NES Open Tournament Golf

NES Open Tournament Golf, known in Japan as Mario Open Golf, is a 1991 sports video game developed by HAL Laboratory and Nintendo R&D2 and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the fourth golf game to feature Mario as a player character, and is observed as the first installment of the Mario Golf series. Players control either Mario or Luigi as they play rounds of golf on international courses.

The game incorporates various elements of its gameplay from its predecessors Family Computer Golf: Japan Course and Family Computer Golf: U.S. Course, which were exclusively released in Japan for the Famicom Disk System in 1987. Players take their shots from a third-person perspective, while putting is done from a top-down viewpoint.

NES Open Tournament Golf received overall positive reception.

NES Open Tournament Golf is a sports video game simulating golf which incorporates certain characters from the Mario series. The player's primary objective is to hit the ball into each hole with the fewest strokes by the end of gameplay. Using a birds-eye view prior to the swing, the player can change clubs and the general direction and range that the ball will travel. During the swing, the view shifts to a third-person perspective and the player can determine the power the shot will have by timing a button press for a marker to stop at the desired point of the power meter then another button press to determine what kind of shot the ball will be. Various gameplay aspects can effect how the ball will travel such as wind and ball spin.

The player controls Mario, with Princess Toadstool (Peach) acting as the caddie giving the player tips and information. In modes with options for multiplayer, the second player controls Luigi, with Princess Daisy acting as the caddie.

NES Open Tournament Golf's original version, released in Japan as Mario Open Golf, has cut content from the international release of the game. Mario Open Golf features ninety unique playable holes spread across five courses whereas the international release features fifty four holes across three courses. Forty of the holes present in the international release are shared with the Japanese release of the game, such as how hole one of the Australia course in Mario Open Golf is hole nine in the US Course internationally. Other holes in the international release share layouts with the original version but were changed in order to decrease the difficulty.^{[citation needed]} In the Japanese release, each course must be unlocked, with the only one available at the start being the Japan Course.^{[citation needed]}

The background music between both versions differ, with the exception of a few tracks that are used in both. Minor graphical changes are present and are most evident between the two versions respective title screens.

NES Open Tournament Golf was Eiji Aonuma's first game to help develop. Aonuma drew pixel art on paper to design the game's character sprites.