Mario Golf: World Tour (Video Game Review)

Mario Golf: World Tour is the newest Mario-themed sports title made available for Nintendo 3DS. The game features a cast of characters from the entire Mario series and plenty of colorful environments and items inspired by the world of the Mushroom Kingdom. Fans will be happy to know the game is up to the same high quality standards of many other Nintendo exclusives, and Mario Golf: World Tour is another great sports spinoff title for the Mario series. You don't need to be a golf fan to enjoy Mario Golf: World Tour, you just need to be a gamer that enjoys playing fun games with plenty of tongue in cheek humor.

Mario Golf: World Tour doesn't feature much of a storyline for the series. The cast of characters that includes everyone from Mario to Bowser show up for a new golf tournament, and there are multiple tournaments to enter, each with different prizes and more difficult competition. Players will first want to head over to Toad's tutorials to learn how to play the game though. Mario Golf: World Tour does an excellent job of teaching players all of the controls for the game in the tutorial section, and players can then practice stages before a match begins to learn even more about the course and game before scores actually begin counting for something. It's a nice pacing that allows players to get better at the game instead of being thrown to the wolves right from the moment the game is booted up.

Mario Golf: World Tour may not be mistaken for a golf simulator game, but fans will notice the game does plenty of things right by the sport. Other arcade golf titles may only include an ability to switch golf clubs and swing, but Mario Golf: World Tour also includes controls for adding slice, backspin and more to the ball to help make it closer to other realistic golf games. Players also need to manage things such as wind speeds and some pretty crazy hazards in order to land a good shot. Players can also nab powerups to drag down the competition or make their own shots even better. It's an addictive system that rewards players for practicing and constantly attempting to get better at the game.

There are three different collections of courses featured in Mario Golf: World Tour. The worlds will take players to the forest, beach and mountains for 18 holes of golf with each new course adding more difficult hazards and other problems to compete against. While none of the courses are too difficult to complete, players will unlock special challenge levels after completing stages and performing well in the game, and these offer far more difficult objectives beyond aiming for the lowest score possible.

There are a lot of unlockables included in Mario Golf: World Tour beyond unlocking challenge stages. The more holes that are completed will allow players to unlock additional items from the in-game store. The new items include golf clubs and other accessories, and many can be customized with a variety of options. It's a nice feature for Mario Golf: World Tour, but it's somewhat disappointing that the items only have aesthetic value and don't actually increase statistics or give other benefits as rewards for continuing to play the game. This obviously helps the game retain balance among characters and makes multiplayer with friends more fun, but it definitely holds the game back in terms of longevity, since players have no real goals to strive for beyond unlocking and beating each stage in the game.

Multiplayer is easily among the best ways to enjoy Mario Golf: World Tour. There are some different game modes available in multiplayer including one that doesn't care about tallying up strokes and only asks that players complete holes as fast as possible. When feeling the pressure of a timer, it's easy to make mistakes that otherwise wouldn't happen for skilled players, and a game isn't necessarily over just because one player sunk a shot in less swings than another. The timed mode changes the game dramatically and is a lot of fun with friends. Of course the classic score mode is also available, and players can play across any of the different courses included in the game for all multiplayer modes.

Mario Golf: World Tour features the same great presentation fans would expect from a Nintendo exclusive. Whether its the colorful characters and worlds or the funny sound effects and chime of picking up coins in challenge mode, everything feels instantly familiar and looks and sounds great in Mario Golf: World Tour. Everything in Mario Golf: World Tour is accessed from an overworld map. The map looks fantastic and is a nice touch, even though there aren't enough descriptors and labels for each location, so it takes some getting used to. The game's controls are also great, and the game makes good use of the Nintendo 3DS touch screen for using items and performing other important actions in the game.

Mario Golf: World Tour is a fun title in which players will never know what to expect next. One hole will have players heading underwater for a round of golf, while a few stages later, players will be golfing on top of a volcano. It's really quite impressive for a series that has always been heavily based in the platforming genre to pull off so many successful sports crossover titles, but Mario Golf: World Tour is another example of just that. Play a few rounds of Mario Golf: World Tour only on Nintendo 3DS!

Mario Golf: World Tour is now available exclusively for Nintendo 3DS and can be purchased for $29.99. Mario Golf: World Tour is rated E by the ESRB for Comic Mischief. For more information on the game, check out the official Mario Golf: World Tour website.

Game Features:

• Online Multiplayer
• Familiar Cast of Characters
• Mario Themed Levels and Itesm
• Plenty of Unlockables
• Challenge Stages Change the Rules

Game Information:
Developer & Publisher: Nintendo
Available exclusively for Nintendo 3DS (reviewed)
Release Date: May 2, 2014

Score: 7.5 out of 10