Neo Turf Masters

Neo Turf Masters (known as Big Tournament Golf in Japan) is a Golf game developed by Nazca (the people behind the Metal Slug series) and released by SNK for the Neo Geo. The game included a VS mode and three single player modes, as well as having six players to choose from. You can choose to play one of four courses, Australia, USA, Japan and Germany. You can also choose to play as one of six golfers all with various skills.

Neo Turf Masters it was released as an arcade cart (MVS), home cart (AES), and for the Neo Geo CD console, as well as SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 for PS2 and PSP. The game was notable similar to Irem's Major Title, because Nazca was formed by many of Irem's ex-staff.

A version for the Neo Geo Pocket Color was later released in North America in 1999. The NGPC version features cartoonish, less detailed graphics compared to the Neo Geo version which had partially digitized sprites and realistic art.

In 2016, DotEmu released a mobile adaptation with touch controls, offering numerous new features.

Gameplay
The game is a fast-paced, arcade-style golf game. Players choose from two game modes, stroke play for one or two players, and match play for two players only. Competing on one of four fictional golf courses located in the United States, Japan, Australia and Germany, players choose from one of six players with different attributes: Unlike many golf games of the era which used a two-click swing system to determine the hook or slice of the ball, Neo Turf Masters uses a single click for the power of the shot, and a second for the height of the shot; hook and slice are selected with buttons B and C before making the shot. This makes the game much easier to pick up and play than its more technically demanding contemporaries, but it compensates for this reduced difficulty with fiendish (if somewhat unrealistic) course layouts and highly variable wind.

Critical Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Neo Turf Masters on their March 15, 1996 issue as being the twelfth most-successful arcade game of the month.

IGN gave the Virtual Console release of the game 7.5 out of 10 stating "If you're the type of gamer who appreciates SNK's arcade style and can jibe with the idea of juiced-up, high-speed golf, Neo Turf might be well worth your 900 Wii Points".