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Sean's Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour First Impressions
Time Played: 12 hours and 24 minutes
I love this game.
No, that won't do. I highly enjoy this game, to the point where I'm ready to decree it one of my favourite Gamecube games. This game has everything: good characters, good voice acting, good graphics, good gameplay. It's simply marvelous.
From the minute you turn the game on, you're treated to character touches and ideas that are scarcely touched by other games in the Mario francise. Plus, the entire thing is damn hilarious, especially if you're a Wario Bros. fan like me. And it doesn't stop at the intro, either: throughout the game, the characters act in their own way, spouting off dialogue and making themselves look like fools: and yet, I can't help but smile everytime I see them.
Speaking of voices, I gotta tell you, they're not bad at all. Mario and Luigi are of their usual calibre, fitting of pussies such as themselves. Peach has her SMS voice, yet it's somehow less annoying here than there. Don't ask me why. Daisy has, in my opinion, the best voice in the game: nothing like the barely-audible crap from Mario Tennis and Mario Party 4, here she sounds clear and rather jumpy, sounding like a cross between a valley girl and your average teenage prom queen. Strangely enough, it works. DK and Diddy pack their DK64 voices, which is a good thing. Bowser's voice has improved TREMENDOUSLY from Super Mario Sunshine; now he sounds less Scottish and more "I'm cool and I know it". Get a Par with the guy and listen to him. He's slick. And Wario and Waluigi? Everything those two say will have you falling over with laughter, especially when they have their little dances to go with it. They're the coolest dudes in the entire Mushroom Earth: but you knew that already. Everybody else just use sound clips, no actual voice.
Gameplay itself is simple: move the targetting grid to where you want to hit the ball with the Control Stick and the shoulder buttons, press A to get the meter moving, and then hit A again to stop it at the desired spot, and watch the fireworks. You can also use Manual Swing to put a little more oomph into your shots, but since I've used that all of once, I can't really comment on it. Once you get the ball onto the green at the end of the course, you have to put it into the hole under Par and hopefully get a Birdie, yadda yadda yadda. I have to say I've paid less attention to the actual gameplay then I have the characters. I'm just wierd that way.
I haven't unlocked much yet: up to Shifting Sands for courses, beat a couple of Ring Mode courses (with Bowser, considering who you get unlocked at the end of it), and am as I type in the process of getting Star Waluigi. I haven't unlocked any secret characters yet, but I'm working on it, ya hear?
This game has more than made up for the DK Jr.-filled madness of Mario Tennis, and considering the fact that I now have one of those newfangled GCN/GBA Link Cables, maybe I'll be picking up Advance Tour and pumping in a custom character. (That blue hat kid in the back of the manual looks pretty nifty, though I think he needs longer shorts. Skin's only good when it's a girl, damn it) In fact, my one complaint is the fact that Diddy looks REALLY REALLY BAD with those teeth of his. It's unnerving.
by Sean
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