Mario Golf: Advance Tour

It was a typical summer day.  I slept late, ate breakfast at the time that I should have been eating lunch, and sat on the couch like a lifeless vegetable.  The sun was shining beautifully, taking my attention away from the TV for a few moments.  Then a review copy of Mario Golf: Advance Tour arrived.  Now it could have stormed heavily outside and I wouldn't know the difference.  Although I didn't know it at the time, Advance Tour was about to become my lifeline for the next 48 hours.  Only food, water, and the occasional nap would keep me from playing.

6:00pm

In many ways Mario Golf: Advance Tour is a sequel to the GameCube version, Toadstool Tour.  The core gameplay has been faithfully re-created for the small screen, but most of the courses are new.  Advance Tour has new characters, new mini-games, and an all-new story mode that attempts to make the game more like an RPG.

Toadstool Tour's swing meter is back (and functions in the exact same way).  The only significant difference is the technology, which results in shots that are less precise and less realistic.

The environments are strictly two-dimensional with the camera's primary position directly above the course.  The camera switches automatically for certain shots, giving you a third-person view of the action.  This usually occurs when a tree or some other object blocks the way, making it easier to hit the ball around it.

8:00pm

The game appeared to have many game modes, but I became too engrossed in the singles tournament and doubles cup to care.  These tournaments are very similar to the tourneys featured in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.  The courses are different, giving returning fans something new to enjoy.  The incentive for completing each course is also different.  Advance Tour is dubbed a Role-Playing Golf game, and while you won't see ugly monsters or cast magical spells, you do gain experience points for completing each course.  It goes without saying that the better you do the more points you'll gain.  I've found that the course is worth sticking out even if you're losing because points will be awarded no matter how badly you do.

These points are not given to Mario as you might expect.  Mario is here, as are Peach and other members of the Nintendo gang.  But the tourneys are connected to the story mode, which stars two new characters, Tom and Ella.  Tom is playable; Ella is a computer-controlled character who plays only during the doubles competitions.  Normally I'd be against having a computer-controlled golfer on my side.  But until you begin to grasp all of the gameplay details, Ella's performance will likely be better than your own.  Her moves aren't perfect – there were times when I wished I could have steered her in a better direction.  But I guess that was implemented to make her more human and less like a computer-controlled aid.

Wednesday - 2:00am

Time to check out the story mode's Club Lodge.  Wow, look at all the trophies!  I wonder who might have won those?  The game is far from over through.  Those trophies are only the beginning.

Exiting the lodge, I find myself on a small world map.  Many of the map's locations seem to be blocked or under construction, indicating that I must accomplish something important before I can proceed.  What I needed to do wasn't hard to figure out -- win more tournaments.  I met with defeat in the singles tourney, so I grabbed my partner and won two doubles competitions.  This led me deeper into the night, which quickly became morning, leaving me exhausted and wishing I had more energy to continue playing.  (It was 6:00am before I put down my GBA and entered the land of Nod.)

Wednesday Afternoon

I would have started playing sooner but reality got in the way!  Grrrr!

Today I discovered the connection between Tom, Ella and the Super Mario universe.  During the tourney Tom and Ella are staying at the "Marion" Club Lodge.  Inside the lodge is a stained glass window of the mushroom master himself, Mario.  Light shines through the window, and guess who's standing by the light at all times?  Toad!  Talk to him, enter the light and you'll be transported to a wonderful world: the Mushroom Kingdom.

6:00pm

At last, golf courses with the essence of Mario.  Bomb-oms, plumber-eating plants, that ball-and-chain guy – those are just a few of the things that'll make you smile.  The environments have a true Mario feel, with stars, pipes, courses that are shaped like Mario's head, and others that are up in the clouds.

Thursday - 6:00am

Aw crap, is it morning already?  I didn't really care about the rising sun or the ticking clock that screamed, "Time for bed!"  So I continued playing...

...And fell asleep with the GBA in my hands!  I was lying stretched out on the floor with a pillow (the most comfortable way you can play your GBA).  As I waited for Ella to take her town, the big "Z" hit me.  I woke up quickly and played some more, fell asleep again, and fought my tired feelings for as long as I could.  Finally the battery died and I realized it was time to throw in the towel.  If the battery hadn't died, it's likely that I'd still be attached to my GBA.  I would have thrown away the idea of sleep and forgotten all about the review.

Now that I'm wide awake I must get back to the game.  But before I leave you, I must further convey how good this game is and how much better it gets.  I started out liking it.  I thought it was a better-than-average port of the GameCube version.  After realizing that most of the content was new, I thought it was definitely worth an 8.0.  Then a few hours later the game bumped up to 8.5 with the assumption that it just couldn't go any higher.  I kept digging and found more courses and more reasons to keep playing.  By the time I was ready to write the review the game had broke the barrier, earning the 9.0 that I wasn't sure it could achieve.  The GameCube version did, and now I have the perfect portable companion.

Gameplay: 9
Golfing at its best.  Advance Tour does what Toadstool Tour did but in a whole other way.  The courses are fun, challenging, and impossible to give up on.  The story mode's mini-games present even more challenges and are a great way to gain experience points.  You can repeat mini-games for fun, but they purposely lower the EXP earned to keep players from stocking up!

Graphics: 7
I can't say I'm thrilled or disappointed by the graphics.  Not the GBA's best work, but they get the job done.

Sound: 7.9
A decent mixture of new music and classic Mario tunes.  I would have liked the soundtrack better if all the songs were taken from Mario, but the developers wanted new music to go with the new characters.  Worth listening to, but it does get repetitive after a while.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
It seems like Nintendo's most challenging games are on the GBA.  Advance Tour's mini-games aren't too tough, but it'll take some time to get through the many tournaments.

Concept: 8

Multiplayer: 8.5
Since golf is a turn-based game, you only need one GBA for multiplayer games.  If you don't like sharing, plug in a link cable for two-player games (only one cartridge is needed).  Two game packs are needed for three-player games; three game packs are needed for four-player games.

Overall: 9
Somebody stop me!  I can't stop playing!  I think I can.  I tell myself it's only a phase.  "I'll quit tomorrow," I tell my family, worried that I'm throwing my life away.  "It doesn't control me."  But it does!

Look, I don't want to scare anyone, but if you don't hear from me in a week, call the video game authorities and tell them what happened.  By that time it'll be too late to save me, but at least they'll have the satisfaction of knowing that in this day and age, when budgets are too big and graphics are too pretty, there are still games being made that can take control of our lives.

During the summer there isn't a quality more appealing than that.