Neo Turf Masters

When classic arcade game developer Irem shuttered their arcade division in the mid 1990's, much of their staff was recruited by SNK to join a new subsidiary called Nazca. Their first few tasks were to create a new golf game, an action game, and to work on porting SNK's most popular arcade games to the new 32-bit consoles of the day. As many people know, Nazca's action game eventually turned into the first Metal Slug, creating a legacy of its own that is still quite popular almost 30 years later. 

Neo Turf Masters was Nazca's first game out of the gate in 1996. Itself a spiritual sequel to Irem's classic golf game Major Title, Turf Masters was a substantial upgrade to the team's first golf outing. The name of the game with Turf Masters is approachability, and it's because of the addictive pick-up-and-play nature of the game that it became the 12th most successful arcade game release of 1996 in Japan. Sadly, critic reviews from the day are hard to come by, but fan opinion across the internet widely praise Turf Masters as the best arcade golf simulation ever created; edging out even the popular Golden Tee series in the US by those in the know. So what makes Turf Masters so special? Let's find out...

Upon pressing start you have have a few choices to make before you start the game proper. First, you can select your game option: Match Play for two player dedicated, or Stroke Play which can be played with one or two players. Next, you select one of six characters who each have individual stats that genuinely affect your shots. Once you have chosen your character, you can select from one of four courses: Australia, USA, Japan, and Germany. Each of the courses begins with an easy par four, but as you progress the challenges and obstacles get tougher to overcome. These aren't the most realistic courses in a golf game, but that is what keeps them interesting. 

If there was a single word that drove the development team at Nazca during the creation of Neo Turf Masters, it was most likely "approachable." While other arcade golf games used a cumbersome combination of button presses and/or a wonky trackball to make your shots, Nazca simplified the shot mechanics in Turf Masters to make it easy for anyone to pick up and immediately understand. A big part of this was making a separate gauge for power and another for the vertical trajectory of your shot. 

• The Power Gauge: This gauge is presented on the left side of the circle, and you can generally judge the power/distance of your swing by using the numbers on the side of the gauge. Stopping the gauge at 50% will net you roughly 50% of your total swing power. If you go above 100% you can get more power, but it's harder to judge the distance your ball may travel. 

• The Trajectory Gauge: This gauge is presented on the right side of the circle. After landing on the desired power of your shot, you can then choose the vertical trajectory of being too high or low. You want to try to stay in the blue confines of the gauge, as going into the red will produce unpredictable results. Different types of shots and clubs will dictate how much space you have to play with inside of this gauge. 

Basically, in two button presses, you can produce a generally accurate shot that is exactly as you dictate it. The two gauges remove much of the randomness of other popular arcade golf games, and smooths out the experience from many home golf simulations. 

Rather than having a hook or slice shot be dictated by where you stopped the power gauge, Nazca dedicated three of the Neo-Geo's buttons to the three main types of shots: straight, hook, and slice (A, B, and C on the controller). For example, if you want to hook your shot you'd move through the gauges with the B button rather than the A or C buttons. Similarly, using the A button will produce a more straight shot, and C will slice your shot. Unless you're a dedicated player, though, just using the A button for a straight shot will generally produce good results so long as you line your shots up correctly.

Lining up your shots correctly is an easy task as each hole has its own mini map that sits on the right side of the screen, with a long blue arrow that starts where you are standing and ends at the flagpole. This map makes it easy to adjust your stance to where you want your ball to travel. Additionally, you can select which club you want to use (which the game usually picks the best club for your position automatically), as well as your foot stance. The wind advisory sits in the lower left-hand portion of the screen to help you determine if you need to over or under compensate your shot to account for wind velocity. 

When your ball lands "ON DA GWEEN!" (as the hilarious Japanese announcer excitedly screams) you have a few different options than when you're on the course proper. Due to putting being all about small strokes and pin-point precision, your power meter turns into a long horizontal meter that is segmented off. From your shot, the game calculates the estimated power you'll need to produce to make it to the hole and highlights where on the power meter you should stop to reach the goal. Like real putting, though, you have the grade of the land to contend with as well. To counter this, you can adjust the line of sight to the hole to compensate for grade changes if the ball needs to travel up or down a hill, etc. 

Each of the four golf courses are unique in design and do not always adhere to real world course standards. This is an arcade game after all, so making attractive scenery and interesting obstacles is the objective rather than focusing on outright realism. The topography of the courses are quite beautiful, with cliffsides and waterfalls that are uncommon features in real golf courses. That said, because of the unique topography, some of the holes become quite difficult, especially on the back nine. I wouldn't say that Turf Masters is an overly difficult game, but since the controls are so approachable, the difficult topography of the courses balance out the approachability to produce a game that is the epitome of easy to pick up and play but hard to master. 

Nazca games are known for their beautiful pixel art, and Neo Turf Masters is no exception. The color pallet and scenery is more realistic in nature than many other Neo-Geo games, but the natural looking environments are saturated with rich colors that make each hole pop. Nazca also uses parallax scrolling to great effect when you are lining up your shots. The camera pans smoothly without a hiccup, and you always have a clear view of where your ball is traveling. While the backgrounds are comprised of hand-drawn pixel art, the characters themselves are all digitized (like Mortal Kombat), but move with silky smooth animation. Every facet of this game is gorgeous, and is one of the standout non-fighting game titles on the hardware.

The sound design here is top notch. While the sound effects are what you'd expect from a golf game, it is the voice overs and music that really sell the experience. Each course has a small musical number unique to it, and while I wouldn't say go out and listen to the soundtrack on YouTube, it's great game music that keeps you interested while playing. There are other little jingles and sounds throughout your game, but the main music theme is one of the catchiest and lovely on the Neo-Geo. The voice overs are fantastically bad, in that the announcers are clearly Japanese speaking in extremely broken "Engrish." A male announcer introduces each hole on the course and informs you of the conditions you'll need to win. A female announcer excitedly dictates the results of your shots, and she even lets you know where you stand on the leader boards after each hole. It's all quite fun and adds an air of whimsy to the whole experience. 

Neo Turf Masters isn't a unique game by any stretch, but all the parts of the game are so lovingly and meticulously crafted that it ends up feeling unique. It's a good video game, full stop. Even somebody like me that doesn't often enjoy sports games can pick it up and have a great time. In the modern day, Neo Turf Masters has a dedicated and almost cultish like following. There are numerous score kerkuffle challenges and other tournaments across the internet on multiple message boards and social media platforms comprised of players who feverishly play this game year-round. Neo Turf Masters is a defining game on the Neo-Geo that is every bit as important as the litany of fighting games the hardware is known for. 

Securing an authentic copy of this game on real hardware is harder than you'd think, with prices for each of the three Neo-Geo hardware variants being much more than the average consumer would be willing to pay. The AES release is by far one of the most expensive, ungraded second-hand video games in the modern retro game market. A complete US/Euro copy of the game will cost no less than $75,000 these days, while a complete Japanese copy of the game in good condition will still cost a staggering $14,000 or more. If you really, really want this game on AES you could get a reproduction or a conversion if you want to save some cash. Otherwise, you'll be spending the same amount of money on a single video game as you would on a brand new 2023 Corvette C8 (8th Gen) if you want that US edition - if you can find it. Games of this rarity are not often found on the open market, so sourcing even a Japanese copy can take you over a year to find and land on the right deal. 

The Neo CD is the next most expensive version with a good condition Japanese copy running between $300 on the very low end to $600 on the high end. The MVS version is the most reasonably priced and will not run you over $200. If you're looking to play this game on real hardware, MVS is the way to go (and where my money went). That said, there are some exclusive features on the Neo CD version that make it worth looking into only if you're crazy about this game. For everyone else, there is a mobile release that adds touch controls, as well as Hamster's Arcade Archives release on most modern digital storefronts for $8. Despite its popularity in the arcade when it came out, Neo Turf Masters was never ported to any 32-bit home console like the Sony Playstation or Sega Saturn - and that's a real shame. I suspect this game would have a much stronger legacy in the modern era had more folks been exposed to it. 

Thankfully, SNK deemed Neo Turf Masters worth reprising in 1999 as a down-ported Neo-Geo Pocket Color Release. It's an excellent, portable aproximiation of the main game and is a mainstay in my Neo-Geo Pocket when traveling. While still very expensive at close to $200, it's still more affordable than the original and has even more features, unlockables, and modes of play making it an excellent choice for those of the Pocket persuasion. 

At the end of the day, every Neo-Geo fan should play this game art least once. It's a masterclass in game design overall and well worth your time.