Had this exact experience with Ace Golf on the GameCube. Everyone was going crazy for Super Mario Sunshine, but it was the cutesy golf game that was the real system seller for me. It was the first game I bought.
I was wondering why I hadn't heard of Ace Golf. Turns out it was localized as Swingerz Golf in North America. The contrast between the covers of each version is even more extreme than the Hot Shots Golf one. I remember seeing it in the game rental store and skipping it because it looked like some XTREME SPORTZ nonsense. Goes to show how bad marketing can affect a perfectly good game.
The US cover is an absolutely horrendous example of the noughties XTREME fad. It's laughably ill-fitting too as Ace Golf is chill. It's definitely more 'cup of tea' than 'Mountain Dew'...
Everything you described here happened to me but with "Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis". While my friends were all playing Age of Empires 2 on PC, I was really engaged in that silly tennis game, and no one wanted to play because... "come on, it's a tennis game". "Yeah, but you can replace the ball with a grenade!" I would say.
Good memories. I need to replay that, and maybe try this golf game that I never bothered with, because I admit I was one of those who would say "it's a golf game... who wants to play a golf game?"
Had this exact experience with Ace Golf on the GameCube. Everyone was going crazy for Super Mario Sunshine, but it was the cutesy golf game that was the real system seller for me. It was the first game I bought.
I was wondering why I hadn't heard of Ace Golf. Turns out it was localized as Swingerz Golf in North America. The contrast between the covers of each version is even more extreme than the Hot Shots Golf one. I remember seeing it in the game rental store and skipping it because it looked like some XTREME SPORTZ nonsense. Goes to show how bad marketing can affect a perfectly good game.
The US cover is an absolutely horrendous example of the noughties XTREME fad. It's laughably ill-fitting too as Ace Golf is chill. It's definitely more 'cup of tea' than 'Mountain Dew'...
Everything you described here happened to me but with "Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis". While my friends were all playing Age of Empires 2 on PC, I was really engaged in that silly tennis game, and no one wanted to play because... "come on, it's a tennis game". "Yeah, but you can replace the ball with a grenade!" I would say.
Good memories. I need to replay that, and maybe try this golf game that I never bothered with, because I admit I was one of those who would say "it's a golf game... who wants to play a golf game?"