Great: - Graphics - Amount of characters and courses - Diverse single-player mode - Fully integrated Internet play - Easy to play but hard to master Can be improved on: - Music - Some designs - Presence of paid content
Last year, I wrote an Anticipation entry for a game that was supposed to come out about two months hence, but ended up being delayed for about eight more. I got it the first week it came out, having been in Baguio the day it did and thus couldn’t be there on launch day. Almost two months on, with most (but not all) features unlocked and more promising to come, I believe I have enough game playing experience on my hands to make my review for Mario Golf: World Tour, the latest Mario sports title to hit the Nintendo 3DS and the first Mario Golf game in ten years.
Mario Golf: World Tour is a cool and casual game, its gameplay styles allowing you to spend flexible amounts of time taking it up on the links. Whether you can play leisurely for hours sprawled on a hammock facing the beach, or you’re allowed only a precious few moments traveling to work on a busy subway, MGWT has something for you.
I never expected when I inserted this game into my 3DS that it would take days for me to pull it out, forcing myself – yes, forcing myself! – to play Pokémon X, which even at this point in time I have not even finished yet (I’m still near the start in Pokémon Y). Even right before the game’s release, when so much information had already made it onto reliable resources, I knew it was going to be a great one. Especially since many of my predictions from last year’s Anticipation post were actually fulfilled. Now, I cannot deny that MGWT is my favorite video game of all time, more than even my beloved Pokémon games.
Let me discuss the game using the points I originally made for the Anticipation review. I will briefly reiterate my hopes expressed last year, and how they were played up to (or not) with the actual release. To facilitate smoother discussion, I will not discuss the points in the same order as before.
1. Gameplay Modes
Anticipation: Strokes, Tournament, Match Play, and Training were confirmed to return. I predicted that Speed Golf and Ring Shot modes, given their ubiquity in past Mario Golf games, would return, but wasn’t that optimistic about Mini-Golf. I was very open here, but still had expectations.
Review: My expectations were both surpassed and disappointed. The latter is for one reason, and one reason alone: there was no pass-and-play multiplayer mode. But I guess it’s to be expected; given the massive investment of Nintendo into multiplayer gameplay nowadays (probably as a way of gently urging more people to avail of its products and services – I heard Nintendo is facing a challenge financially right now), it would expect people to play using their own consoles.
What was fabulous about this, though, was that in golf games, players didn’t need to wait for their opponents to swing before they could move on to the next stroke – they could finish the hole and just wait for their friends to finish. It’s cool, but given that I have no others to play the game with, I am now left hoping I can see this for myself.
Many familiar modes indeed returned – Stroke, Match Play, Ring Shot, Speed Golf, Club Slots, and Training. However, I was disappointed with the last one, because one is limited to several practice courses (that are, in fairness, challenging, as you are invited, but not required, to play on them with increasingly difficult levels). There is no driving range or option to practice on any hole with the ability to manipulate the weather and wind. I would have wanted to see this here, as I play it for fun and, indeed, for practice.
Ring shot, however, is no longer given its own mode, but is instead part of the Challenges mode, which grants you Star (and eventually Moon) Coins for passing them successfully, leading to the unlocking of other courses and characters (see below). Other Challenges include coin collection (a throwback to New Super Mario Bros. 2, which popularized the concepts of coins, coins, and coins), target scores in x holes, target scores in 3 holes with Club Slots twists, and the official Match Play against computer characters allowing you to unlock their “upgraded” versions, called Star Characters. Some of the Challenges are easily doable in one round, while others make you simply want to throw your 3DS out of the window.
The most surprising addition was the Castle Club mode, a pseudo-RPG offering that’s on par with the Mario Golf Color and Mario Golf: Advance Tour gameplay modes – so it’s like two gameplay modes in one game! The Castle Club is run by, as usual, Peach, and you start off as a novice, playing with your Mii (more on this later) and eventually gaining power-ups in the form of golf gear. Ten of the game’s whopping sixteen courses can be played here.
Furthermore, the Castle Club mode grants access to many of the game’s eponymous “world tour” tournaments: real-time regional and global tournaments with varying rules set by Nintendo. You actually compete against other players from around the world and, at the end of the game, you get to upload your “ghost data” so that opponents can see your ball travel while they’re playing. There are even closing ceremonies organized by Toads, and you get huge monetary rewards and trophies from playing. It’s fun, too, as sometimes you get rare items otherwise unobtainable, such as special Callaway gear from Callaway tournaments jointly organized by Nintendo and Callaway. You can even create your own tournaments and invite the public or a select group of friends to play!
I both like and hate how 64’s save-and-quit function enabling you to continue off in the middle of a golf course was removed. Removing it means there is no choice but to finish the last hole in a single sitting, meaning you will have to rely on 3DS sleep mode if you want to take a break – as the only other option besides quitting is to “start over” from the first hole. But it’s also a good thing as it provides a challenge and a nice dilemma to ponder over. Supposing, after fifteen holes yielding great scores, you suddenly hit your ball out-of-bounds on Hole 16 and, in the process, garner a Triple Bogey. To go on (and risk uploading a horrible score online) or to start all over? I literally threw my 3DS down on my lap after several such instances.
Gameplay Additions
One of the biggest changes to golfing in World Tour is the optional addition of items, which serve as power-ups in your shots or aids to your ball. Some of them are a bit too gimmicky to my liking, such as the Ice Flower, but others are truly helpful, like Bullet Bill. Unlike Power Shots, which are recycled if you hit the ball perfectly, items are not recycled. However, if items are activated for a game, they are scattered in abundance across the holes, and you are given a starting batch of them.
Coin collecting is also an option per game, in a throwback to New Super Mario Bros. 2. In fact, one character’s signature ability is coin collection (see below).
2. Graphics and Layout
Anticipation: Pre-release pictures were already making things a little awry for me. At the time, I felt that Mario Golf 64 still had the best graphics despite rather blockish appearances for its characters, and was disappointed that Boo was no longer the wind indicator, among others. The game was depicted in a very childlike, cartoonish manner, which is okay for games like Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario World 2, but not for realistic sports games.
Review: After giving the game a few hours, I regretted my harsh judgment on the graphics. They are in fact astonishingly sophisticated, taking full advantage of what the 3DS offers – the initial pictures did not do it justice.
They were smooth and sharp, and the designers obviously had an eye for detail. The essence of Mario games was captured here, with Wii U-level graphics performing successful transitions to the 3DS’s screens. The 3D effects of the 3DS (XL) added to the majesty of the design; being able to be turned on at any point in the game, the 3D effects made me feel as if I was stepping into the Mushroom World; I felt bad that it wasn’t real. :p
The layout of things is also efficient yet effective – simplicity is achieved without sacrificing game functionality. Take the Touch Screen menu – it gives you everything you need, but does not threaten to swallow up your handheld. Never did I feel overwhelmed while playing due to the design and layout – only because there were so many things to do!
What I previously thought a tragic regression of the wind indicator actually was one of the best: although direction is now represented by an arrow, which is indeed a downgrade, the cloud’s facial expression is actually very interactive, as it symbolizes how strong the wind is blowing. Without any breeze, it is smiling; as the wind speed grows, so does the intensity of its blowing expression. Even the flags blow in proportion to the wind speed, so it’s another plus point for realistic gameplay. But what I didn’t like were the flag designs – they were so simple and not as well-thought of, without even hole numbers on them. The ones from 64 were still much better, as they were more detailed and had the hole numbers on them, and still didn’t look overdone.
3. Courses
Anticipation: Camelot promised a mixture of realistic golf courses and Mushroom World-themed ones. I was expectant here, especially with the new Seaside Course, as my 64 favorite was Yoshi’s Island, the tropical island course. Pursuing the wishful thinking of a fan who posted their pre-release sentiments, I, too, began to hope that there can be a “retro” set of courses in World Tour, just as the Retro Grand Prix does for Mario Kart games.
Review: I must be a seer. Seeriously. Not only did the new courses inspire me, but I indeed got my wish and was granted “retro” courses! But if it sounds too good to be true, it is, in a way – more on that later.
Mario Golf: World Tour alone introduces ten new courses. Ten courses is not something to laugh about, as this means ten different courses each with their own quirks. And quirks I got indeed. They are so well-designed, looking back, when taking them interdependently rather than independently. They complement each other in the sense that this game is indeed a true sports game: it just keeps getting more and more challenging, and thus better and better.
You start off on Forest Course, which despite the oh-so-Mushroom-Kingdom multi-colored hills in the distance is actually apparently one of the “real-life”-like courses. It is actually similar to Toad Highlands from 64, as they have similar backdrops and the same subtly increasing hazards – its Hole 1 even has a tree in the heart of the fairway, too!
Things get a little more interesting in the Seaside Course. Given that it’s a beach, water hazards are bound to be plenty, but generally out of reach. The bunkers are what have appeared tenfold compared to the previous course; and Fast Fairways make a return. A small miscalculation of the ball swing landing on a Fast Fairway can actually spell disaster if it brings your ball to a bunker, as it had done for me several times already.
The Mountain Course is the third and most difficult of the regular courses. It’s the one set in the desert seen in pre-release photos, and is difficult due to the large number of obstacles on and beside the fairways, such as large cacti and natural hazards characteristic of mountains and deserts: unforgiving slopes and cliffs, rock arches, and the like. It also begins and ends with par 5s, thus spelling a message to the everyday golfer that life in the mountains is not the idyllic existence that one dreams about. Navigating your way around obstacles and adding or removing strength from strokes to compensate for uphill or downhill shots are the norm here, and I was grateful for it, as it added challenge to the course.
What made things even more challenging – and exciting – was that each hole now has not one, nor two, but three tees: the regular “front” tee, the more professional “back” tee, and the tournament tee. A strategy excellently applied to the front tee can be disastrous if applied from the tournament tee, so it really takes practice to get used to all three tees. In fact, the game’s built-in records system has separate entries for each tee, and the Birdie/Eagle/Albatross/Hole-in-One Badges granted are also applied per tee.
There are seven other courses that can be played in both Castle Club and Mario Golf (the standard gameplay mode) Modes. One, Sky Island, is an 18-hole par-3 course, notorious for the One-Shot One-Putt Challenge, wherein failure to land the ball on the green (fringe/green edge not included) on the first shot, or to sink it on the second, automatically costs you the game. The other six are the Mario-themed courses, but are all, disappointingly, only 9-hole courses. I would have wanted at least half of them to be 18-hole courses, but we already get ten courses, so I will shut up. Recurring motifs make their way here again, like Peach’s and Bowser’s castles and DK Jungle; there’s even a Yoshi’s Woolly World-themed course, Yoshi Lake; and an underwater course, Cheep Cheep Lagoon, where gameplay seems to be as if it’s constantly raining, further adding a challenge to golfing skills. Wiggler Park, the other new course, can be confusing due to the sheer amount of flora and fauna around, and that for me is the challenge that course provides.
But what truly set my heart on fire for this game were the “retro” courses. Not one or two, but all six courses from Mario Golf 64 returned for this game! Granted, they were all given design overhauls, which gave them a refreshing new look that made me fall in love with them all over again. Even their Stroke play music from the original games came back, remixed!
Toad Highlands, for instance, came back with Toad-shaped hedges and Toad houses. Koopa Park now has Koopa Troopa balloons and statues, and takes place in a perpetual sunset (more on this in a bit).
Shy Guy Desert is where things get interesting. It is the first of three courses to be completely remade aesthetically, using the designs of one of three New Super Mario Bros. U worlds, which are all based on confectionery themes. Shy Guy Desert became the Layer-Cake Desert, complete with cakes in place of pyramids. Yoshi’s Island became Sparkling Waters and became beautifully tropical-themed, but in my opinion I would have wanted the fruits from the original to come back. The Urchins do add charm to the course, though, and it looks sunnier than the original.
(Source: Super Mario Wiki [Layer-Cake Desert] [Shy Guy Desert])
(Source: Super Mario Wiki [Sparkling Waters] [Yoshi’s Island])
Boo Valley takes on the Rock Candy Mines, while Mario Star undergoes the most drastic change of all: Not only does it become Super Mario Galaxy-inspired, being set in space among others, but the layout of the holes have also been changed slightly. For example, the original Hole 1, representing Yoshi, has essentially a side profile of him, while the remake has him still on his side, but with an updated pose that makes playing through the course a bit more of a challenge. Mario’s Star is also the only 64 course among the six with a different background music.
(Source: Super Mario Wiki [Rock Candy Mines] [Boo Valley])
(Source: IGN [MGWT] and Super Mario Wiki [MG64])
The only BIG problem and disappointment with the six Mario Golf 64 courses is that they have to be BOUGHT. That’s right – they’re essentially paid in-app purchases. And since I live in the Philippines and use a US-based 3DS, where the Philippines is not in its list of countries, I had no choice but to use the credit card of my aunt, who lives in the States. Adding insult to injury.
The six courses, collectively termed Downloadable Content (DLC), are divided into three pairs, depicted as described above. You can either buy the pairs individually (they came out on separate times – early May, late May, and mid-June) – respectively, the Mushroom, Flower, and Star Passes; or buy all of them at once using the Season Pass, which then just updated itself as new content came out.
Aesthetically, during game play I was disappointed at the fact that unlike 64, there is no more sunset that begins at the 13th hole; instead the time of day remains the same since Hole 1. In addition to this, Koopa Park is shrouded in perpetual sunset, while Sky Island is bathed in moonlight.
The weather is also somewhat erratic. In 64, it rained in about one-third of the holes, except for the understandably hot and dry Shy Guy Desert. In whatever course in World Tour, the rain is limited to about just three holes, usually consecutively. While it’s more realistic (because rain doesn’t usually just go on and off in reality), it slightly lessened the challenge factor.
4. Music
Anticipation: Since the days of Mario Golf 64, my musical expectation for World Tour et al has been very high. Motoi Sakuraba did a great job as the music seemed to reflect the ambience rather than the characters themselves; my favorites in particular were the Stroke (default) music for Yoshi’s Island, Koopa Park, Toad Highlands, and Shy Guy Desert.
Review: Sadly, we can’t always get what we want, and this is true even for World Tour, in spite of my lavish praises for it. Only some of the musical tracks – namely the Castle Club overview themes, Sky Island, the main menu theme, and a tournament theme – were even just memorable (as opposed to being music tracks that I like, let alone love). Furthermore, unlike in 64, there is no more separate theme that plays while the camera is previewing each hole; it goes right to the course’s (or tournament’s) theme, the same way a Dormie or 18th hole immediately plays its signature theme. Oh, and did I mention that there is no longer a unique theme for the aforementioned in World Tour?
The most redeeming factor for the music was the fact that five of the six Mario Golf 64 courses’ themes were rearranged for World Tour, making them better suited to the 3DS’s speakers and era (long live Motoi Sakuraba). Layer-Cake Desert’s and Sparkling Waters’ themes were given a more prominent background beat, however, which is something that sort of shattered the mood of the latter, but worked nicely for the former. Mario’s Star, however, employs a completely new theme – instead of being the original Super Mario Bros. theme, it has a different melody that I cannot place. Since I never played Super Mario Galaxy or its sequel, owing to the fact that we never had a GameCube (or even a Wii or Wii U) at home, I can only make an educated guess that the theme is from either of those games, since Mario’s Star was given a Galaxy-themed overhaul.
5. Characters
Anticipation: Owing to the large amount of characters in just the Mario Golf series, my hopes here were high. At the time, only Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Wario, Waluigi, DK, and Bowser were confirmed, and I expected, ideally, just Yoshi and Mii to be other playable characters, giving myself to a “surprise me” mood for the rest. That isn’t to say I didn’t have hopes: the one character I wanted most to appear was Rosalina, given my crush on her; I also expected Koopa (returning from Toadstool Tour), Boo, Baby Mario (returning from 64), and even Lakitu, Shy Guy, Honey Queen, and some of Bowser’s Koopalings, as well as Luma. I didn’t expect any other human characters as previous ones appeared only once, in the game they were débuted in.
Review: It’s amazing! True to my predictions, Mii became playable, and in fact serves as the only playable character in Castle Club. His voice isn’t the annoying false squeaks in Mario Kart 7, but a much more natural-sounding voice that I learned was a staple in Mario sports games for the Wii. You can even dress up and equip your Mii with hundreds (literally) of different gear ranging from shoes to clubs and everything in between, with various effects such as increased drive, or very increased drive at the expense of a few control points. Said gear is unlocked gradually as you play through the games, so it’s a play-and-learn type of experience where you slowly get to buy and use more powerful items. Most of them must be purchased, while others are won from special tournaments. In particular, I appreciate the partnership between Callaway and the game, as Callaway products are among the items that your Mii can wear.
Rosalina, the Mushroom World lady of my dreams, is indeed a playable character here, and she’s second-best in terms of driving distance, bested only by Bowser, but even then by just a few yards. Furthermore, she has the highest ball height of any character. But it’s a little hilarious how she floats on, never touching, the ground, and never holds her clubs with her hands, but flicks her wand to swing them. A bit elitist for me, but it adds to her charm. Or I’m just biased. :p Unfortunately, Rosalina cannot be merely unlocked; she is the character that comes with the DLC’s Star Pack.
I was very glad too to see that Boo, Koopa (albeit his winged counterpart, Paratroopa), and Toad also made it as playable characters. Only Boo is available from the beginning; the latter two must be unlocked with achievements. Sadly, I would have wanted a baby or two to be available, too, but this was not to be granted. No biggie.
There were other pleasant surprises, too, though: Gold Mario makes his début appearance as such (it was possible to get a “Gold” Mario in 64, but he was merely an alternate coloration of Metal Mario). His signature ability is that per yard traveled by the ball, 1 coin is earned; but he cannot use items. Diddy Kong, the star of Diddy Kong Racing et al, is also a playable character again, as are Kamek and Birdo, who are unlocked with achievements. Even Toadette appears as a DLC Mushroom Pack character; she has the weakest drive of all, but consequentially the best control and sweet spot.
This brings the total character count to 21. Not bad for a handheld, which usually has less characters than home console-based games.
As mentioned above, each character at the start may seem weak; Bowser, who has the longest drive, does so only at 220 yards. However, they have more powerful, unlockable stats called Star Characters, which boost their drives at the expense of sweet spot and control points. Bowser’s previously horrible drive becomes a scary 290 yards, the highest of them all. Toadette, Nabbit (the DLC Flower Pack character), Rosalina, and Gold Mario all no longer need to be challenged to unlock their Star stats, as they are available from the moment of download – as are the four unlockable characters, Toad, Koopa Paratroopa, Kamek, and Birdo.
Verdict
If there is one Mario sports game you should get, it is Mario Golf: World Tour. It is so jam-packed with courses, characters, unlockables, and features that you will be kept busy playing it more than any other game I can think of – even the Pokémon main series RPGs. The level of engagement is also sky-high, as the courses are well-spaced in terms of increasing difficulty; the twists added by the Mushroom Kingdom courses make it even more exciting, while the DLC courses from Mario Golf 64 are as always obstacles to clear, especially Sparkling Waters, Rock-Candy Mines, and Mario’s Star.
The game is fully integrated for Internet playing, what with the copious amounts of tournaments available, official and unofficial, and the innovative multiplayer advancements. With the amount of settings per game – what tee to use, whether or not to use items and/or coins, wind speed – and the amount of courses and characters, no two games will surely be the same; each will be utterly unique.
The music could have been more memorable overall, and some designs could have been more sophisticated, such as the flags of each course. However, the graphic designs of the game itself are stunning, and courses are so beautifully and realistically rendered that you are inspired to play all the more.
As what Nintendo hopes to instill in all of us gamers-at-heart.
Aloy Chua 