Mario Golf: Advance Tour

"Golf. And it's not boring."

When you think of golf, you think old white men, presidents, and Tiger Woods. Exciting, no? Mario Golf: Advance Tour continues the Mario Golf series. It's an incredibly immersive game which deals with real golf and just throws in Mario and his posse in there.

Design and layout seems incredibly similar to the last Mario Golf game for the GameBoy Color. Graphically, there was a whole new facelift.

Camelot developed this game. You may remember Camelot as the makers of Golden Sun. Well, apparently, they didn't bother to make new graphics. They simply used the same kind of sprites and graphics found in Golden Sun. Same character design, same "world map" design, even the same dialogue boxes. Not that there's anything wrong with that, though. The game looks beautiful. It's very colorful and vivid, like most Mario games. I especially liked the amazing 3D drawings of the characters, which you can see on the title screen and the credits.

As for the audio in the game, well, it's not all too great. The music is nice but you'll find you'll rarely pay attention to it. The music sounds kind of Golden Sun-ish, which doesn't really suit a golf game well. The sound effects are pretty good. The whoosh when you swing a club, the voices that come in once in a while saying "Birdie putt!" or "Nice shot!". Overall, the sound really doesn't stand out much.

Now for the gameplay. The main game follows the story. You name your character and develop his or her skills to be the best of the best in the golfing world. Eventually, you'll play Mario and Yoshi and Donkey Kong and that whole bunch. You will level up when you earn experience from tournaments you participate in. You can also gain experience from various side-quests and mini-games throughout the courses. There is also a "doubles" mode where you and your partner play as one team in the tournament. You take one shot, your partner (a computer) takes the next, and you alternate until the ball is in the cup. This can be frustrating because the computer can sometimes just be horrible. But you can level up your partner as well.

You will walk around in a small world and tackle some golf courses. There are plenty of mini-games and practice levels to keep you busy as you become the greatest golfer ever. The mini-games put a special twist on regular golf, for example using only one club throughout the course, or having to pass "checkpoints" as you advance the ball toward the cup. The in-game tutorials are great and extremely helpful. You'll level up and raise such stats as yardage, control, and spin. You can get new clubs with special effects, whether it be raising your control or distance, putting special spin on the ball or hitting a low-flying, straight shot.

Aside from the story mode, you'll be able to play quick games and multiplayer games using a link or a "hot seat" multiplayer game. There is a reference section to help you learn the basics of golf.

The actual golfing part is great. The main thing is timing of the button presses. Also, you'll have to calculate in how the ball will roll and bounce off the terrain, as well as the wind direction and speed. You can put backspin or topspin on the ball to hinder or help its way across the terrain. You can use different clubs to affect the height, distance, trajectory, and curve of the ball path. The golf courses are pretty much regular. There's nothing much special about them, until you are able to access the final courses. Those finals ones will have some special elements only a Mario Golf game can provide, such as moving platforms, special "play panels", and bomb-ombs and whomps littering the field. This game follows all the rules of real golf.

Great game. Mario Golf: Advance Tour. Unless you really really hate golf, the game is worth it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/01/04