After a long while since the GameCube days,Mario and company decide to take on the golfing fields once more,but will it strike it reach it's goal with a hole-in-one,or will it make too many mistakes on the field to earn a Triple Bogey?
Mario Golf World Tour is yet another Mario sports game released on the 3DS on the same day as Kirby Triple Deluxe,on 2014,and the next Mario Golf game to come after the long-time released Mario Golf Toadstool Tour on the GCN,so let's start with kicking off from the starting point to see how well this will fare in the end.
There is no real story mode here,but instead,an overworld known as "Castle Club" where you,as your Mii,can customize yourself with clothes and golf gear of all sorts and beat three major tournaments against some other Mario characters to claim the title of the best player in the club.On that same mode,you can take on some challenges to win exclusive rewards,including one new course;practice your skills if you're a beginner,and even sign-up and play on online local and worldwide tournaments.The mode,in it's main campaign,is pretty short on it's own,but with those extra factors,you might find a little bit more of replay value whenever you come back to the game.
Outside of Castle Club,you can play matches free of your own liking alone or with other people.When in single-player you get to play the sport on Stroke Play,where you're alone on the golfing fields to reach the lowest possible stroke count;Match Play is where you play against another character controlled by the game's CPU;Speed Golf has you rushing your way through the course to complete it in the least amount of time,Points Play is essentially where the results of your courses' playthrough are summed up into points,like Par gives you 2 points,and Birdie gives you 3(not with the -/+ thingies in actual golfing),and by last,Challenges.Challenges are,well,the game's challenging tasks for the player to complete,with 100 from all the courses in the game,and they are separated into seven categories:
Star Coin Collector forces you to collect one big Star Coin in the middle of the course before certain number of uses,but in the later missions,it gets extremely brutal where they place those hovering coins in hard-to-reach-and-not-fail spots which I guess only the most skilled ones can get through from my experience and perspective;Ring Master puts two or three giant rings in the course for the player to pass the ball through,and it's pretty hard as well,but not really as much as the later missions of Star Coin Collector;100 Coins is,as you may have predicted,is the needing task of collecting one hundred coins in three holes of the course;Score Attack is more of normal golfing,where you need to get more positive results from Birdies and beyond in often numbers of -3 in nine holes;Character Match basically puts you face to face with a character in nine holes to get the best score;Time Attack is more of the same as the previously mentioned Speed Golf mode,but with actual timer to worry about that can range from 120 to 150 seconds,or essentially,three to three and a half minutes,and lastly;Point Challenge sets the clubs for you to use by random from a slot on one hole(or if you score three stars on it,you get all the distance clubs available) and you have to make the most points out of each hole you pass through.
Completing a certain number of these challenges will start unlocking characters,by the way.Speaking of the characters,I honestly feel this roster,although smaller,offers more recognizable and likable characters than the ones in Mario Kart 8.Personaly,the character roster of Mario Kart 8 is alright(not counting the six DLC characters as of this review),with the Koopalings and familiar faces,but this one has Diddy Kong,Boo and Bowser Jr.,who are more preferred than the likes of Metal Mario,Baby Rosalina and Pink Gold Peach,and I'm pointing that out mainly due to these two games came out in the same month and year.Sure,DLC is now a thing in both series but let's keep things are they are for now.Here,we get to play as Mario,Luigi,Peach,Yoshi,Daisy,Donkey Kong,Bowser,Wario,Waluigi,Boo,Bowser Jr.,Diddy Kong,your Mii,plus some other unlockable and DLC characters,I could not buy the DLC as of the time of this review,consisting of six new courses and four characters(Toadette,Nabbit,Rosalina and Gold Mario,the last one being available after you buy all three DLC packs),but I heard some good things about it,so let's consider it as a plus.
Everyone has their owns way of hitting the ball by a straight face or draw line,which can affect gameplay too,and when you complete one of the Character Matches challenge with certain character you've faced with,you unlock the "Star version" of that character,which basically has higher stats in launching the ball further.
Now,to what really matters here:the gameplay.This is my first Mario Golf game,so I'm taking this on like a newcomer.You could say this is basically golfing with Mario characters,but there's more to that,like any Mario sports game.These twists include familiar Mario courses,item usage when allowed and a few more.First,you get to hit the ball with your golfing club automatically or manually.Automatically lets you just hit the ball's launching cursor once on the distance where you want it to go after adjusting the distance and club you're going for and that's it.In manually,you do that,but you also have to press the A or B button after that process and optionally one of these again do accomplish a Topspin,Super Topspin,Backspin or Super Backspin,essentially moving the ball a few centimeters forwards or backwards.Your overall management in Manual mode will affect your hitting,so you have to be a bit aware when using this mode.Like many golf games,wind,terrain and even the course itself also give influence in your whole go,as well as to which club you're using.It goes solid enough and all fluent surprisingly,but wait,there's also the presence of familiar items here.When in the play,you can use items to make things more like how Mario and friends/enemies would typically play sports on their free time that can shake things up a bit for competition,like use the Mushroom to drive your ball further in the ground or the Bullet Bill to blast your ball kilometers away of your standing,and it all functions well when used correctly.If there is one minor complaint about the gameplay,is that like every 10 seconds the characters have to make a vocal noise that can distract while structuring your play,which can get rather annoying.That aside,the gameplay is great and smooth.
The courses are also well designed and detailed.The first three are structurally basic,with your normal forest,seaside and mountain courses,but things get more fun when you get introduced to holes from Peach's castle garden,the world of Yoshi's Island,the underwater land of Cheep Cheeps and more.The musical scores in each track is also very well-made,especially in the more Mario themed courses.For example,you have a remix of the Peach Gardens track from Mario Kart DS in the golf course of the same name,a remixed track from the underwater levels of the original Super Mario Bros. for Cheep Cheep Lagoons and others.
Mario Golf World Tour also has local and online multi-player,as probably expected.I can't say anything in regards to local multiplayer,but I can for online.Online allows you to create online communities of your own rules,similar to Mario Kart 7,although because I have not encountered anyone to play on any group,I'll only talk about the tournaments.Yes,you can indeed play golf tournaments with people all over the world every four weeks or so in-game hosted by Nintendo,and you can win exclusive prices like golf equipment and clothing,with rules like land the ball the closest you can to the hole,or just play normal golfing with the best score you can.It does add replay value to the game for the competitive ones,but I didn't seem myself too interested for most of the time,because it seemed like whenever I came back to the game with tournaments I missed,it would send the prize items automatically to buy in Castle Club,and honestly,that's a bit too generous from Nintendo,but generosity accepted either way.
The game itself is another standard Mario sports game,but a very good one in reality.Mario Golf World Tour has what makes a great Mario and golf game in general,including great gameplay and modes,nice music to listen while playing,good presentation and more.It isn't innovately perfect,but far as Mario sports go on the 3DS outside of Mario Kart,this is probably the best so far.This isn't a must-buy by any means,as the game does have some little missteps here and there,but if you're searching for a game that can occupy your free time with calm and at the same time,challenging,this is something you could consider it on your list.Seems like this one just passed the barrier of average sports games,and it did indeed offer a great match of golf awesomeness.
Mario Golf World Tour is yet another Mario sports game released on the 3DS on the same day as Kirby Triple Deluxe,on 2014,and the next Mario Golf game to come after the long-time released Mario Golf Toadstool Tour on the GCN,so let's start with kicking off from the starting point to see how well this will fare in the end.
There is no real story mode here,but instead,an overworld known as "Castle Club" where you,as your Mii,can customize yourself with clothes and golf gear of all sorts and beat three major tournaments against some other Mario characters to claim the title of the best player in the club.On that same mode,you can take on some challenges to win exclusive rewards,including one new course;practice your skills if you're a beginner,and even sign-up and play on online local and worldwide tournaments.The mode,in it's main campaign,is pretty short on it's own,but with those extra factors,you might find a little bit more of replay value whenever you come back to the game.
Outside of Castle Club,you can play matches free of your own liking alone or with other people.When in single-player you get to play the sport on Stroke Play,where you're alone on the golfing fields to reach the lowest possible stroke count;Match Play is where you play against another character controlled by the game's CPU;Speed Golf has you rushing your way through the course to complete it in the least amount of time,Points Play is essentially where the results of your courses' playthrough are summed up into points,like Par gives you 2 points,and Birdie gives you 3(not with the -/+ thingies in actual golfing),and by last,Challenges.Challenges are,well,the game's challenging tasks for the player to complete,with 100 from all the courses in the game,and they are separated into seven categories:
Star Coin Collector forces you to collect one big Star Coin in the middle of the course before certain number of uses,but in the later missions,it gets extremely brutal where they place those hovering coins in hard-to-reach-and-not-fail spots which I guess only the most skilled ones can get through from my experience and perspective;Ring Master puts two or three giant rings in the course for the player to pass the ball through,and it's pretty hard as well,but not really as much as the later missions of Star Coin Collector;100 Coins is,as you may have predicted,is the needing task of collecting one hundred coins in three holes of the course;Score Attack is more of normal golfing,where you need to get more positive results from Birdies and beyond in often numbers of -3 in nine holes;Character Match basically puts you face to face with a character in nine holes to get the best score;Time Attack is more of the same as the previously mentioned Speed Golf mode,but with actual timer to worry about that can range from 120 to 150 seconds,or essentially,three to three and a half minutes,and lastly;Point Challenge sets the clubs for you to use by random from a slot on one hole(or if you score three stars on it,you get all the distance clubs available) and you have to make the most points out of each hole you pass through.
Completing a certain number of these challenges will start unlocking characters,by the way.Speaking of the characters,I honestly feel this roster,although smaller,offers more recognizable and likable characters than the ones in Mario Kart 8.Personaly,the character roster of Mario Kart 8 is alright(not counting the six DLC characters as of this review),with the Koopalings and familiar faces,but this one has Diddy Kong,Boo and Bowser Jr.,who are more preferred than the likes of Metal Mario,Baby Rosalina and Pink Gold Peach,and I'm pointing that out mainly due to these two games came out in the same month and year.Sure,DLC is now a thing in both series but let's keep things are they are for now.Here,we get to play as Mario,Luigi,Peach,Yoshi,Daisy,Donkey Kong,Bowser,Wario,Waluigi,Boo,Bowser Jr.,Diddy Kong,your Mii,plus some other unlockable and DLC characters,I could not buy the DLC as of the time of this review,consisting of six new courses and four characters(Toadette,Nabbit,Rosalina and Gold Mario,the last one being available after you buy all three DLC packs),but I heard some good things about it,so let's consider it as a plus.
Everyone has their owns way of hitting the ball by a straight face or draw line,which can affect gameplay too,and when you complete one of the Character Matches challenge with certain character you've faced with,you unlock the "Star version" of that character,which basically has higher stats in launching the ball further.
Now,to what really matters here:the gameplay.This is my first Mario Golf game,so I'm taking this on like a newcomer.You could say this is basically golfing with Mario characters,but there's more to that,like any Mario sports game.These twists include familiar Mario courses,item usage when allowed and a few more.First,you get to hit the ball with your golfing club automatically or manually.Automatically lets you just hit the ball's launching cursor once on the distance where you want it to go after adjusting the distance and club you're going for and that's it.In manually,you do that,but you also have to press the A or B button after that process and optionally one of these again do accomplish a Topspin,Super Topspin,Backspin or Super Backspin,essentially moving the ball a few centimeters forwards or backwards.Your overall management in Manual mode will affect your hitting,so you have to be a bit aware when using this mode.Like many golf games,wind,terrain and even the course itself also give influence in your whole go,as well as to which club you're using.It goes solid enough and all fluent surprisingly,but wait,there's also the presence of familiar items here.When in the play,you can use items to make things more like how Mario and friends/enemies would typically play sports on their free time that can shake things up a bit for competition,like use the Mushroom to drive your ball further in the ground or the Bullet Bill to blast your ball kilometers away of your standing,and it all functions well when used correctly.If there is one minor complaint about the gameplay,is that like every 10 seconds the characters have to make a vocal noise that can distract while structuring your play,which can get rather annoying.That aside,the gameplay is great and smooth.
The courses are also well designed and detailed.The first three are structurally basic,with your normal forest,seaside and mountain courses,but things get more fun when you get introduced to holes from Peach's castle garden,the world of Yoshi's Island,the underwater land of Cheep Cheeps and more.The musical scores in each track is also very well-made,especially in the more Mario themed courses.For example,you have a remix of the Peach Gardens track from Mario Kart DS in the golf course of the same name,a remixed track from the underwater levels of the original Super Mario Bros. for Cheep Cheep Lagoons and others.
Mario Golf World Tour also has local and online multi-player,as probably expected.I can't say anything in regards to local multiplayer,but I can for online.Online allows you to create online communities of your own rules,similar to Mario Kart 7,although because I have not encountered anyone to play on any group,I'll only talk about the tournaments.Yes,you can indeed play golf tournaments with people all over the world every four weeks or so in-game hosted by Nintendo,and you can win exclusive prices like golf equipment and clothing,with rules like land the ball the closest you can to the hole,or just play normal golfing with the best score you can.It does add replay value to the game for the competitive ones,but I didn't seem myself too interested for most of the time,because it seemed like whenever I came back to the game with tournaments I missed,it would send the prize items automatically to buy in Castle Club,and honestly,that's a bit too generous from Nintendo,but generosity accepted either way.
The game itself is another standard Mario sports game,but a very good one in reality.Mario Golf World Tour has what makes a great Mario and golf game in general,including great gameplay and modes,nice music to listen while playing,good presentation and more.It isn't innovately perfect,but far as Mario sports go on the 3DS outside of Mario Kart,this is probably the best so far.This isn't a must-buy by any means,as the game does have some little missteps here and there,but if you're searching for a game that can occupy your free time with calm and at the same time,challenging,this is something you could consider it on your list.Seems like this one just passed the barrier of average sports games,and it did indeed offer a great match of golf awesomeness.
Rating:
A great Eagle!
A great Eagle!
