Super FamiComplete #13: Harukanaru Augusta (Redux)

Title: Harukunaru Augusta

Release Date: 4/5/91 (JP)

Publisher/Developer: T & E Soft Inc.

This is sadly an entry where there is not too much to add to the original post. This is a "short but not very sweet" type of game.

Background
This is a Japanese only golf game whose main draw is that it takes place at the Augusta National golf course in Georgia, also known as the "home" of the Masters tournament. The game plays as a tournament, where you enter in as a real golfer and then try to bust your way through the ranks to win the whole thing.

T&E Soft is the company responsible for the wonderful (not at all) Hydlide series that has been the thorn in many a youtube personalities side. Other than that, they are an unremarkable but prolific developer who went belly up in the early 2000s.

As far as Augusta, it is really a gorgeous golf course, but one that has a very troubled history. Golf is already a sport that has courted controversy due to its history as a sport for "elites" and the "wealthy." During the late 1900s, this view became so prevalent that it led to a whole slew of comedy movies lampooning this view, such as Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore. The sad thing is that games like this were the only connection many people had available to the sport at the time, outside of a driving range or some cheap public courses. Augusta, being a course in the Southern United States (close to what is termed as the "deep South") long held on to this "elitist" point of view. It was known for one of the most exclusive membership policies in all the golf world: African Americans were not allowed as members until 1990, and women weren't allowed to play on the course until 2012 (wow). Also, it was a long held tradition that all the caddies be black...just yikes. Anywho, the course itself is still beautiful, even if the people who ran it were pieces of shit.

Gameplay

Sadly, this game is not a simulator of running a morally bankrupt country club, but instead another golf simulator.

Unlike the previous golf game, Hal's Hole in One Golf, which uses a top-down perspective, this game uses a "full 3-d" perspective, in that it shows the fairway from a 3rd person perspective when planning your position, the birds-eye perspective after the ball was struck, and a grounds-eye perspective of the ball when you are planning where to strike the golfball.

What sets the game apart is that it is considered a golf simulator and not an arcade style golf game. The player has the ability to customize the player's stance and clubs, and factors such as wind direction and topography have to be carefully monitored by the player when setting up their shots.

Other than that...that's it. It's a golf game...in full Japanese...so good luck navigating the menus.

But does it have those golf game sweet jams?
It does!

Final Verdict
What is there to say really? If you like golf, try it? Maybe? There are probably better golf games? *shrug*