April Edition Live Magazine - April 2014 Issue. | Page 54

preview

Mario Golf World Tour
Grab your clubs and get ready to hit
the course – Mario Golf: World Tour
is coming for 3DS and 2DS! Mario
and his pals are returning to the
game for the first time since 2004
and they’re promising a whole new
wacky world for Nintendo fans and
golf fanatics alike.
I’m just going to come clean about
this now – I don’t really care about
watching or playing real golf! It
seems like something only middle
aged men enjoy. Why is it called a
birdie? When do you use a five iron?
I don’t know. That said, I don’t care
about racing but I like Mario Kart. I
don’t like many board games but
I like Mario Party. If anything can
make me enjoy golf, it’s a Nintendo
party title.

ing to be less than serious abou t the
whole affair. There are 13 confirmed
playable characters (boo to no Dry
Bones!) and this includes playing as
your Mii. Will there be any advantage
to playing Bowser instead of Peach
or Yoshi instead of Mario? That’s yet
to be seen but it would add another
dimension to the game if it mattered
significantly. If you decide to play as
your Mii, you’ll be able to customise
your clothing and accessories, which
will have different effects in-game.
The courses will apparently be a mix
of realistic golf courses and Super
Mario themed environments. Players will deal with obstacles like wind,
water, and a variety of sand traps
that may or may not actually feature sand. One course that is being

“..ONLINE TOURNAMENTS ORGANISED BY
PLAYERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD TO TEST
YOUR SKILLS.”
Not many details have been released about gameplay thus far but
it isn’t too hard to guess the object
of the game when it has always
centred on a real life game. Hit the
ball with a golf club to complete
the course in the lowest number of
strokes; it’s pretty simple. But this is
a Mario game and of course it’s go-

promoted heavily is entirely underwater, not that this seems to affect
the physics at all. Personally, I would
find it more interesting if the ball behaved differently. It doesn’t have to
be realistic but it seems important to
acknowledge the different environment. There are other ways to handle it, though, and the previews are

a little light on the possibilities with
this. I’m not writing that whole area
off yet; it could still be great.
Golf is a social game and World
Tour promises a whole host of online multiplayer features and an
emphasis on community play. This
is where the true value of the title
is because, much like Mario Kart,
people will have a reason to keep
the cartridge in the console after
they have already mastered the
single player sections. If you really
dig the competition, you will be able
to jump into online tournaments organised by players from all over the
world to test your skills. Maybe I’m
too used to laughing at outrageous
cheating videos of Mario Kart online
but I’d like to think that the Mario
Golf series offers an even playing
field.

For a game that’s coming out in May
of this year and was actually slated
to be released last year, there is a
surprising lack of specific information around about it. Of course, it
doesn’t feature a storyline so this
isn’t the deal-breaker it might be if
sales depended on it. Like most of
the casual titles in the Mario collection, people will go for it based on
the history of each franchise and if
you’re ever after a decent game for
a handheld, it’s hard to go wrong
with Mario. Regardless, it’s not long
to go now before we can all try our
hand at it and, if you’re like me, fail
to understand the rules spectacularly and more than likely have Mario
digging holes in the green! Oops!

Written by Bridget Sweeney
www.stickytriggerentertainment.com

FORMAT:
3DS
RELEASE:
3 MAY 2014
RATING:
CTC