I am genuinely surprised at how Nintendo made a near perfect and fun Mario Golf game on their second try and at how much I enjoyed it. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour takes everything that worked from the original Mario Golf, cuts out all that didn't, and adds a lot more stuff to make it more akin to the Mario Sports formula we know now.
The core gameplay is still basically just golf like in the first one, but with a ton more bells and whistles that make it just feel better, like the auto swing feature that helps you effortlessly line up a shot in the general direction you're aiming for so that the gameplay feels smoother and less tedious. Another great thing the game does in terms of gameplay is having optional tutorials that actually teach you the games mechanics, something that was completely missing in the first one and was detrimental to my enjoyment of it. The tutorials genuinely helped me understand what the game was asking of me with each shot and when made things all the more satisfying when I started consistently doing well in the game.
Another great thing about this game is its variety in courses and characters. The characters in this game actually feel very different from one another in playstyle and that makes it fun to try different ones out over the course of the game, I found myself using several different characters by the time I beat this game and each one served the purpose I needed them for well and were just fun to play. The courses in this game are also insanely varied and fun as well. Whereas the first game just had golf courses with different backsplashes of areas that ultimately didn't feed into the gameplay, Toadstool Tour actually has courses that feel unique and different from one another. Several holes had really fun gimmicks to them that were felt almost more like puzzles that I had to solve rather than just three or four straight strokes with slightly different angles.
In terms of unlockables and progression this game hits it out of the park as well. Instead of making the four unlockable characters become available as you progress through the main tournament mode like so many Mario sports games do, Toadstool Tour locks its characters behind its various side modes, and it requires you to learn how to complete what those are asking of you to unlock things which is really neat. If I have one complaint with the game it's that the error for margin in some of these side modes was really unfair and led to me repeatedly throwing myself at a specific challenge over and over to much frustration (I'm looking at you ring shot mode), still though I can't be that mad as I did eventually find myself beating everything and feeling really accomplished when I did.
And finally, like all other Mario sports games up to this point the game just exudes charm and personality. Each character has unique animations after a hole depending on what they get as a score (Birdie, Par, Bogey, Double Bogey, etc...) and all of these are fun and funny to behold.
Overall, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour is an exceedingly fun game that not only manages to improve on its dated predecessor but also proves itself to be the best iteration of the Mario Golf subseries in the process.
The core gameplay is still basically just golf like in the first one, but with a ton more bells and whistles that make it just feel better, like the auto swing feature that helps you effortlessly line up a shot in the general direction you're aiming for so that the gameplay feels smoother and less tedious. Another great thing the game does in terms of gameplay is having optional tutorials that actually teach you the games mechanics, something that was completely missing in the first one and was detrimental to my enjoyment of it. The tutorials genuinely helped me understand what the game was asking of me with each shot and when made things all the more satisfying when I started consistently doing well in the game.
Another great thing about this game is its variety in courses and characters. The characters in this game actually feel very different from one another in playstyle and that makes it fun to try different ones out over the course of the game, I found myself using several different characters by the time I beat this game and each one served the purpose I needed them for well and were just fun to play. The courses in this game are also insanely varied and fun as well. Whereas the first game just had golf courses with different backsplashes of areas that ultimately didn't feed into the gameplay, Toadstool Tour actually has courses that feel unique and different from one another. Several holes had really fun gimmicks to them that were felt almost more like puzzles that I had to solve rather than just three or four straight strokes with slightly different angles.
In terms of unlockables and progression this game hits it out of the park as well. Instead of making the four unlockable characters become available as you progress through the main tournament mode like so many Mario sports games do, Toadstool Tour locks its characters behind its various side modes, and it requires you to learn how to complete what those are asking of you to unlock things which is really neat. If I have one complaint with the game it's that the error for margin in some of these side modes was really unfair and led to me repeatedly throwing myself at a specific challenge over and over to much frustration (I'm looking at you ring shot mode), still though I can't be that mad as I did eventually find myself beating everything and feeling really accomplished when I did.
And finally, like all other Mario sports games up to this point the game just exudes charm and personality. Each character has unique animations after a hole depending on what they get as a score (Birdie, Par, Bogey, Double Bogey, etc...) and all of these are fun and funny to behold.
Overall, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour is an exceedingly fun game that not only manages to improve on its dated predecessor but also proves itself to be the best iteration of the Mario Golf subseries in the process.