- PAL release: 29th May 2000
- NA release: 15th June 2000
- JP release: N/A
- Developer: Infogrames
- Publisher: Infogrames
- N64 Magazine Score: 80%
Another Golf game, this one has four courses, and is otherwise very unremarkable. It has a few different ways to swing, with a traditional power bar method or an analogue stick swing like CyberTiger. What I found baffling was that the target line shows the ideal shot, but there’s no indication as to where on the power bar you should aim for. I either massively overshot or undershot on every hit, not figuring out how to accurately aim the ball.
Putting was also even worse for this, sometimes a 25% power shot will send the ball flying off the other side of the green, while a 50% shot will have the ball fall very short. It’s just a rather tedious golf game that doesn’t come close to Mario Golf, which strangely remains the best “serious” golf game on the system.
Poor
While PGA European Tour wouldn’t last five minutes in the PC market, where the only thing people want from their golf games is photo-realism, it has the depth of gameplay underneats its ugliness to make it a viable choice on the N64. We had fun testing it out in the office which is a lot more than we can say for Waialae Country Club and the dysmal, Jap-only Glory of St. Andres. Of course, there’s no way we’d recommend it over Mario Golf, but if you’ve played that to death and you’re looking for a playable alternative, it’s really the only other option.
Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #38
Remake or remaster?
There are better golf games.
Official ways to get the game.
There’s no official way to get PGA European Tour Golf.
Europe
Japan
North America
N64 Games by Date
1997: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1998: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1999: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2000: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
On that matter, I feel that it’s a bit of a shame that the Mario Golf series steered further and further away from realism with its sequels. Toadstool Tour gives too much information to the player I feel (the rolling line that appears on the ground is a bit excessive), while World Tour on 3DS also gives too much away before your shot lands; robbing much of the suspense of whether or not your shot will land where you want it to. Meanwhile, Super Rush’s camera changes are a complete disaster, making it near impossible to read the lie of the green properly, leading to some very frustrating gameplay (especially the putting).
Mario Golf 64 is still my favourite as far as the console MG games go. I wish that Camelot would dial the cartoonish craziness back a bit to be more like the original.