Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (Nintendo GameCube, 2003)

This is an incredibily fun, yet challenging game. I love the game of golf and Mario Golf offers the same fun, but with Mario's unique touch. The first few tournament courses are not too difficult and can be won with any of the character you choose, but I suppose they were designed to make you master your skills before moving on to the more difficult tournaments. I personally like Donkey Kong for his long ball ability, but there are other characters whose well ballanced control of the ball is better suited for some of the holes. I don't like the fact that you have to do a single player game in order to unlock other tournaments. If this game were more like Mario Cart: Double Dash where two can play the tournaments to unlock other characters, cars, or races, I would have liked Mario Golf better. But if you are totally into playing by yourself, then this will be fine.

My kids like to play this as well. They like to play the side games like collecting coins, closest to the hole, or just playing against each other. While some golfing principals are handy to know, everything you need to know to master golf in Mario's world can be learned in about 20-30 minutes of watching the tutorials. However, this is a slow paced strategy game where patience, paying attention to the natural physics of the course (like wind direction, wind speed, slope of the green, speed of the green, rain, etc.) and careful planning help you compete well, not at all a fast paced FPS's or racing game kids usually like. My kids usually get bored after a while and return to Super Smash Bros.

On the whole, it is a good game, one that I'll enjoy for a long time and finding it for less than $20 made my wallet feel good about it, too.

We have about 40 gamecube games now and I would have to say that this game is the favorite in our house by far over any other game we have, for almost everyone that comes over. It is a very easy game to learn to play, and you can spend hours playing by yourself. But what is great about it also, is the fact that one to four players can play, and with 4 controllers hooked up there is no fighting over the controllers. There are so many, many items to be unlocked, the variety of play is almost endless, it is impossible to get bored with the game.
I honestly cannot say there is anything I dislike about the game, and even though we played thousands of hours on it, we still do not have everything unlocked. After you unlock the 6 courses while in the single player tournament mode, there is another set of courses even harder yet to beat. And make sure while in the single player mode you unlock the "stars" for each player that greatly enhances their distance they can hit = Petey Piranah with a power shot is unbeatable.
We bought the game because our gamecube came with mario kart, and we enjoyed the simplicity and ease of learning the game so we decided to try another mario game. The smartest thing we did!! We have had several friends and family members who bought their own gamecube just to be able to buy and play this game in their own home.
This game is totally awesome with the Wii on the big screen.

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour is a fun and light-hearted golfing game featuring all the classic Mario characters. This game is similar to most golf games except that it is more cartoonish and comical. This game is easy to learn to play but has plenty of modes and mini-games that are challenging. It has plenty of courses and lots of mini-games which are especially fun to play with other people. The courses range from a regular course with green rolling hills to a course in the Mushroom Kingdom with warp pipes you can hit your ball into and have it come out another warp pipe somewhere else on the course and sand traps with chain-chomps in them.

Pros: Fun golf game, easy to play, lots of mini-games

Cons: Very similar to the Mario Golf game on the N64

This game is great for anyone because it's not overly complex. The learning curve is about half an hour (and that's if you want to basically master all the tricks). Anyone from child to adult can play this with relative ease and enjoy it. It gives golf a unique spin that only Mario and his Mushroom Kingdom pals could give. The golf courses are whacky and unique, you can be a slew of Nintendo characters and there are tons of secrets and unlockables. The graphics are cartoon-like, as they are in all of Mario's games - it still looks good, though. It's nothing too fancy, but that's what makes it such a great game. It takes golf and makes it FUN. There's all sorts of game modes and challenges to accomplish. It's great for single players, but so much fun when you play with friends. There's nothing much I can complain about this game...if anything. An excellent title.

I love Mario golf. It's easy to learn and really fun for all ages.There are plenty of modes of play to keep just about any golf fan happy. The standard tournament, match play, and skins play modes are all present, and there are several modes that are a bit more unique. There's a doubles mode, where two players play as a team, alternating turns at taking swings at the ball. The game sounds about as good as it looks, dusting off just about every Mario theme, from the original Super Mario Bros. to Super Mario 64, and interpolating them into an easygoing, golf-friendly instrumentation. There are a few original tunes thrown in there as well, and the blend of old and new works seamlessly. Each character is equipped with a small library of shouts and yelps, which are used liberally throughout the game. The sound is fundamental to selling Toadstool Tour as a Mario game, and in this regard, it succeeds.