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Mario Golf: Super Rush is out now on Nintendo Switch, the latest sports spin-off from Camelot. This time we’re back on a variety of courses playing wacky-ish golf and racing around the fairway in a variety of game modes.

In this guide we will equip you with key information about the best Mario Golf characters, how to create the best Mario Golf Mii and other general tips to help you get the most out of your rounds.

Mario Golf: Super Rush Walkthrough, Tips And Hints

First of all, we have two guides that focus on specific details:

How to create the Best Mii in Mario Golf: Super Rush

The first article below relates to the Golf Adventure mode, in which you play as and gradually level-up and customise your Mii, so our guide gives tips on how to make your Mii the best golfer possible:

Mario Golf: Super Rush Character Stats — Which Is The Best Character?

Secondly we have our roster guide, which shows you all of the Mushroom Kingdom cast and their related stats:

Now, for the rest of this guide we’ll give you an overview of the game modes, along with essential tips and hints to help you shoot under par and have a fun time doing it.

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Mario Golf: Super Rush Game Modes

Golf Adventure

Unless you plan to jump straight into multiplayer, this is an ideal starting point in the game. The campaign should last 6-10 hours, depending on ability level, and it does a nice job of introducing various mechanics and courses. It’s also the path to upgrading your Mii, which we outline in the guide highlighted near the top of this article.

In addition to levelling up and improving the stats for your Mii character, Golf Adventure is one route to unlocking all of the game’s courses. Each stage of the story will take you to towns / hub areas for each course, and challenges will introduce you to a small number of holes at a time, with a ‘qualifying’ challenge in which you then work through 9 holes or even the full course. When you clear an area you unlock the course for play in any modes.

To get the most out of Golf Adventure we suggest seeking out the shop in each area. They have two Toads, one that will give advice on conditions for the course and the most suitable clubs, and another that’ll offer various equipment upgrades unique to the area. For example, when in a sandy course like Balmy Dunes there will be a 3 wood that allows the ball to skip off sandy surfaces, or a sand wedge that offers increased accuracy out of bunkers. Various clothes are also available that offer specific benefits to areas such as stamina, or increased speed running through the rough etc. The mode is generous enough with currency, so don’t be afraid to splash the cash (though you likely won’t need to buy everything).

Solo Challenges

While Golf Adventure is your route to building a strong Mii character, boosting the Mushroom Kingdom roster is done quickest through playing rounds in Solo Challenges. Every member of the roster has two upgrades available at 1000 and then 3000 character points – the unlocks provide new specialised Club Sets. You will likely need to complete 3 or 4 rounds of courses to reach 1000 character points, so it may take a little time to get your favourite character their full Club Set unlocks. To track progress on character points you can select Play Stats from the home screen.

Your options in this mode are very simple. You can play 18 hole rounds of any unlocked courses, either in Score Attack (standard play for the lowest score possible) or Time Attack (where you run to the ball between shots and aim for speed). You can also use button or motion control options.

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Play Golf

This is the main mode aside from Golf Adventure, allowing you lots of customisation options for solo, local multiplayer or online multiplayer. You can choose from Standard Golf, Speed Golf, Battle Golf or Network Play. We’ll outline the game types in detail later in this guide.

All modes offer excellent flexibility depending on how you want to play. If you have enough controllers, for example four Joy-Cons, you can have up to four players locally in ‘Standard Golf’. You can use a mix of single Joy-Cons and Pro Controllers when using Button Controls, whereas Motion Controls will require you to sync up individual Joy-Cons wirelessly. You can also fill empty slots with CPU characters, or alternatively opt to play solo or only with other players. It’s worth noting that Speed and Battle Golf are limited to two players locally, due to the need for split screen as the characters run between shots.

You can choose between different formats for each mode (covered in the relevant section below), and can even customise various areas of the round. You can choose to play 3, 6, 9 or 18 holes, determine a starting hole, choose Tees (closer or further away from the pin), set wind levels and turn Special Shots (triggered once the gauge is full) on or off.

Network Play doesn’t have any ranking or Tournament modes, but is a very useful way to find casual lobbies or connect remotely with friends and families, with the same core customisation options as offline play. When playing online you’re limited to two players on the same system, and can either search for lobbies to join and create your own. You can enable a password if you’re seeking a private match, and set permissions to ‘Anyone’ or ‘Friends Only’. If establishing a lobby of your own you can even limit player numbers in the range 2-4, while you have to determine whether Mii Characters are allowed or blocked. Control options are also the same online, so you can opt for Button or Motion controls.

Local Play is also supported if you have a friend in the same room on another system that has a copy of the game. You can only have two players per system, so matches are still limited to a maximum of four.

Golf Guide

This area is split into two categories. Golf Controls provides various tutorial-style screens that cover most of the mechanics of the game. It’s worth reading through these, especially sections on Shift & Control, Rain Effects, Carry & Run and more. They’re simple static screens and explanations of controls, but are nonetheless a good early stop.

Golf Lingo in this area is a surprisingly substantial A-Z of golf-related terminology, which is worth a look for complete newcomers to the sport.

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Mario Golf: Super Rush Game Types

Standard Golf

As the name suggests, this is the most traditional style of golf available in Mario Golf: Super Rush. This mode is particularly well suited for motion controls, as you simple make your shots without the need to manually move your character through each hole. Simply make your shots, what the cinematic and then repeat the process.

There are two format choices – Stroke Play is the traditional golf model in which you aim for the lowest score possible. Point Play rewards points determined on performance on each hole, making each hole a contest with less focus on shooting a low score over the course of the round.

Speed Golf

Perhaps the big focus of the game, this mode tasks you with making your shots quickly and then dashing to your ball for each shot. You have limited stamina to Dash, but dashing will allow you to bump opponents and even get ‘slipstream’ boosts when chasing behind another player. When your stamina gauge is green you can ‘Special Dash’ with the bumper (L or R, depending on controller) for extra speed and impact on opponents.

In speed golf two times combine in importance. There’s the actual time that it takes to clear the hole, and then 30 seconds is added for each shot in the hole. As a result fast play with too many shots will not lead to wins, a balance of accuracy and speed is important.

When playing Speed Golf you can opt for High Score or Best Time rules. High Score gives placements after each hole, with points awarded depending on who was 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Most points at the end of the round wins. Alternatively there is ‘Best Time’, in which the overall lowest time at the end of the contest wins.

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Battle Golf

This is a rather unique mode to the game, which puts the focus on utilising Dash, Special Dash and Rush moves. There are two arena ‘courses’, which take the form of stadiums, and all players can target any hole/pin in any order. Once a player completes a hole it is claimed and disappears from the map, so sometimes it makes sense to target a different hole from every other player. The first player to 3 holes wins.

You can choose Strategic arena (‘simple terrain that puts the focus on strategy’) or Technical arena (‘complex terrain that puts the focus on technique’), and either enable or disable ‘Rush Countdown’. That 60 second countdown triggers environmental effects every 60 seconds, such as hitting players with lightning or changing balls in Yoshi eggs.

Matches are typically very short, but should be particularly fun in local or online multiplayer.

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Tips To Master The Courses In Mario Golf: Super Rush

Judging distance and applying spin

Mario Golf: Super Rush goes a little further than most games to help you figure out the range for each of your clubs. When you press the X button (up the upper button on a single Joy-Con) you get an overhead view of the hole, where you can adjust the direction of your shot, cycle between clubs and choose a strategy. You’ll see a white bar at the end of the shot, which represents the landing point and run (distance after landing) of a full power standard spin hit. You can use this to carefully plan your hits, power and spin.

One mistake we made early on was treating it as an estimate, and trying to use the logic we’d apply in other gold games to judge distance. Don’t do this, trust the white line, in particular the outer edge which shows the extent of the ball’s distance with a normal bounce. If the range is a little short of the ideal position, for example, apply topspin to your shot for that little extra carry, and of course the reverse with backspin if the line is further. At times you will need to hit with less power so the ball won’t reach that optimal distance, but it’s a very powerful guide.

Applying spin is another key thing to master, which is simple in button controls. All you do is switch to using A / right button for topspin and B / down button for backspin when setting the power gauge. One tap for standard spin, double tap for ‘super’ spin top push the ball on further or stop it quicker.

Once you get a feel for the game’s system in terms of distance and spin, you’ll be able to make some seriously impressive approach shots.

Master Curve and Elevated shots

If, like us, your first few attempts at curve shots go wrong and your ball flies too far left or right, don’t panic! A curve shot is effectively where you apply an after-effect to ‘curve’ the ball to the left or right. An example of when to use this is when you need to reach the green but a high obstacle or set of trees is blocking your way.

This is applied during the second rise of the shot gauge; after the initial gauge to set the power, it rises again to determine accuracy. At this point you can push left or right on the left analogue stick, and you’ll see arrows appear on the gauge; the further you push the stick the greater the curve. It can be a pretty aggressive move, which can be hugely useful on later and trickier courses later in the game.

Shot elevation can also be key; high shots are sometimes necessary to avoid obstacles or reach new areas of a course. In this case you simply push up on the left stick as the gauge fills; just be aware that the ball will be more vulnerable to wind when elevated.

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Play the conditions

Though Mario Golf: Super Rush is a more fantastical take on the game, always take a look at the user interface to gain information on conditions. Wind direction and speed is the key, so be sure to adjust your shot direction and distance to accommodate that.

Wet conditions are also a key thing to note, especially with putts. When you’re in rainy conditions you’ll need to give more power than usual to your putts as the ball will slow down on the wet grass (more on putting below).

Tips for putting and Power Shots

At the two extremes of your shot range are putts and power shots, but they can transform your round.

Starting with putting, you’ll get used to the game’s visual cues to outline the green’s movements. A grid will appear, and for a straight shot the grid will have flat lines, with left and right arrows showing the expected movement; if the arrows are going to your left, adjust your shot to the right. On most holes, barring some late and difficult examples, you can switch to the overhead view and aim your putt to the edge of the hole; you won’t often need to aim further, except when the arrows are strong.

The slope of the green is also important. If the grid is white it’s flat, and we suggest a power level a small amount past the flag / pin icon on the gauge. A red grid means downhill, so use power a little under the flat icon. Finally a blue grid means an uphill gradient, so you need give the shot a hefty boost above the icon.

On the other scale there may be longer holes where you want a longer initial drive – if your Special Gauge is full (on the left of the UI, will be blue when full) you can set your direction, then hit L; when you hit your shot it’ll be a Special Shot that gives you more range, and likewise each character’s special has a different impact on surrounding players as well.

Going for a group run

Finally, let’s wrap up with some words about the movement between shots in Speed and Battle golf. In plenty of modes you’ll be lining up and playing at the same time as others or need to clock the lowest time possible. After your shot you use B / down button to dash, which will slowly deplete your stamina gauge. While Golf Adventure gives you coins to collect (to boost Special Guage) and hearts to increase stamina, standard speed golf doesn’t do this. As a result use standard dash to preserve stamina as much as possible, and if you run behind another player you can also slipstream to gain extra boost.

If you want to knock an opponent down or disrupt them, you can use the L button for a special dash as long as your stamina gauge is green. This gives you a short-lived super boost, which can also knock over opponents and significantly slow them down.

Finally, if you get caught in deep sand or mud and your character slows down drastically, tap A / right button repeatedly to jump and get out.

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That’s it for this Mario Golf: Super Rush tips and hints guide. We will update as the game adds new content on the future, and if you have specific questions or requests drop them in the comments and we’ll take a look!

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This post originally appeared on Nintendo Life | Latest News