Mario Golf: Advance Tour (Game Boy Advance)

Details: Written by Luke Hackett

Release dates

	Australia	N/A
	Europe	September 17th, 2004
	Japan	April 22nd, 2004
	N.America	June 22nd, 2004

General information
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Developed by Camelot
Published by Nintendo
Players: Single player

Overview

Mario Golf: Advance Tour brings the popular Mario golf series to your Game Boy Advance. Choose between two golfers; Neil and Ella who are beginner golfers and work your way up to the top, your player will gain better skill and accuracy the more you play. Featuring many of your favourite characters from the Mushroom Kingdom.

Featuring a great variety of imaginative courses, an interactive clubhouse and more. You can compete in either singles or doubles tournaments against the pros, not only this but there are loads of side games to help you improve your golf, and test yourself to see what level you're at!

Official Description

Play 18 holes with your favorite Marioland characters - Mario, Luigi, Peach, Donkey Kong and more;Use power-ups and each characters' unique abilities to get past obstacles and improve your game;Play through sandtraps, tall grass and other obstacles to unlock secret characters and challenging new holes;It's the most fun you can have on a golf course!

Gameplay

Just like in all the other Golf games, the gameplay is simplified, choose your club, point at where you want the shot to land, give strength to the shot and English and backspin and shoot. Land the par and achieve normalness, land the birdie, eagle, or albatross or go for that desired Hole-in-one!

Select a left handed or right handed character, develop a fade or a draw, make sure to see if you are a power shooter or a control player, and do the hardest thing of them all, perfect your putts! Master balance on these three aspects and achieve greatness!

Characters

Neil and Ella are the main male and female characters, their abilities change according to how you level them up. A lot of the staff from previous Mario Golf games return and they are usable for stroke matches.

Peach and her Golf Clubs
From Mario Universe:

Mario: Keeping his straight, heavy power drive.
Peach: With a straight low height drive.
Yoshi: Yoshi, an overall rounded character.
Donkey Kong: A power player with heavy fade and no control.
Luigi: Great control and almost no impact
Bowser: Powerful drive and super spin.
Waluigi: Great spin and impact
Wario: Great Power shots and high impact.

From Mario Golf Universe: Joe Holding Golf Club

Joe posing with his golf club

Putts: Great control and impressive putts.
Joe: Normal drive and great control.
Grace: With low height and no spin but great control!
Sherry: Impressive height and control, perfect for windy fields.
Tiny: With a heavy drive and tall shots.
Azalea: With overall control and good counter spin
Gene: With bad control but good spin.
Kid: Good spin and average height.

Courses

There are five courses in total which have to be obtained through playing. The courses are:

Marion: The all going easy green field course with almost no wind on it.
Palms: Which is the seaside course, surrounded by palms and since its ona beach there are sand hazards and heavy winds, approaching can be hard on this course.
Dunes: A Desert course with heavier winds and little green area.
Links: Right from the legend of Zelda, a seaside nightmare with heavy wings, tall trees and a lot of hazards. The hardest course.
Elf’s Short course: This is a true challenge consisting of 18 par 3 holes. Every single drive has to be a hole in one or a good on or the challenge is lost.

Elfs Short course hole 1 (left), Link's Course hole 1 (centre) and Palms Course hole 1 (right.)

Reception

Mario golf advance tour received pretty positive reviews, called ‘one of the best golfing games ever’ by IGN providing it with an Editors’ choice award. Game informer said that ‘handheld golf has never been as much fun’. Aside from the golfing factor, the rpg factor of it was well received and EGM said that ‘leveling up the characters is addictive’.

Overall it was received as well as Mario Golf GB and as a wonderful alternative to Toadstool tour on the GCN.

Edge 6/10
Egm 8.67/10
Gamepro 4.5/5
IGN 9.5/10
Nintendo Power 4.4/5
Super Luigi Bros review by Cloud22 9/10

Videos

Check out these videos of Mario Golf: Advance Tour including it's cinematic intro, trailers and various TV Commercials!

Mario Golf: Advance Tour intro video recorded on GCN via Link Cable

A USA TV Commercial for MGAT

The Japanese Trailer for MGAT

The trailer for Mario Golf Advance Tour's re-release on the Wii U Virtual Console

Trivia & Facts

On the virtual console it is impossible to link the game to Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour due to lack of support for the GBA-GCN link cable.
The Marion Club field is the same as it has been on every single golf game released before, Golf for NES, Mario Golf GB and 64 and it is used afterwards even on Wii Sports.