Golf games are a unique breed. As much as their mild mannered demeanor gives the impression that they’re simple and probably even boring, in many cases that isn’t so. For each swing the player has to take into account the lie of the ball, wind, how its trajectory will affect its travel, and more. It’s a genre of calculation, risk, and also reward.
Although Mario Golf: World Tour belongs to the genre and inherently has some complexity, it presents itself in a way that immediately feels welcoming for newcomers. The auto system, which is on by default, makes it so you only have to take into account the power and direction of your swing. However, once you change the swing mode to manual, World Tour has as many variables taken into consideration as just about any other great golf game on the market. Timing means the difference between hitting your ball into a pool of water, or landing on the green. Meanwhile, a well planned spin can set you up for an easy putt rather than an approach from a sand pit. As such, World Tour is a game that, despite its colorful and lively environments and characters, has a surprising amount of depth in its gameplay.
The Castle Club mode is likely where you’ll make your entry into the game. This mode is the campaign of sorts, the place where you take control of your Mii and try to win a few single-player tournaments. What’s best about Castle Club is its 3D lobby environment. Instead of having you jump through menus to navigate from feature to feature (which Mario Golf mode has plenty of), you walk around in Peach’s Castle. It’s filled with identifiable Nintendo characters as well as all the things you expect: a shop, courses to play on, and a locker room to change your equipment.
As much as Castle Club gets a few simple things right, it’s a shallow experience. It never feels like you’re climbing the ranks to becoming a renowned golfer. In essence, it’s missing the RPG features that you may be expecting—I know I was. There isn’t a replay mode, either, so if you find incentive in trying to execute incredible shots and saving them for future viewing, you can’t do that here.
The Mario Golf mode is where Nintendo has spent most of its time, and you will need to as well if you want to enjoy the game for any reasonable amount of time. Yes, it’s menu driven, but you can play as a variety of Nintendo characters—or your Mii if you want—, and engage in a fair amount of game modes including Point Tourney, Speed Golf, Match Play, and Stroke Play. This is also where you’ll unlock new courses after the primary three 18 holes and the first challenge course. However, the game never makes that clear, so if you’re a Castle Club junkie you may find yourself lost about five hours in.
What may surprise you is World Tour is, for the most part, carried by its multiplayer elements. Single-player simply feels like it’s missing meaningful progression. After playing for five or even ten hours you won’t feel like the game has rewarded you for your efforts. Multiplayer, on the other hand, is continually rewarding if you’re the competitive type. When, and if, you choose to play multiplayer, World Tour allows you to play locally, against your online friends, within a community, or in online tournaments. This set of options is where you’ll derive your lasting experiences.
The problem is that the 3DS has never been that great at multiplayer to begin with. Yes, you can play online via Wi-Fi (which isn’t 100% reliable in many cases), but a lot of the social features you’ve come to expect in this day and age are missing. You have no profile, achievements, or statistics to share with others. There are no memorable interactions, just you and hopefully your professional golfing skills doing the talking via the leaderboards.
On the positive side, World Tour is a great looking 3DS game. The courses and their environments exemplify Nintendo’s art style. More importantly, the presentation is extremely polished. Well, outside of the annoying character noises when you’re standing on a podium at the end of a match.
If you do happen to enjoy your stay in World Tour, you may be happy to know that there’s plenty of downloadable content that awaits. Nintendo has a day one DLC package landing on launch, and two more that’ll soon follow. These reasonably priced $5.99 packages include new courses, characters, and more. When you consider World Tour‘s MSRP is currently $29.99, that’s a fair deal. If you just want to get a taste of what the game is like, a demo is available now for free via the eShop.
So what is Mario Golf: World Tour? Well, it’s certainly the amiable first-party Nintendo game you’d come to expect. It’s polished, fun, and as simple or as challenging as you want it to be. With so much effort spent on making the game’s presentation up to Nintendo’s high standards, it’s a bit surprising that the way content delivery is handled is as roughly-edged as it is. Furthermore, the experience is only as deep as your interest in competing online with other players as the single-player offerings lack the sense of reward that other golf games have perfected.
Jonathan Leack is the Gaming Editor for CraveOnline. You can follow him on Twitter @jleack.
Copy provided by publisher. Mario Golf: World Tour is exclusive to 3DS.
