I seriously doubt that there is a sport in existence (in this or any other planet, universe or dimension) that is more tedious than golf. In fact, the term "a good walk ruined" is about as accurate a description as anyone's ever likely to think of, in my humble opinion. The prospect of old men wandering around a field, swinging a club and trying to get a ball in a hole… eighteen times… makes my teeth itch and my dentist wish that both him and myself had decided to go private. It's just not that much fun. At all. In fact, I would controversially go as far as to state that there are far better uses for golf clubs; football hooliganism, window removal and getting the tooth fairy to hurry the hell up are three things that immediately spring to mind. However, while I tend to find real golf - be it playing it or watching it - excessively more boring than watching paint dry, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the Gamecube managed to entice and entertain me from start to finish. And it's golf! Shock!

Essentially, Toadstool Tour offers little that followers of the Mario Golf series or hardcore fans of the real sport and countless Tiger Woods outings won't have seen umpteen times before; however, there is a colossal amount of things to see and do, regardless of players' previous experience with the genre. There are twelve characters on offer from the outset with whom to start chucking a few hundred divots around: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Yoshi, Koopa Troopa, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Birdo, Bowser, Wario and Waluigi; all the faces you'd expect from a Mario game. Additionally, there are four secret characters to unlock by meeting certain criteria within Toadstool Tour's wealth of game modes, all of whom are pleasant surprises. Each character has different attributes - strength, curve, left or right handed, etc - that determine how they perform and ultimately who gamers will spend most of their time playing as. As is the standard procedure with a Mario sports game, every character is evenly matched when compared to the rest, so no one has a distinct advantage over anyone else overall; however, certain golfers may perform better in certain situations than others.

The plethora of modes and mini-games is undeniably impressive. Games such as the Birdie Challenge (where you must get a Birdie on every hole on the course) and Near Pin (where you must play through the course and get the ball as near to the pin as possible on each hole) are accompanied by games such as Speed Golf, which penalises slow players, Coin Shoot, where collecting more coins than your opponent is the name of the game and the Ring Shot challenges, a devilishly tricky series of games where players must get the ball through intricately and often downright nastily placed rings scattered around the course while still staying on par. All of these are designed to help players hone their golfing skills and also dish out plenty of opportunities for rabid obsession of the must-beat-my-high-score variety. There are also doubles matches, where two golfers must play as a team to win, along with Character Matches, which require victory over a specific character; doing so earns the Star version of the respective character, which adds a fair amount of extra wallop to their swing.

Out of the game modes on offer, the main tournaments are what players should ideally be delving into first though, as coming first unlocks the subsequent tournament, along with a brand new course, which can also be played in Toadstool Tour's multiplayer. Sadly, the number, variety and in some cases design of the courses is the one area where the game seems to slouch a bit. There are only six main courses, along with one that is only used for the majority of the side games. And while the later ones are intricately designed and offer up a meaty challenge, the first two or so are disappointingly mediocre. Thankfully it doesn't take too long to unlock some better courses and the presence of massive Chain Chomps in the bunkers (along with warp pipes and giant bouncy mushrooms in abundance) do make the game a tad more interesting... but the fact that it's often a necessity to play on the less desirable ones can make playing through some of the otherwise entertaining modes seem like a chore.

Ultimately, the strength of the gameplay outweighs the inconsistent quality of the courses, even if it is almost overwhelmingly simple, consisting of aiming, then pressing a button to start your swing, before stopping a moving cursor at the right points on a bar at the bottom of the screen, which determines how accurate and powerful your shots are. It's that simple. Certain techniques can be pulled off by quickly entering in some simple button combos; for example, double tapping A or B will give the ball topspin or backspin respectively. It's such a simple premise, yet the game remains as fun and addictive as any Mario game before it. Although additional factors do need to be taken into consideration whilst playing - compensating for wind and selecting the right club are absolutely essential if you don't want to have the ball colliding with a tree or taking a bath - the gameplay remains delightfully accessible, so pretty much anybody can pick it up almost immediately.

On the technical front, Toadstool Tour is more than adequate. For starters it's very, very easy on the ocular sensory organs (or eyes, for anyone who doesn't speak science). Everything from the characters to the courses are vibrant and colourful, with a decent amount of detail; each course is also suitably Mushroom Kingdomy and the effects you're treated to when you give the ball a real whack - depending on which character you're playing as - are very nice. Aurally, the game can be anything from good and/or bearable to a bit annoying. The music is mostly okay, with some irritating tunes chucked in, while some of the things the characters say are hilarious; including a brilliant collection of assorted "WAAAH!" sounds courtesy of Wario and Waluigi (those loveable Italian scamps).

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour takes the adorable charm of Mario and the world of the Mushroom Kingdom and mixes it in with a solid and surprisingly comprehensive game of golf. It's jam-packed full of things to do for the lone player and also doubles up as a highly entertaining multiplayer game. Granted it's not as fast paced and action packed as Mario's other spin-off outings - Mario Kart and Mario Tennis for example - but it's still yet another quality Nintendo exclusive that makes the Gamecube worth owning, even if the console is sadly on its last legs.

Reviewed by Mark Reece for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).