Since this is a golf game featuring Mario for the Nintendo GameCube, there is a parallel that involves
professional golf and the Mario series. Recently world-famous golfer Tiger Woods has not won the last
six major tournaments. While for most golfers this is nothing new, for Tiger this is considered a "slump". Now as for the Mario series, Luigi's Mansion was extremely short, Super Mario Sunshine was... well, read my Review, and Mario Party 4 was surprisingly mediocre. I've started to consider the Mario series in a "slump" of its own, but this is a game I hope will break the slump. After all, the original Mario Golf had me playing tournaments against myself featuring all the characters, seeing who would end up on top. It lasted long after Mario Tennis's run was done, and I started to get ready for the new Mario Golf. Now I'll tell if Toadstool Tour is enough to stop the slump of the Mario series, or if we'll have to wait for Mario Kart: Double Dash to break the Mario series out of its slump. (Of course, it's very easy to argue that this game isn't much of a Mario game, but the Mario additions to the courses do make it more Mario-like than the first two Mario Golfs.)
This Review is based on a 0-4 star scale,
with 0 being very poor and 4 being excellent. However, don't just
look at the stars; there's a lot more
to this (or any) Review than its stars.
Graphics: ***1/2
At first glance of the demo version, I thought the graphics were not too good. However, the real version of the game produces some good visuals, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. The characters look great, the courses look nice as well, and even the Chain Chomps look great. I really like how the wind looks, which gives a windy effect to the game. The trees do not look too good, and I don't think they got the look of the grass right. On the whole, however, I can't say too much bad about this game's graphics.
Sound: 1/2
Ouch. This game takes a real hit due to some really dumb-sounding voices. Daisy's has to be the worst. Back in Mario Tennis 64, her voice was as good as ever. In Mario Party 3 and 4, it was annoying. Now it's beyond annoying. Please, bring back the Mario Tennis 64 Daisy voice!
I didn't make it to Bowser in Super Mario Sunshine (I wonder why not?), but I heard that he talked. Now I got to hear his voice, and I am displeased with the sound of it. He sounds cheesy for some reason, not fierce (though he's not the cheesiest in this game). Bowser was better off with his "Nar-nar-naroor!"
The announcer is extremely cheesy-sounding, more than Bowser. His "Great!" sounds like a bad impression of Tony the Tiger. His "Birdie Putt" is really cheesy, and his "Very well done!" sounds like he's talking to a toddler. Of course, the way Camelot gave us a babyish view of golf in this game, maybe they think we're toddlers... more on this later.
Difficulty: 1/2
If you played the original Mario Golf, you know that you had to start the meter with A, hit A again to set the power, then hit A a third time for accuracy. To get a "Nice Shot" you needed perfect timing, and this was extremely difficult to get. It took me years to master the Nice Shot method, which gives you maximum power and accuracy, not to mention saving you a Power Shot if you used one. This was more like real golf: it takes great practice to learn how to shoot accurately, to get power into your shot, to know which club to use. This element of Mario Golf 64 made it more difficult, but more to the point, it made an arcade-style of golf more like real-life golf, which I really liked.
Obviously, Camelot decided that this
was "too much" for us to handle. Now there's an Automatic shot, which
makes you only set the power (giving
you a 75% chance or so of getting a Nice Shot). Now the area needed for
a Nice Shot is no longer one little mark on the meter, but a little range
on the meter. Now those of us who worked so hard in Mario Golf 64 have
it way too easy in Toadstool Tour. Now you don't have to take chances of
using a bigger club in a bunker (sand trap) and getting nowhere, losing
a shot in the process. Now the
game will tell you whether you'll go
nowhere. In fact, now this game will give you where your ball will land,
not a wide area in which you could
land. (This isn't even with the setting that shows you where your ball
will exactly roll to... I don't need
that much help.)
Basically, there's no more risk-taking involved. If you're aggressive, you're going to do well, as Toadstool Tour awards those who take chances, because you're not really taking a chance. The game tells you if what you're doing will help you out or not. In Mario Golf 64, using a driver (1W) from the fairway is a risk. You could end up grounding the ball only 60 yards from where you started, or you could blast the ball over the green, or you could land on the green for a chance for an eagle (2 under par on a single hole). In Toadstool Tour, you'll see where your ball will land, and that way you'll know whether that "chance" of using a 1W is worth taking. Landing a bunker in Mario Golf 64 was like having one heart coming into the Wart battle in the original SMB2. You're going to have a hard time. In Toadstool Tour, you'll know how far you're going out of the bunker, so even though you won't go as far as you would from the fairway, at least you know that you're not going to end up shooting your ball a mere 3 yards and being in a similar situation on your next shot, as would often happen in Mario Golf 64.
It's a shame that the whole guessing
game of clubs has been eliminated. It's no more "5 Iron or 6 Iron?" It's
"I'll hit the R button so I can know
the distance on the meter I need to hit the button at in order to land
on the green." It's no longer "How far is 44.5 yards on the yellow putting
meter?" It's "Let me set the mark of about 44.5 yards on the yellow meter,
so I know exactly where to stop the meter."
You'd expect that in a game that's easy, at least your opponents would be as good as you are. Nope! Computer opponents make mistakes that make you shake your head, make you wonder if they know how to play golf. Sometimes, they'll shoot into the trees, then go from there to a bunker, then to another bunker. I thought Mario Golf 64's Get Character Mode was too hard, but certainly I didn't want this game's version of that mode to be this easy!
Tournaments are a joke as well. You
can shoot maybe 2 over par for the tournament and win it. That's pitiful
in my mind, considering how easy these
courses are. I once had a double bogey (2 over par on a single hole) on
the last hole, and I still crushed everyone in the tournament. Come on,
at least give me a challenge! What's the fun in the game if you can shoot
poorly and still win? (Note: Star Tournaments are REAL
tournaments. Beat all the tournaments
and get all star characters to try them out.)
Now we come to the Automatic swing.
I mentioned it before, and it basically is a 75% chance of getting a
Nice Shot (and maybe a 50% chance of
getting perfect accuracy) if you hit the A button in the power area (which
I will probably at least 80% of the time). On an approach shot, instead
of risking your shot going wild or off the green by pressing B and doing
it the real way, you can try the Automatic swing and get Pin Shots left
and right! Pin Shots are when your shot hits the pin, and they should be
rare, not common! Now granted, you can do it the normal way, which is risky.
The worst thing about this is, the game allows you to cheat! If I'm playing
a human opponent, of course I want to use the Automatic swing, because
if I don't, my opponent will, and I'll lose. This Automatic swing should
have never been put in this game. You can use a Manual swing, the normal
way, but that Automatic swing is, in my mind, a form of cheating without
any type of code.
Now don't get me wrong. I actually prefer
the Manual swing in really important times, like Ring Shot mode,
mainly because I'm so used to doing
it the real way from the original Mario Golf. The Automatic swing is not
the only reason I don't like the difficulty, and it is not the only reason
I don't like the controls. If you don't like this Review, please do not
base your complaints on this, because there are many other things
about the difficulty and controls that I do not like.
Nintendo Power reported that Camelot
thought the original game was too hard and that Toadstool Tour
needed to be made easier, for novices.
Whenever I read this, I groaned, knowing what was to come. Sure
enough, Camelot made this game way
too easy, and the challenge of Mario Golf 64 is nearly destroyed. There
is a little bit of challenge in some of the harder courses and Ring Shot
mode, as well as poor controls
with short putts, which gives this
game 1/2 a star of difficulty. Nevertheless, this game was made too easy,
and the sense of accomplishment that
I always felt by winning in a Mario sports or racing game is gone.
Characters: ***
Daisy, Koopa Troopa, and Donkey Kong
are here, making me like the general cast of characters. Also, unlike
Mario Golf 64, this game makes the
players more even, with more powerful shooters having less accuracy, and
a spin rating thrown in to make your choice of a golfer not as easy as
it was in the N64 version (just
pick Metal Mario and smash your way
home!). Besides Boo, the hidden characters have a Super Mario Sunshine
theme, and while I like Petey Piranha, Bowser Jr. and Shadow Mario both
bring back bad memories. Bowser Jr., in fact, is the symbol for the Koopalings
no longer appearing in any non-remake (except as leaderboard names in the
Mario Golfs). Shadow Mario is Bowser Jr., so I can't stand this character
either. These two characters take off half a star each, but the character
rating never mattered much, and it doesn't matter much here.
Controls: *
It's very tough for me to like the controls
after using some awesome controls in the Tiger Woods golf game. Nevertheless,
I can't say the controls are great, regardless of how they are in comparison
to the Tiger Woods golf game. First of all, I can't stand the fact that
there's an Automatic swing (see above). It's also equally annoying that
you have to change buttons for a Manual swing. When using the Manual swing
and
wanting to put some spin on the ball,
it's annoying that I sometimes have to hit the buttons A, B, A, B within
about five seconds of each other. Why?
Because I've slipped and hit the wrong button, and my shot goes
awry (translation: really off).
Most of all, I can't stand the controls on short putts. In Mario Golf 64, you could easily make a short putt, even if you don't have the quickest reflexes. Not so in this game, where if you can't hit A two times really fast, or hit A at the right instant when the meter is on its way back, you may miss the only type of putt most of us could make in real life, a tap-in! The tap-in should be the easiest shot of all! If anything about this game is easy, why can't it be the tap-in?! Even in the Tiger Woods golf game, the game would automatically make the shot in for you on an extremely short putt, as does the Hot Shots Golf 3 game for the PS2. Camelot should have kept Toadstool Tour with the times and allowed these putts to be automatically made, instead of making you try to perfectly time a one-foot putt (even though it's much easier to make a 10-foot putt).
Other controls in this game are fine,
although maybe a little too easy. They are very easy to learn, which is
fine. Nevertheless, the problems mentioned
beforehand are enough to warrant a poor rating to the controls.
Camera: ***
For some reason, one of the biggest
complaints I've heard about this game is its camera, which I don't
have much problem with. Sure, occasionally
the camera will get "stuck" on trees when I'm trying to see where my shot
is projected to land, but since I don't want to hit a tree, I'm going to
move my shot anyway, which will then get the camera back to normal. As
for putting, the camera is usually pretty good, especially
on anything inside 20 feet, when all
you need to do is slightly tap Up on the C-Stick. Unfortunately, Petey
Piranha and some other big characters
can get in the way of the camera during a putt, which is frustrating.
They should be made transparent in
these cases, so you can see them but they are faded. All in all, though,
I'd have to say the camera isn't all that bad.
Courses: ***
The courses are pretty good, and I think that there was a lot of creativity put into the final three courses. I especially like Peach's Castle Grounds, which has warp pipes. These pipes will shoot your ball to the other pipe of the same color. I, in my brilliance, decided to shoot my ball into a pipe right near the green, getting booted back about 200 yards. Yeah, that was great thinking. I like the Mario-related stuff in the courses. Watch out... Bowser Badlands can be quite hard if you are bad at accuracy. Be careful of those Chomps... they bite.
Stroke Mode: **1/2
Stroke Mode is simply playing through
a set number of holes, and you try to shoot as low of a score as
possible. Stroke Mode allows 1-4 players
to play any unlocked courses. It's not a bad mode, though usually
only most exciting when playing with
multiple people.
Tournament Mode: **1/2
Tournament Mode is really just Stroke
Mode for one player, with your opponents on the leaderboard, and
you have to beat the best score on
the leaderboard. Usually the score to win is not very good; sometimes a
+2 will win the tournament, though
it gets tougher as you play on (though -1 would have won at Bowser
Badlands, where I ended up with -7
or so). It's not bad, again, though I'd like more of a challenge than
merely having to shoot even par to
win the tournament. Of course, there's always...
Star Tournament: ***1/2
I type this just minutes after a thrilling Star Tournament where I had to birdie my last two holes to tie for first place, at -9. Shooting par is out of the question. You need to be way under par, and the greens are made of the same stuff as those fast fairways, so the ball will really roll on those slopes. This is a great mode, one I'm going to go back to. It's really fun, and it's quite a challenge. Enjoy it.
Match Play: **
In match play, you are matched up against one opponent, either human or computer. Both are racing to get 10 required medals. Whoever finishes with the better score on a hole gets a medal, and if both tie, either no medal is awarded or a required medal is taken away (depending on whether there is an odd or even number of holes remaining). On the whole, this mode is so-so, as the fun of it really depends on how good your opponent is.
Character Match: *
A one-on-one match play format battle
vs. a computer character, this mode allows you to unlock the star
versions of characters (longer-hitting
players). What's bad about it? The computers are way too easy to
beat. They make pitiful errors that
an absolute novice would make. True, Bowser pushed me to 17 holes, but
that's as far as I went. I ended a lot of matches in 12 holes.
Speed Golf: 1/2
This game is a snoozer. All you do is
see what your fastest time through a course is. That's it. Nothing
unlocked, nothing to be gained. You
just see how fast you can be. Compared to Tiger Woods' awesome
two-player speed golf, this is nothing.
It's a shame.
Ring Shot: ***
I can't say ring shot mode was always
my favorite idea for a mode, but it is pretty challenging, which is good
in this game. Back in the original Mario Golf, Ring Shot mode was near-impossible
because of the
number of mistakes you can make. Now,
in this game, with the difficulty not as high, this mode is a lot easier,
and a lot more playable. Some of the rings are in locations that are flat-out
near-impossible to get to, which means you'll have to plan for your second
shot on your first shot. You'll also need to not only clear all the rings
but also make par or better on the hole. I like this mode on the whole,
though you do have the certain holes that are really hard to beat (which
is good in some ways, though bad in others). I can't complain much here,
as I like this a lot more than I liked the Mario Golf 64 Ring Shot mode.
Near-Pin: *
Near-Pin is a pretty boring mode. You're just trying to shoot onto the green. If you land on the fringe of the green, but not on the green itself, you'll get a score of 100 feet away, even if you're in reality only 35 feet away or so. I'm also upset because I feel that this is the mode that replaced Mini-Golf, which I would have loved to have seen in this game. This mode is no match for Mario Golf 64's Mini-Golf, which wasn't that great itself! However, this game gets one star regardless of the lack of Mini-Golf, which will be reflected in the score of replayability and fun factor.
Coin Attack: 1/2
Like Speed Golf, this isn't too much
fun. You shoot the ball through coins, collecting them as you go.
Unfortunately, if you're not playing
against someone else, it's really pointless, unless you are trying to
break your own coin record.
Side Games: **1/2
These aren't bad. Trying to get a bunch of birdies in a row isn't fun, in my opinion, because you're trying to do so on a par-3 course. In golf, most of the time it's easier to get good scores (usually birdies) on par-5's, because if you're a long-hitter, you can get to the green in two shots at times, letting yourself two-putt for birdie. As for par-3's, you've got to get on the green or at least very close to it on your first shot, then you have to make your next shot (most likely a putt), or else you don't get a birdie. Result? It's very hard to get a string of birdies, much less nine in a row in order to unlock the back nine of Congo Canopy.
As for the other side games, I like them. If you get 8 out of 10 shots inside the red circle on every challenge, you unlock Petey Piranha. They're not a cinch, which I like. They aren't exactly that difficult, either, and the putting ones are really easy. You shouldn't have much trouble with the challenges, which are pretty fun, giving this section an overall good score.
Club Slots:
Four Slots: ****
Three Slots: ***
Four Slots is the best mode in this
game, hands-down, no joke. Three Slots is not as good, but nevertheless
still pretty exciting. You only get
the clubs that you get on the slot machine (and you play the slots before
every hole), which is usually the maximum
of three, unless you get three Stars, in which case you get all of your
clubs. If you get one or two Stars, then that's not good, because you'll
have even less than 3 clubs. You always have a putter. In this game, you
play for positive points, but it's hardly any different from normal golf
scoring, except that quadruple bogey
and triple bogey are no worse than double bogey. Otherwise, the points
go up in one point intervals, 0 for double bogey or worse, 1 for bogey,
2 for par, 3 for birdie, 4 for
eagle, etc. In Four Slots, you also
have a fourth slot that gives you some sort of bonus, like an extra power
shot, no wind on the hole, perfect
accuracy on the automatic swing, an extra mulligan (trying a shot over
again), and my favorite, double points,
which really helps you out when you get a birdie. Club Slots makes
you use strategy, and the lack of many
clubs (except if you get three Stars) gives you a real challenge. I'm
totally impressed with the fun this
mode provides, especially Four Slots. Best of all is when you play this
in Doubles mode... it's fantastic. The more players, the better, and this
is Toadstool Tour at its best.
Doubles: ***
In Doubles mode, you and a partner take
turns shooting the same ball, working as a team against another team of
two. You can play using Doubles in many modes, most notably Club Slots
mode (pure excitement, even in golf!). This mode can be a lot of fun, but
if you're a control freak like me, it's extremely frustrating to
watch your computer partner miss a
6-foot putt which you could have made from 20 feet away. That element of
surprise actually adds to this mode, in a way, so it's really not that
bad.
Replayability: *
Ack. That's the best way I can describe
this game's replayability in comparison to Mario Golf 64's replayability.
Why "ack"? Mario Golf 64 was a game I was playing for years after I had
unlocked everything,
having my own tournaments. Toadstool
Tour just doesn't have that lasting power. Granted, when I have NCAA Football
2004 and Madden NFL 2004 to play, it's tough for any other game to "convince"
me to play it, but Toadstool Tour just hasn't given me much reason to want
to play it. The fact that it's so easy has to be
the reason it doesn't seem to be lasting
very long. I think Toadstool Tour needed to give me a challenge,
that way I'd feel like I'd really have
to go at this game to get stuff accomplished, but I feel like there's not
much challenge. There's no mini-golf, which was fun in Mario Golf 64. A
mini-golf mode with Mario features (mini-warp pipes and Micro-Goombas?)
would have given this game a lot more replayability. It's too bad that
a mini-golf mode wasn't included.
Fun Factor!: **1/2
My feelings on the fun of this game
are mixed, because playing one-player modes is very boring on the most
part. This game is only really fun
when playing against opponents, specifically live ones. The lack of a mini-golf
mode hurts as well. In fact, fun from Four Slots Doubles mode is what gives
this score an above-average rating and prevents this game from being a
waste. Just like Mario Party 4, the Fun Factor
is the life raft that prevents the
game from sinking.
OVERALL: **
Although this game may be good for beginners,
Camelot was not fair to the more experienced players who had played Mario
Golf 64 and even the harder Gameboy Color version. What's more is that
even beginners may eventually find this game too easy, especially if they
take advantage of the Automatic swing. Unfortunately, this focus on keeping
the game simple and easy for novices stopped Toadstool Tour from ranking
above either of its Mario Golf predecessors. Is it a bad game? Like Mario
Party 4 and Wario Ware of recently, no, it is not bad, but it is mediocre
and not exactly what I was hoping for. If you're not a golf fan, steer
clear of this game and wait for Mario Kart: Double Dash!! or Mario Party
5, both of which have promise
and one of which I really think will
end this "slump", if there even is one. If you liked Mario Golf 64 or like
golf, I think Toadstool Tour would not be a bad choice. But is it worth
the price of admission? Not if that price is $50.
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