Top 10 Golf Games

08. Mario Golf World Tour

When Nintendo released the 3DS it was a game-changer, but because we had only obtained our DSi-Plus a short time before, justification of making that upgrade was a tad difficult. So we decided we would wait until the 3DS-Plus was released - and when that happened, our choice was clear.

Thing about that is that no matter what the premium game title is that gets you to upgrade - in our case that was the Pokemon games - you still need to have some go-to titles for that new platform that make up the bulk of your game play rotation for it - otherwise it just sort of sits in your bag...

For our new 3DS-Plus the go-to games included one specific title that was a no-brainer: Mario Golf World Tour. Why?

The game is part of a very well-established arcade style golf series from the wizards at development studio Camelot Software Planning, and while it was in fact the sixth game in the series, it was the first game in the series in almost a decade(!) and, considering how much fun (and massive play time) we racked up with 2004's Mario Golf: Advance Tour on the GBA, it really wasn't a struggle making the decision.

The important thing to understand in terms of the game - once you get past the fact that the player gets to play with iconic characters from perhaps if not the best loved game series' in the history of gaming - is that what this newest incarnation of Mario Golf was in simple terms is simple golf.

What we mean by that is... Well.... Simple, really.

Once you are past the characters what you have is a very good and tight simple golf game for the current gen of the mobile games console that challenges the player to hit a golf ball with a golf club across a golf course, the idea being that they want to hit that golf ball into the target hole with the lowest number of strokes they can manage. Yeah, that's golf!

Now factor in the arcade style, which brings a much simpler approach to the game in terms of controls and aims, offers the player a very fast-paced but very entertaining and sometimes challenging world and course, and finally, with a very easy-to-master controls scheme, sees the player establishing and then improving their game in that environment, and you should start to see its attractions.

Now factor in the mixture of real-life influenced and fantasy courses, a strong online mode, and its tournament play, and what you end up with - at least for fans of the game - is a must-have title for your new 3DS that provides the complete portable golf experience in the sort of bite-sized chunks that are important for that sort of game.

The attraction of Mario Golf World Tour holds true whether you happen to insist on having the large Plus model (like we do) or the bog-standard one - the community of fans and regulars pretty much firmly established that.

Now having said that we should also note that it is far from the perfect golf game - but it comes pretty close when the criteria includes portable games platform. Which is how and why Mario Golf World Tour made the cut for our countdown.