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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nintendo's excellent series continues, December 31, 2003
The original Nintendo "Golf" for the NES was one of the first golf games that I actually found interesting, and NES Open and Mario Golf 64 remain two of my all-time favorite games, so Toadstool Tour has a lot to live up to.Unfortunately, it has a couple of flaws (unlike Mario Golf 64), but not enough to detract from the absolutely unlimited play value. First the bad. If you are trying to aim and there's a tree or another obstacle in front of you, it won't let you see where the ball would land were the obstacle not there. You have to mess around endlessly to put the aiming grid where you want it. Also, the top view is much harder to aim with than it was in Golf 64. The aiming on the green is not bad using the C-stick but it's *very* sensitive so it takes some getting used to. Also, when you putt, sometimes the camera lingers on your player instead of showing you the ball... you have to rely on the sound to know if you made the shot or not. Everything else improves on Mario Golf 64, with (eventually) six courses of amazing hilly terrain and water effects, new "fast fairways" (that you don't always want to land on) and easy-to-implement backspin and topspin. (I love how the spinning ball burns a streak in the fairway). The ring shot, speed golf and club slots are back, along with a par-3 contest and a slew of excellent mini-games. The play is very goal-oriented, and outside the tournaments, the other players "invite" you to play them one by one... when you beat them, you increase their maximum drive - a nice touch. You can earn more characters by defeating the mini-games and collecting birdie badges as in the N64 version. The new characters, including Boo, Petey Pirahna, Baby Bowser and Birdo, are welcome, and they all have great animations, including one that's a little shocking but funny... Petey Pirahna vomits a huge puddle on the green when he gets a bogey. This version also has much more room to save your best shots (like holes-in-one), and you can "lock" your favorite ones so they don't get automatically erased as they do in Golf 64. One thing I wish the newer games would take from NES Open is the cash collection mode. In NES Open, you won cash for placing in tournaments and for winning long drive contests, etc., which you could deposit and save in a bank. It was fun seeing how much you could get. You could also name all 40 of the other players in the tournament. I used to play tourneys with all my favorite video game characters. But in itself, this is an outstanding game.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nintendo Still Knows How to Have Fun, July 30, 2003
It's been a while since I've played a video game that's this downright fun, something which is all to often overlooked in modern games. I'm by no means an avid golfer (I play Chip n' Putt about twice a year), and frankly that doesn't matter. The instructions give a great introduction to the game of golf for the uninitiated, and there are a ton of tutorial modes within the game for hands-on learners; even without the manual, you can be shooting par on the easy courses in half an hour.
There are a whole bunch of great modes to play in "Toadstool Tour" - aside from the standard Tournament, Stroke Play, and One-on-one modes (all of which reward your efforts with new extras and other goodies), there are quite a few fun extras, like a mode where you shoot through rings, a time attack mode, doubles (doubles? in golf?), and a few others. Best of all, almost every mode in the game can be played with up to four people with a single controller! The different modes and extras (including 16 playable characters, each with a "Star", or improved version, and unlockable courses) should keep you playing for a long time on their own, the game has a very satisfying feel which will give you that "one more hole" feeling for hours on end, and the multiplayer experience is top-notch and varied.
This game shines technically, too. The graphics, while they may look simplistic or flat in screenshots, do not do the game justice. It's a very clean looking game with a great variety of colors and locales, and while the courses have a very realistic look and feel (the water, in particular, is great), they blend surprisingly well with all of your favorite Nintendo characters, who retain their cartoony proportions. There are also some great little 'special effects' touches, such as the fire effect produced by a ball rolling with spin, and some really good camera angles and course fly-bys. Sound effects and little mini-voiceovers are all here and sounding great, but the music is just standard background fare except when there's a tense moment, where old-schoolers will recognize some themes from the original Super Mario Brothers.
Overall, this game is wonderfully polished, and, more importantly, an absolute blast to play. It'll keep you entertained for a very, very long time. I strongly recommend that anyone with access to a Gamecube give this a try. Regardless of your views on golf, you're sure to have a good time!
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect for relaxing with friends, September 17, 2003
Mario Golf provides a nice break from the frenetic, white-knuckled stress of many multiplayer video games. Yet, despite its slow pace and lack of explosions or gunfire, it's far from boring. My roommate and I have logged many, many hours playing golf (not to mention an unbelievable amount of time already invested in the Nintendo 64 version) and Mario Golf simply doesn't get old.Nintendo has improved on the sort of basic golf simulation video game by using not just its proprietary characters, which are entertaining, but by using some creativity in course design. The courses are varied enough to keep the game fresh, and the graphics are nothing short of remarkable. The character art looks great, but the truth is in the details: the trees in the background, and even the grass on the course, look fantastic. Most of all, though, the game is FUN. The addition of an "automatic" two-tap system means that even your non-gaming buddies can pick up a controller and play along immediately. And the reviewer who complained that he beat the game in four hours obviously didn't spend hours playing the many side and bonus games which allow you to unlock additional characters and to improve the ones that are initially available. Finally, the game promises some exciting connectivity with the Game Boy Advance, which is great news for those who own both systems.
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