Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

There's less than a week to go! GamePro gives Mario's latest a quick spin.

With only a few short days separating the new Mario Golf from the store shelves, it seems high time for a quick examination of the game's features before the full review goes up next Monday.

Despite initial impressions, Toadstool Tour is remarkably similar to its predecessor, perennial N64 classic Mario Golf. All of the playing modes from the original?Tournament, Character Match, Ring Attack, Club Slots and so forth?are in the sequel, too, although most can be played with more than one human being at once this time. New modes include:

  • Doubles, which lets two players alternate turns hitting the same ball around a course?a sort of cross between cooperative and competitive play that's surprisingly addictive if you treat it seriously.

  • Coin Attack?kind of like Ring Attack, except instead of shooting the ball through giant rings, you're trying to "collect" coins floating in the sky by hitting the ball in their vicinity. This mode can be played for "Quick Cash" (the hole automatically ends once you hit two shots below that hole's par) or in the "Cash Cup" variation (you must make par on the hole to keep going).

Putter golf still exists, but has been relegated to the "Side Games" collection. Also, while you can still challenge characters, the importance of this mode has been reduced slightly because so many Nintendo superstars (12 at the start) are available for use right off the bat?a great improvement over the tiny selection available at the beginning of the N64 game.

As for gameplay itself... well, Nintendo obviously knows better than to mess around with what works. A little bit of refinement has been applied to the shot system, as you now have the option to hit an "Automatic" or "Manual" shot. Manual shots are what you're used to by now: press A to start the stroke, B at the top of your upswing, and A or B to actually hit the ball. After contact, you can also press A or B again to apply spin to the ball, though each character has his or her own way of doing this. Automatic, on the other hand, requires only two presses of the A button?once to start, and once at the top of the upswing. Actual contact is handled automatically, and (usually) this results in a nice, straight shot, although you can't apply spin or do anything fancy with Automatic swings.

The net result of all this is that while the playable Mario Golf is more evolution than revolution for the series, early indications seem to show this as yet another fine addition to the GameCube's multiplayer library. (And let's face it?if you're a staunch GameCube owner, you pretty much need at least one multiplayer game on your shelf.)

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour ships to stores on July 28; expect the full online review early next week.

Comments [1]

post a comment

  • First
    • Jump To Page:
    • [ 1 ]
  • Last
  • First
    • Jump To Page:
    • [ 1 ]
  • Last

Post a Comment