Mario Golf: World Tour Review

by Camjo-Z on May 21st, 2014

Mario’s been in a lot of sports games over the years, but golf is one of the few that I’ve never really been interested in. I had the GBC game as a kid and could never really get into it (even now I find it a bit primitive), and Toadstool Tour was always passed over at the rental store in favor of something else. However, with World Tour, I decided it was finally time to give the series a shot. And as it turns out… it’s really damn good!

The mechanics are like every other golfing simulator you’ve ever played. You take aim and try to press the buttons at the proper time to get a perfect shot, with the ability to add forward or backward spin on the ball afterwards. Innovation is not the name of the game here. However, keeping with the Mario theme, there are also items to use that can help you out. Ranging from hazard-negating Bob-ombs to distance clearing Bullet Bills, there are a variety of crazy collectibles found scattered about the game’s courses in item boxes. This is no Mario Kart though, as utilizing them properly can be pretty difficult, so there is a balance to be found.

It all looks a bit confusing at first, but thankfully there are tutorials for the uninitiated.

The RPG-ish Castle Club mode prominently features on the game’s main menu, but is somewhat light on content. You can use coins to buy items to customize your Mii’s stats with, train your skills with some aiming mini-games, enter into three different tournaments against the Mario crew… and that’s about it. There are also some Costume Challenges to try out once you’ve met certain requirements, but they’re strangely punishing compared to the rest of the game, allowing for only one try before they disappear for a while.

Don’t be fooled however, as this is not the meat of the game. In the Mario Golf mode you’ll find Star Coin Challenges, which task you with fulfilling various standards in order to obtain the golden goodies. These range from hitting the ball through rings, collecting a certain amount of coins, completing a hole with randomly selected clubs, or winning a round of match play. There’s 100 Star Coins to collect (not counting those obtained from DLC courses), as well as a second set of even harder Moon Coin challenges unlocked once you’ve gotten those. And if this wasn’t enough, there are also online tournaments to take part in, where you compete against other players for trophies (and get some snazzy items just for participating). Make no mistake, this game will keep you busy for quite a while.

It will also keep Nintendo Tech Support busy fixing your 3DS after you “accidentally” break it.

Speaking of online play, you might expect Nintendo to be behind the times again, but thankfully they’ve taken a page from their Mario Kart 7 playbook and provided a robust set of options. Along with the expected Friends mode comes Community Match, which allows up to 4 people to golf together under custom rulesets. Quick Search will pair you up with any available party, while you can also search for a community using a unique code. If enough people got the game, there could even be a Rare Gamer community…

The game’s course selection could be considered good or bad, depending on how much fantasy you like in your golf. There are three realistic courses – Forest, Seaside, and Mountain – each with 18 holes. Then you have the Mario-themed 9 hole courses: Peach Gardens, Yoshi Lake, Wiggler Park, Cheep Cheep Lagoon, DK Jungle, and Bowser’s Castle.  These each have various stage gimmicks like bouncy mushrooms, underwater physics, and DK barrel shortcuts, as well as a heavier focus on items. These elements don’t overshadow the core golfing, but players looking for a traditional golfing simulation might be put off by them. Personally, I found them to be great (aside from Cheep Cheep Lagoon, since the weird rolling physics require you to completely re-learn putting) and provide a fun alternative to the standard courses.

(There’s also a 10th course, Sky Island, but it’s more of a gimmick than anything else – it’s very limited thanks to forcing par-3 on every hole, and you can only unlock it by beating an extremely difficult challenge in the Castle Club.)

The game’s roster is standard Mario fare, with the usual suspects joined by a few fun additions like Kamek and Boo (though the coolest characters are found only in the DLC –  a conscious design choice I suspect). In the audio department there’s nothing outstanding, though there are some nice tracks to be found (Wiggler Park’s Honeyhive Galaxy remix!). The character voices are equally inoffensive, with a few exceptions – your Mii squeals far too much given his limited voice samples, and the various Toads you meet in the Castle Club will have you instantly reaching for the volume slider.

The character animations add a lot of personality to the game.

Now, some of you may have concerns about the game’s DLC. Yes, for the first time in history, Nintendo has hopped on the hated Season Pass bandwagon. However, it only saves you 3 bucks and gets you the Gold Mario character early, so you’re not missing out on much by not purchasing it. The DLC features 3 packs at $5.99 each, consisting of 2 remastered courses from the original Mario Golf on N64 (some of which have gotten NSMB makeovers) as well as a new character:

• Mushroom Pack: Toad Highlands, Koopa Park, and Toadette
• Flower Pack: Layer-Cake Desert (Shy Guy Desert), Sparkling Waters (Yoshi’s Island), and Nabbit
• Star Pack: Rock-Candy Mines (Boo Valley), Mario’s Star, and Rosalina

Purchasing all three packs (or the $15 Season Pass) will also get you Gold Mario, a Mario variant who earns you ludicrous amounts of in-game coins with every bouncy shot.

As of this review only the Mushroom Pack has been released, but it’s well worth the $6. Toadette has some cute animations, each 18-hole course can be played both online and off (though both players must own the DLC to use it in local multiplayer), and they also feature star and moon coin challenges. If you’re not entirely sold, you can even download a trial pack to test out the courses in online tournaments.

Overall, World Tour features loads of content to unlock, and plenty of options for playing alone, locally, and online with friends and strangers. The inclusion of DLC extends the playtime nicely for those willing to pony up the extra cash, but even without it this is a great package that I’d recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in golf games, and at $30 it’s a steal.

Also, it has Daisy. So now you really have no excuse to not get it.

Categories: Reviews