Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

"Most Fun Golf Game Ever!"

Sound: 10/10

The game has great sound, but I would have wished it had a sound track for you to pick from. This would have been a really cool un-lockable feature. Either way the sound this game does have is pretty good, for a golf game at least. The sound matched the difficulty level of the course to a tea, pun intended. When I say sound I mean music in the background, of course. But as for the voices of all the characters, they were great as well. They gave some cool taunting sayings to different people. And even for some who cannot talk. These kind of characters just grunted or made gorilla noises (''Donkey Kong'', ''Diddy Kong'', etc.). The environmental sounds, like hitting a tree with your ball, or the sound of hitting a ball out of a bunker, are just as they should sound. I would say that this game did an excellent job of the sound as a whole. I give this area of rating the game a perfect score, and for good reasons.

Graphics: 9/10

This games graphics are just about as good as it gets. I have not seen a regular ''Mario'' game with this kind of graphic quality. The characters make their own style of swings when they hit the ball, they make their own noises or grunts, and their own taunts. Each character has his or her own cheers and boos and disappointed stances. The courses have realistic looking trees and grass and sand pits. Everything looks like it would in the ''Mario'' universe. Mushrooms look like mushrooms from the old games and people look like they should, sound like they should, and even move like they should. I was very impressed with the way this game was able to display many different things all at once on a course and have them all look real and move in the wind. Even animals like birds can be seen in the sky or perched on a branch or something else on the course. Too bad you cannot smack them with the golf ball though. This game has high graphics and impressed me greatly.

Replay Ability: 9/10

This game has one of the highest replay ability of any game I have experienced. This is due to the fact that the game can be beaten fairly fast, but also due to the fact that it has plenty of new and more challenging modes to try. You will have almost as much fun playing this game alone as you will with friends. That is saying something big, because most games are either more fun alone or more fun with a friend. Not many games have been at the stage where being alone is nearly as fun as with a friend, but this game manages to reach that very difficult standard. I found my self playing for hours on end and not noticing the hours rolling by me. With a friend it makes the game even more fun, because you can taunt each other with either the characters sounds or your own. You can also try to beat the computer together, or compete against each other, either way you play each other, it will always be fun with a friend around. The only reason I did not give this game a perfect in this category of rating as well as sound, is because you will eventually get bored and want to move on to another game. No game in history of video games has gotten a perfect score in this area because, eventually you will move on to another game, and a perfect score in this area means you never move on.

Fun Factor: 8/10

This game has a high fun factor. It can be fun to play alone and with a friend, as I mentioned above. Each hole and different challenge can be fun in its own way. The fact that the game has so many different ways to play it makes this category go up a lot. This game is the best and most fun golf game I have ever played, and I have played some good ones on the PC. I love all the courses and characters and challenges. They are all very fun, and together make an awesome gaming experience. I docked this area two points because some challenges, like the birdie challenge, can get a little too hard. And because you really want that secret character, you keep trying and trying, and you drive yourself nuts trying to finish it. I nearly broke my hand on the wall getting mad when the ball would miss the hole on like the sixteenth hole, on the birdie challenge. So this game can get you a little too irritable at times, and that is my only reason to dock this game the points that I docked for. Other than that factor this game has a high fun factor.

Difficulty: 9/10

The difficulty in this game is well spread out in range but can tend to be a little heaver on the difficulty side. Some people think this is good, and most of the time I agree with them. But in this game the difficulty can get a little too hard. One example of just how very hard this game can get is mentioned in the fun factor category, for the reason I docked it some points. It is also the reason, for being, at times, a little too hard, why I docked this game the one point in this category. There are courses and challenges in the game that would be fun to play for anyone but just a bit too plain in style. But the courses that have more stuff to run into are the ones that get harder and harder. These, as it happens, are also the ones that look cool and are fun to play. These courses are fun and not too hard to play and therefore the main courses of the game are well spread in difficulty. The hardest modes to play this game in are the side challenges, as I like to call them. The ''ring attack'', and ''birdie challenge'' are among the hardest to complete. The others are mostly for either fun or practice. I managed, with a little help online, to complete the ''ring attack'' and two of the three ''birdie challenge's but not all of them. The birdie challenge is a little too hard for my taste, but you may disagree. I cannot see anyone completing the Eighteen hole birdie challenge without countless attempt's.

Learning Curve: 10/10

Now you may be saying ''learning curve'', isn't that the same as difficulty. My answer is no. Learning curve to me means how long it takes you to learn how to play the game, not how good you are at it, or how long it takes you to get good. This game takes no time at all to know how to play. The only requirement that this game takes to get to know its control configuration is that you are playing it on a TV screen and not a portable mini screen. I found this game too hard to play like that, or at least for your first time. There are only a few hard controls to learn and all that takes to master is a quick hand. If you don't have a quick hand you can just use the ''auto'' stroke button. Because of options like the ''auto'' stroke ability, this game is easy to learn. You can also progress yourself into the harder moves, by starting with the ''auto stroke'' ability, and then once you have mastered that, move onto the harder ''manual'' strokes. It also takes a ''pro'' at this game to realize when using the ''auto'' ability is a better idea then risking it using ''manual'' stroke. So even masters of the game still use ''auto'' stroke. So don't feel bad about starting out using the ''auto'' stroke ability, we all start out that way. And I imagine that if you have played the previous ''Mario Golf'' game you will already know most of the control basics, or maybe not considering that the previous game was not on the ''Gamecube''. Anyway you will be on your way to mastering the game in no time at all. Hell this game even has a long tutorial section that you can go to for your learning pleasure.

Story: Non-Applicable

Oh come on what golf game has a story. It does not surprise me at all that this game has no story behind it. Having one might have hindered that games like-ability. To me adding a story would have been pointless. So that is why I am not calculating story into this games final score.

Sound: 10/10
Graphics: 9/10
Replay Ability: 9/10
Fun Factor: 8/10
Difficulty: 9/10
Learning Curve: 10/10
Overall: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/05