With the release of Mario Golf: Super Rush next month, Nintendo is reentering the golf game sphere, a realm it has not forayed into since the release of Mario Golf: World Tour for the 3DS in 2014. To find a Mario Golf release for a non-handheld console, however, one must look all the way back to 2003, when Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour dropped for GameCube.
While other Mario sports titles such as Mario Super Sluggers and Mario Super Strikers are perhaps looked back upon with more fondness than Toadstool Tour, the game mixed solid golf simulation with all the expected colorful trappings of a Mario experience. Toadstool Tour's seamless blend of sports and the Mushroom Kingdom should be expected of Super Rush, and while other elements of the elder game will hopefully return, others should definitely be improved upon.
The most notable positive of Toadstool Tour is its almost-flawless simulation of the sport of golf. While one may expect a more cartoonish, arcade-style game from a Mario sports title, such as the aforementioned Strikers series, Toadstool Tour excels in being a solid sports game. From selecting which club to use for each stroke, to reading the lie of the putting green, every aspect of the of the gameplay feels surprisingly real. Swirling winds can send players' drives astray, and uneven terrains make every shot an adventure. The game does an excellent job of providing challenging, realistic golfing without losing sight of what most Mario gamers are looking for in a sports title: a fun, relaxing multiplayer game.
Why Mario Golf Needs Toadstool Tour's Realism
Users should hope, if not expect, that the top-notch sports gaming experience of Toadstool Tour returns in the newest Mario Golf game. Super Rush offers a new fast-paced, Mario Kart-esque game mode, but at its core, it is a golf game. Toadstool Tour functions as a golf game that happens to feature Mario characters, rather than a Mario game with golf mechanics. For players looking for the straightforward experience provided by Toadstool Tour, Super Rush must deliver on the basics of a golf game.
While Toadstool Tour excels at providing a fun, realistic golf simulation, it comes up short in a few areas that Nintendo hopefully addressed in Super Rush. One of the more frustrating aspects of Toadstool Tour is the grind-y slog that is the training (and subsequent unlocking of secret characters and courses) portion of the game. For gamers looking to improve their drives, approaches, or short game, Toadstool Tour features many training courses for players to work on their game. While, by definition, practice may not be the most fun thing, but in a Mario game any opportunity to inject some whimsy into the game is usually taken. The game does make going through the training process worthwhile, as achieving certain feats will unlock "Star Characters," amped-up versions of existing characters.
Judging by the Super Rush trailer released by Nintendo recently, Super Rush will take the training aspect of Toadstool Tour and flip it on its proverbial head, a welcome development for longtime players of the Mario Golf series. Instead of multiple standalone training stages, Super Rush contains a new "Golf Adventure" mode, in which players take Mii characters to a Mushroom Kingdom country club and learn the ins and outs of the game, battle golf bosses, and level up their personal Mii golfers in the process. This seems to be a more rewarding and less arduous way to learn how to play the game, resulting in a more enjoyable training experience for Super Rush players.
Super Rush looks to be another in a long line of fun, entertaining Mario Sports titles. By adding two new game modes, Speed Golf and Golf Adventure, it is a new take on the long-standing Mario Golf formula. These modes, in addition to an understanding of the relaxing, realistic golf simulation provided by Toadstool Tour, should go a long way to ensuring that Mario Golf: Super Rush is yet another successful Mario Sports game.