Critics of the Gamecube often point
out that Nintendo has yet to come up with a popular game that doesn't
involve Pokémon, Zelda or Mario. But that isn't necessary a bad thing-
if, like me, you make your judgements based on the content of a gamebox
rather than what it says on the front of it.
I used to play golf games on my PC (think windows 95 and Microsoft Golf sort of 'used to'), right up until the developers became more focused on creating an accurate 3d model of each blade of grass than they were on creating an enjoyable game.
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (or MGTT as I will call it to save typing) manages to avoid that pitfall. Yes, the visuals are superb, with the sort of half-cartoon, half-cel shaded graphics that only the Gamecube can do properly. Everything in the game- from the character models to the courses themselves- has been created in incredible quality, in fact MGTT has the best graphics of any of the Mario games so far.
The sounds don't quite live up to the same standard however. They're reasonable enough, but how many golfers do you know that make the exact same sound every time they take a shot? The chants of the characters when you select them (as in the one word/grunt replayed until you actually choose a character) are irritatingly repetitive, almost to the point where you wonder whether the person who decided to put them in has been fired yet.
With the exception of the obligatory 'gimmick' course, the actual game of golf has undergone very little Nintendoisation, other than colourful special effects at various points. There are of course some pointless minigames (yes, I understand that I have to hit my ball through coins that are floating in midair, but WHY?) which, mercifully, are completely optional.
The difficulty is inconsistent- everything rolls along nicely, with the difficulty level not changing much, until you get to the last level or two and WHAM. I would have much preferred a gradually changing difficulty that increases as I get more used to the game, but I guess they decided that kids won't have enough of an attention span to get through to the upper levels anyway.
MGTT is by no means cutesy, and is a whole lot more fun than any of the 'serious' golf games I've played. Along with SSBM, this should be on your list of 'reasons to have a Gamecube'
I used to play golf games on my PC (think windows 95 and Microsoft Golf sort of 'used to'), right up until the developers became more focused on creating an accurate 3d model of each blade of grass than they were on creating an enjoyable game.
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (or MGTT as I will call it to save typing) manages to avoid that pitfall. Yes, the visuals are superb, with the sort of half-cartoon, half-cel shaded graphics that only the Gamecube can do properly. Everything in the game- from the character models to the courses themselves- has been created in incredible quality, in fact MGTT has the best graphics of any of the Mario games so far.
The sounds don't quite live up to the same standard however. They're reasonable enough, but how many golfers do you know that make the exact same sound every time they take a shot? The chants of the characters when you select them (as in the one word/grunt replayed until you actually choose a character) are irritatingly repetitive, almost to the point where you wonder whether the person who decided to put them in has been fired yet.
With the exception of the obligatory 'gimmick' course, the actual game of golf has undergone very little Nintendoisation, other than colourful special effects at various points. There are of course some pointless minigames (yes, I understand that I have to hit my ball through coins that are floating in midair, but WHY?) which, mercifully, are completely optional.
The difficulty is inconsistent- everything rolls along nicely, with the difficulty level not changing much, until you get to the last level or two and WHAM. I would have much preferred a gradually changing difficulty that increases as I get more used to the game, but I guess they decided that kids won't have enough of an attention span to get through to the upper levels anyway.
MGTT is by no means cutesy, and is a whole lot more fun than any of the 'serious' golf games I've played. Along with SSBM, this should be on your list of 'reasons to have a Gamecube'