the rest of what Super Rush has to offer. Not only does it teach you basic golfing skills and introduce you to the rules of Speed Golf, but it’s the only way to unlock all of the courses for use in the other modes.
It’s also the only place to level up your Mii character, which comes with both pros and cons: don’t play the Adventure mode and you’ll have a character who can’t compete in other modes, but play it fully and you’ll likely have an overpowered character who can out-drive every other member of the roster. There’s a lack of balance to be found here, especially if you want to play as your Mii characters against a friend in local multiplayer, as it will mean they’ll also have to complete the story mode in order to have a chance against you.
There are six courses in total, which isn’t a huge amount (especially when compared to World Tour, which had 10 before DLC), but at least they offer variety. The super sandy Balmy Dunes will test your approach play, while Wildweather Woods has (you guessed it, again) wild weather to contend with. They’re each visually appealing in their own ways, and while Super Rush doesn’t look like a top-tier Nintendo game graphically, it bursts with colour – especially when playing in handheld mode.
I can’t help but wish there were just a couple more courses, though, even if the handful provided at launch are fun enough. The truth is that unless you’re interested in regularly playing online then there’s not a whole lot more to do after the first few hours except chase your own high scores once the story has finished. Confusingly, there are also no online tournaments to play – another thing World Tour has that has been omitted here, making it feel light on things to do by comparison to its older sibling.
All the courses will be unlocked after the story is complete and all the characters are there from the start. There are special club sets to earn for each of the 16 characters that you must buy with loyalty coins earned by playing as them, but this really does pale in comparison to recent parallels such as Everybody’s Golf which is much better at constantly giving you items to earn and a sense of genuine progression. The truth is that after several hours of playing I’d had a fun enough time with Super Rush, but I was left just thinking, “Well, what’s next?” a whole lot sooner than I ever thought I would be.
When Mario Golf: Super Rush is at its best, chaos is what makes it tick. These unpredictable moments are hilarious, adding a new dimension to Camelot’s long-running sports series. Zany courses designed to look more like 3D Super Mario levels and a pair of new fast-paced modes turn the typically leisurely sport of golf into an action game. But for all of the exciting moments and innovation Mario Golf: Super Rush offers, it still feels slim on content and lackluster at times.
After hitting an approach shot that landed a few feet from the hole, I dashed down the fairway, hopped over the lip of the bunker and settled over my tap-in for birdie. I wound up making a double bogey. Chargin’ Chuck smacked a Bob-omb on the green, blasting my ball into the rough. Then Boo unleashed its special shot, sending my chip woefully right of its target. From there, I frantically missed my long bogey putt and finally tapped in for my lousy score. When Mario Golf: Super Rush is at its best, chaos is what makes it tick. These unpredictable moments are hilarious, adding a new dimension to Camelot’s long-running sports series. Zany courses designed to look more like 3D Super Mario levels and a pair of new fast-paced modes turn the typically leisurely sport of golf into an action game. But for all of the exciting moments and innovation Mario Golf: Super Rush offers, it still feels slim on content and lackluster at times.
Super Rush tries to add to its variety even in its pair of control schemes: the familiar three-click swing system and motion controls. The three-click swing is as good as ever, with only minor presentation differences from previous installments. Instead of the swing meter filling up then back down, it goes up twice–once for power, once for accuracy. This change is a bit jarring at first, but I quickly got used to it. Next to the meter are marks that funnel outward. Off the tee and in the fairway, the marks are confined to the top, but when you have a bad lie, they start much lower. These marks signal how difficult it will be to achieve the “nice shot” accuracy you’re looking for. Hitting a long iron out of the rough is obviously harder than playing it safe with a wedge, and this is reflected by warning you that it won’t be easy to hit a shot on target if you try to get too much distance out of it. Impeccable timing can be achieved regardless; it’s just not nearly as simple.
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Now Playing: Mario Golf Super Rush Trailer | Nintendo E3 2021
Like Mario Golf: World Tour for 3DS, you can also add sidespin and alter trajectory by moving the joystick left, right, up, or down during the follow through. Besides a new flop shot mechanic–which requires you to tap A when the on-screen circle turns blue–Super Rush’s accurate three-click swing system will be familiar to anyone who has played a Mario Golf title.
Super Rush’s motion controls are the polar opposite of the three-click system in terms of depth and precision. You hold the SL button on the Joy-Con and take your swing. The simplicity harks back to Wii Sports. Unfortunately, this doesn’t really work when playing Super Rush’s tricky courses. Full swings are manageable and are fairly easy to hit on target, but any shot that requires a delicate swing, such as chipping or putting, is too much of a guessing game.
After playing all six courses Super Rush has to offer, it was clear that motion controls were simply incompatible with the elaborate designs Camelot created to highlight the game’s signature new Speed Golf mode. That said, mastering the three-click swing system, including shaping the golf ball, adding backspin, and tinkering with trajectories is more important than ever because the courses are littered with obstacles, which also make you think more about the type of shot you want to hit.
Speed Golf is exactly as it sounds. While a form of Speed Golf has existed in previous entries, you never actively ran across the course to your ball like you do in Super Rush. Here, you’re racing to finish each hole as fast as you can. Each shot adds 30 seconds to your time, though, so you still need to try to play well while maintaining a brisk pace. Coins are scattered across the fairways along with hearts, which replenish stamina burned from running. Terrain changes affect stamina as well, so you have to consider the route you take and even where you choose to hit your shot to set yourself up for your next one. Speed Golf injects a new layer of strategy and chaos in Mario Golf, since everyone is playing simultaneously. An unfortunate downside to Speed Golf is that you can never admire your good shots. I’ve made two hole-in-ones so far and saw neither of them go into the cup because I was busy jumping and running toward the green. There’s also a points system variant of Speed Golf, which is essentially match play and can lead to some tighter contests.
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Battle Golf uses the mechanics of Speed Golf and cranks up the mayhem. It pits up to four players against each other in a stadium course with nine flags to aim at. The first player to secure three flags wins. The twist here is that once a flag is claimed, it’s gone from the game. Going for the nearest flag first seems like a good idea, but what if two other players are aiming at it, too? Battle Golf emphasizes both skill and strategy. There are two layouts available: one that’s fairly straightforward and another that’s littered with enemies, obstacles, and hazards. Due to its design, Battle Golf conjures up even more random chaos than Speed Golf, making it an optimal party game with lightning-quick rounds that never have a dull moment.
Each of the 16 playable characters are equipped with a pair of moves that can be deployed strategically in these fast-paced modes: special shot and super dash. For instance, Wario’s special shot creates lightning strikes that toy with your shots, Boo “haunts” your golf ball, sending it off course, and King Bob-omb literally drops bombs that can get in your way. Yoshi rolls around on a giant egg when dashing, while Chargin’ Chuck looks like a fullback trying to mow down the competition (he thinks he’s playing football, poor guy). Slower golfers have better stamina, so I didn’t find that any one character was better suited for Speed Golf than another. Each golfer’s unique super dash can help them get to their ball faster, but it also can be a deterrent for competitors’ progress, since you can knock opponents down while running. Meanwhile, a well-timed and placed special shot can knock other golfers’ balls from a good position to a not ideal spot. These two central mechanics often look cool in motion and are incredibly useful in Speed Golf.
It’s clear why Speed Golf rules Mario Golf: Super Rush when you step onto the links. With the exception of two traditional courses that look like golf courses you’d find in real life, Super Rush’s courses teeter between absurd and diabolical, and I say this as a compliment.
Ridgerock Lake is set along cliffs surrounded by water and features Broiders rolling across fairways, Ty-foos guarding greens with strong gusts, and vertical wind tunnels that can send you and your ball up to another level. There’s a lot of fun strategy involved here thanks to elevation changes and the scattered layout. Balmy Dunes, a desert-themed course with towering Pokeys, giant Sandmaarghs surrounding the fairways, quicksand, and elevation changes galore, is a sprawling track that works wonderfully for speed golf. Do you use your super dash to cut across the barren sand and potentially save time or take the scenic route along the fairway where you can pick up coins and heart pieces to recover stamina? Because of the enemy placement, Balmy Dunes often forces you to get creative with shots, hitting fades around Pokeys and high-launching shots over those pesky Sandmaarghs.
Another course, Wildweather Woods, uses its unpredictable conditions to mess with your game. Randomized dark spots on the course are prone to lightning strikes if you swing your club too far back, costing you a stroke and time in the process. Meanwhile, Biddybuds waddle across the fairway and Piranha Creepers poke their chompy heads out, requiring you to zigzag to your ball. The heavy rain slows down the fairways and greens, so you have to adapt your strategy for both rollout on full shots and putting. The final course, Bowser Highlands, is a molten-themed track with Lava Bubbles emerging from the fiery depths, Magmaarghs creeping over the edge of danger, Bob-ombs, Whomps, and Chain Chomps scattered across the fairways, and Fire Bars circling platforms that you have to run across to get to your ball. It’s the most perilous course of the bunch due to the sheer number of hazards and obstacles, making for a fitting swan song.
Mario Golf: Super Rush features a cast that comes from all corners of the franchise, including the return of the dastardly Wario.
Even though Super Rush features some of the best courses in series history, I can’t help but think it’s a tad underwhelming to only have six at release, especially since two of them–though great for traditional golf purists–feel like standard Mario Golf fare. Though Nintendo has vowed to release free post-launch content for Super Rush, World Tour for 3DS had 10 courses at launch.
To unlock all of the clever and playful courses, you have to work your way through Golf Adventure as your Mii. As the tentpole game mode in Super Rush, Golf Adventure isn’t the full-fledged role-playing golf journey I expected. It serves as a means to unlocking every course but offers very little besides a six-hour primer to what Super Rush is all about. Despite the semi-open world layout with hubs for each course and NPCs scattered throughout, Super Rush’s world feels shallow, with nothing to do besides the next mainline event. It should be noted that Golf Adventure doesn’t even allow you to use motion controls–probably because you’d have a hard time reaching the credits.
In Golf Adventure, you’re a rookie working toward becoming a golf superstar by earning badges that unlock new tournaments and courses. Earning badges is a multi-step process, including a short course training before competing against AI-controlled players. What’s particularly strange about Golf Adventure’s challenges is that you only ever play a full 18-hole round one time. It’s often segmented into three, six, or nine hole challenges where you have to shoot better than a certain score or under time restraints. And almost the entire campaign centers on Speed Golf. You only play short spurts of traditional golf and never in a “tournament” round. Like Mario Tennis Aces, there are a few boss battles, each of which utilize the mechanics in fun ways–even if they are short-lived duels.
The disjointed progression of Golf Adventure sometimes hurts the overall experience and takes away from the genuinely compelling golf. But, at the very least, it sometimes throws in unique events. Ridgerock Lake was the site of my favorite challenge dubbed Cross Country Golf. You have to complete nine holes under 40 strokes, but you get to choose which order to complete the holes in. It was one of the few campaign challenges that took me off of autopilot–largely because it was just me versus the course. Bowser Highlands is also markedly different in Golf Adventure, as it mixes fire and ice holes. The snowy holes feature Ice Bros, sliding Freezies, and other Super Mario staples. The mix between fire and ice makes Bowser Highlands feel like two courses sandwiched into one, which winds up making a really interesting course that I wish you could play outside of Golf Adventure.
Sadly, AI-controlled golfers are absolutely horrendous in Golf Adventure, not just in the beginning but all throughout the campaign. This presents an issue since Speed Golf requires you to wait for your opponents to finish the hole before moving onto the next. Watching Pink Yoshi turn away from the flagstick and chunk yet another shot into the rough after I’ve already finished grows tiresome, and watching [insert any character name] actively aim away from the hole on a perfectly straight putt can become infuriating.
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The biggest blunder of Golf Adventure is that once the credits roll, there’s nothing really left to do. You can go back and level up your character and round out your set of clubs, but it’s not even possible to replay certain sections of the game. Golf Adventure doesn’t even track any of your best scores, so there isn’t any real reason to do so anyway. And besides, by the time you complete the campaign, your leveled-up Mii is already the best golfer in the game. I’ve already banned myself from playing as him during couch multiplayer with my wife. There is a separate Solo Challenge mode that keeps track of your best scores, but it seems like a weird decision to not roll this into an endgame for Golf Adventure.
Like many sports games, Mario Golf: Super Rush’s legs come from multiplayer against real humans, whether that be online or locally. When playing locally, up to four golfers can jump into standard golf, but only two can play at a time in Battle Golf and Speed Golf. The restriction is likely because of splitting the screen since you’re hitting at the same time (standard golf while playing simultaneously is also limited to two golfers), but it’s nonetheless disappointing. I haven’t had a chance to play Super Rush online, but you’ll be able to create rooms to play with friends or search for open rooms hosting the type of match you’re looking for. I will update this review with my impressions once the servers are more active. If Nintendo hosts regular tournaments like it did for Mario Golf: World Tour, I’ll be playing Super Rush for a long time. I should also note that I found the AI to play markedly better outside of Golf Adventure. While I still won every match against CPU-controlled characters, they at least play competently so that it’s possible to lose.
With three radically different styles of play and some seriously inventive courses, Mario Golf: Super Rush is a compellingly original sports game. Speed Golf and Battle Golf actively make you adapt to wildly different conditions while balancing technique and speediness. The three-click swing system still feels great, though if you desire an accurate motion-controlled golf game, this isn’t it. Golf Adventure curiously lacks a conventional tournament structure or record keeping, which actively dissuaded me from ever wanting to revisit it. Super Rush isn’t the best entry in the series, but it’s a worthy addition.
Microsoft’s Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has said that a new Killer Instinct game could be made if he can find “the right team and the right opportunity.”
Talking as part of an interview with the podcast Dropped Frames, Spencer spoke about the team at Xbox’s views on Killer Instinct. “There are so many good games in our catalogue that we’d love to visit,” he said. “The response when we redid KI at the launch of Xbox One was fantastic.”
He went on to say that he and Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, “have discussed many times KI and where we would like to go with it. And it might be out of our minds, but it’s in our hearts and in our minds that we want to continue to do something with KI.”
As to when that continuation could happen, Spencer says “It’s about finding the right team and the right opportunity. But it is not due to any kind of lack of desire on our part.”
Killer Instinct was rebooted back in 2013 as a launch game for the Xbox One, and was warmly received. Original developer Rare spoke to us a few years ago about other developers using its own IP, such as Double Helix creating the Killer Instinct reboot. As with Spencer’s latest words, Rare were very much about finding “the team, and the people” that were right for the IP.
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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.
When it was released back in 2015, Windows 10 broke records in customer satisfaction, quickly becoming the fastest-growing iteration of Microsoft’s proprietary OS ever. However, the sun is quickly setting for the OS now, with a reveal event for Windows 11 scheduled to begin today.
How To Watch The Windows 11 Reveal Stream
The Windows 11 reveal stream from Microsoft began at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. Get it, 11 AM? The stream is not on Twitch, YouTube, or any social media platforms, but you can go straight to Microsoft’s website to catch it. We’ve embedded the Microsoft stream below, as well.
What To Expect From The Windows 11 Reveal Stream
Today’s stream is sure to be full of details and features coming in the next iteration of Windows. You can expect to hear a decent amount of technical jargon and see what Windows 11 officially looks like. A release date for the OS could also be announced, and we now know it will be a free upgrade for those who already had Windows 10.
However, not everything we see today will likely be a surprise. Earlier this month, alleged screenshots of Windows 11 leaked online, followed by a leak of the full OS, which could be run on a virtual machine. The leaks showed off a new taskbar with launch icons in its center rather than on the left side, a Widgets icon, and rounded corners for windows.
Windows 10 was seen as a massive improvement over Windows 8 and 8.1 by users and came with a myriad of new features including Xbox integration. That’s not to say that the road hasn’t been rough at some times for the OS, with reports from users as recent as this past March saying that updates for Windows 10 have caused issues.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
