The game features a cast of characters from the entire Mario series and plenty of colorful environments and items inspired by the world of the Mushroom Kingdom. Fans will be happy to know the game is up to the same high quality standards of many other Nintendo exclusives, and its another great sports spinoff title for the Mario series. You don't need to be a golf fan to enjoy, you just need to be a gamer that enjoys playing fun games with plenty of tongue in cheek humor.
It doesn't feature much of a storyline for the series. The cast of characters that includes everyone from Mario to Bowser show up for a new golf tournament, and there are multiple tournaments to enter, each with different prizes and more difficult competition. Players will first want to head over to Toad's tutorials to learn how to play the game though. It does an excellent job of teaching players all of the controls for the game in the tutorial section, and players can then practice stages before a match begins to learn even more about the course and game before scores actually begin counting for something. It's a nice pacing that allows players to get better at the game instead of being thrown to the wolves right from the moment the game is booted up.
It may not be mistaken for a golf simulator game, but fans will notice the game does plenty of things right by the sport. Other arcade golf titles may only include an ability to switch golf clubs and swing, but it also includes controls for adding slice, backspin and more to the ball to help make it closer to other realistic golf games. Players also need to manage things such as wind speeds and some pretty crazy hazards in order to land a good shot. Players can also nab powerups to drag down the competition or make their own shots even better. It's an addictive system that rewards players for practicing and constantly attempting to get better at the game.
There are three different collections of courses featured. The worlds will take players to the forest, beach and mountains for 18 holes of golf with each new course adding more difficult hazards and other problems to compete against. While none of the courses are too difficult to complete, players will unlock special challenge levels after completing stages and performing well in the game, and these offer far more difficult objectives beyond aiming for the lowest score possible.
There are a lot of unlockables included beyond unlocking challenge stages. The more holes that are completed will allow players to unlock additional items from the in-game store. The new items include golf clubs and other accessories, and many can be customized with a variety of options. It's a nice feature, but it's somewhat disappointing that the items only have aesthetic value and don't actually increase statistics or give other benefits as rewards for continuing to play the game. This obviously helps the game retain balance among characters and makes multiplayer with friends more fun, but it definitely holds the game back in terms of longevity, since players have no real goals to strive for beyond unlocking and beating each stage in the game.
Multiplayer is easily among the best ways to enjoy the game. There are some different game modes available in multiplayer including one that doesn't care about tallying up strokes and only asks that players complete holes as fast as possible. When feeling the pressure of a timer, it's easy to make mistakes that otherwise wouldn't happen for skilled players, and a game isn't necessarily over just because one player sunk a shot in less swings than another. The timed mode changes the game dramatically and is a lot of fun with friends. Of course the classic score mode is also available, and players can play across any of the different courses included in the game for all multiplayer modes.
The game features the same great presentation fans would expect from a Nintendo exclusive. Whether its the colorful characters and worlds or the funny sound effects and chime of picking up coins in challenge mode, everything feels instantly familiar and looks and sounds great. Everything is accessed from an overworld map. The map looks fantastic and is a nice touch, even though there aren't enough descriptors and labels for each location, so it takes some getting used to. The game's controls are also great, and the game makes good use of the Nintendo 3DS touch screen for using items and performing other important actions in the game.
Its a fun title in which players will never know what to expect next. One hole will have players heading underwater for a round of golf, while a few stages later, players will be golfing on top of a volcano. It's really quite impressive for a series that has always been heavily based in the platforming genre to pull off so many successful sports crossover titles, this is another example of just that.