Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve (PS5, XBS, PC) Overview Trailer

Reviews are out for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, and the game is certainly flying high with critics. Ahead of the game's release on October 2nd, Bandai Namco has provided this overview trailer for the game, a relative deep dive into the skies of Ace Combat 8. With quality reviews, you might be thinking about taking to the skies yourself next week. Now seems like a good time as any to consider preordering, then, if you haven't already, as Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War remains an exclusive preorder bonus.

Kalanoro (Multi) Review

A game I previously previewed on SPC, Kalanoro sees a full release today on PC, Switch, Xbox Series consoles, and the platform I'm reviewing this game on, the PlayStation 5. Let's take a trip to Lemuria and experience some Malagasy folklore and culture in the process, shall we?

Doubles as an enjoyable game and a lovely primer in Malagasy culture

Kalanoro stars Kalakely, one of the hairy, eponymous creatures of Malagasy folklore, in a musical adventure. To follow an ancient prophecy, Kalakely needs to cancel the concert plans of the sinister witch named Raneny, who has taken over Lemuria. How to do this? By jumping into a tour bus, rescuing a bunch of lemur musicians, creating a band, and singing and playing their way to Raneny, of course! It's a simple enough story that is imbued and strengthened by not only an immense amount of cute charm, but also because it represents so much of Madagascar, its culture, and folklore--a part of the world that decidedly doesn't get much in the way of representation in gaming. Therefore it was incredibly cool to be enlightened and introduced to this part of the world in such a wonderful way. 

If Kalanoro was a Malagasy dish, like the ones Kalakely prepares on the tour bus for her bandmates, then the ingredients would be one part 3D platformer, one part band management, and one part rhythm game. The 3D platforming is the main ingredient, of course, and this takes place in various levels, generally giving the player a quasi-overhead perspective of the action. 

Kalakely's ready for adventure and to assemble her ensemble of lemur musicians!

Kalanoro's levels feature plenty of platforming and especially dangers to concern herself with, whether that be disappearing platforms to leap off from, rolling spike hazards to avoid, boxes that dip into poisonous water when Kalakely's weight is distributed on them, spike traps that mount upon Kalakely passing over them, and more. 

Fortunately, Kalakely the Kalanoro has several moves to not just get around levels, but also to contend with various enemies that get in her way. Between jumps and double jumps, as well as air dashes that allow her to pass through certain gates, Kalakely is well equipped to platform her way through levels. 

Perhaps the piece de resistance for Kalakely is that of her hair. Throughout the game she can get shampoo that strengthens her massive mane to perform various different abilities. She can grab onto enemies and pull herself towards them for a charge attack, and conversely, attach her hair to switches and levers to pull them to open doors and such. Later, she can use her lovely locks to latch onto enemies and shock them. This hair ability can also siphon and transfer electricity from generators to open up locked doors. Finally, Kalakely earns the ability to throw a clump of hair at enemies to blind and confuse them, having them go berserk in their anger and start attacking their friends. This mass of hair can also block pipes spewing toxic gas as well as cover the gaze of security cameras.

Keep your rear in gear and avoid those spears, Kalakely!

When you're not running, jumping, and air dashing through levels, you'll be pitted against numerous enemies. This usually happens in cordoned off zones that are essentially rooms where you face and fight off a mob of enemies using kicks, punches, Kalakely's various hair techniques (each has a cooldown, by the way), and also weapons that can be picked up from the ground. These weapons come in the form of hammers, signposts, shoes, carrots, among other objects, and each has their own amount of hits they can give to enemies before they break. 

This enemy saw the sign, and while it didn't open up their eyes, it did totally knock them out.

Unfortunately, combat is not really a strong suit for Kalanoro. Between the camera being too far zoomed out to always be able to clearly see the arena you're fighting in--meaning it's way too easy to take unintended hits, especially from ranged weapons and shots--and just the clunky feel of combat in general, I sort of got to a point near the end of the game where I groaned each and every time I encountered a room like this. Since it happens basically three times a level, yeah, it got old quick. 

While discovering combat rooms isn't too joyful, what instead is are the vast amounts of goodies thata are generally cleverly hidden within Kalanoro's dozens of levels. The main collectible is that of blue gems, used as the currency in Lemuria and for Kalakely to purchase the previously mentioned shampoo, as well as upgrades to her tour bus and other goodies from various vendors across the Lemuria world map. There are also lost Lemur children to rescue, paintings of Renany to cover up with posters of Kalakely's band, cassette tapes which unlock new songs from actual Malagasy artists to play on the tour bus, and scrolls which reveal interesting iotas of information regarding Malagasy folklore. Each level optionally has a set amount of collectibles to fully nab, and doing so will give you a 100% notification at the end of a given level for doing so.

When you're not running and roaming through levels, you'll spend the rest of your time moving from location to location, level to level, via your traveling tour bus. Here, you can craft posters and numerous Malagasy dishes from materials found throughout Kalakey's adventures. The dishes are to satisfy the bandmates Kalakely rescues along her journey. Basically, when a given band member has a specific dish over the head in a thought bubble, that's Kalakely's cue to cook something up for them using gathered food materials through a super simplistic crafting mini-game. Fail to do this after a-decidedly-generous-while and the bandmate has the potential to run off and get abducted by Ranany's troops again. Therefore, you'll have to go back to the original level you rescued them and do so once more.

Kalakely's transport to levels, gigs, and more, one could say it's a "bus"tling hub.

Thus, what this amounts to is needless babysitting to satisfy your bandmates, and it happens so much where they yearn for something to eat--pretty much every two levels completed. It becomes incredibly tedious, and I can't help but wonder if there would have been a better way to incorporate crafting real-world Malagasy dishes to enhance the gameplay flavor instead of detracting from the game's menu of features instead. 

Perhaps instead of using fear of punishment to force players to feed Kalakely's bandmates, Kalanoro could have instead given players positive reinforcement techniques to do so. For instance, building their friendships through giving them dishes they like, which in turn could reward given goodies at different points in their friendships. Just spitballing and brainstorming, because as is, having to feed Kalakely's bandmates is an imposition at best and obnoxious as all get out at worst when all I wanted to do was enjoy the other aspects of the game.

Kalanoro has a pretty typical loop to it in what you need to do. Each time you enter a new region of the world map, of which there are three total, you're tasked with entering the level to rescue a band member (i.e. playing through a normal level from point A to point B). From there, the next level after is all about finding their instrument of choice at that level's end. The next step is printing off posters (from wood found in levels) and spreading the word of Kalakely and band's upcoming concert. This is done by plastering said posters over Raneny's smug face-ridden portraits in one of two to three levels that then open up. Finally, the actual concert performance happens, and then the process of finding a new bandmate anew once again. This process happens twice per region with a boss level following it.

The concert performances themselves start off with Kalakely and a bandmate performing in front of a sparse smattering of Lemurians. As your band gains fame and fans from doing different actions throughout the adventure (putting up posters, defending boom boxes from enemy attacks in special level areas, and rescuing Baby Lemurians, for example), the audience and venues for the concerts expand as the game goes on. The performances themselves are incredibly basic rhythm mini-games. You press a button when the gauge around the circle reaches the blue part and occasionally aim at Raneny's troops who try to mess up the performance behind the stage. 

The music in Kalanoro is some marvelous Malagasy-style magic.

As for the boss battles, these are engaging fights that offer a decent amount of challenge. Perhaps quite a bit more than the standard levels seen otherwise in the game. They're all about waiting for an opportunity for the boss to become vulnerable (sometimes too much of a wait) and then pummeling them senseless while they are in that state. Fortunately, even with some of the fights being a bit taxing, the game does well in bestowing you with hearts to replenish your health, so you seldom have to worry about playing perfectly.

Kalanoro's first boss certainly knows how to make waves.

If Kalakely does lose all of her health in a level, whether from falling into pits too many times, or taking a lot of damage from enemies or hazards, you have the option of either restarting the level from the beginning or opting to use some blue gems to revive her instantly on the spot. Curiously, there is a finite amount of gems in Kalanoro to collect throughout the game. Ones you've collected previously show up a translucent in appearance and don't count towards your overall total when grabbed again. This means, theoretically, you could spend all of your gems and be left without a way to revive yourself or buy items from various vendors. Sure, by the end of Kalanoro I was swimming in over 2,000 gems, but it makes me interested to see if it is indeed possible to run out of gems completely and what would happen then. 

While I did overall enjoy Kalanoro, there were other aspects that took me out of my element of enjoyment with it. For one, occasional glitches where I could easily reach certain areas of levels, but the game did not necessarily like me doing that, resulting in Kalakely getting stuck with no alternative but to restart the level. Further, some of the parts where the game switches between 3D and a 2D perspective didn't always function the greatest. Kalakely could sometimes get placed or locked on the wrong plane in the transition between a 3D and 2D section, causing some frustrations in the control and platforming accuracy departments. 

Kalanoro isn't a lengthy game either way. I beat it within a weekend, and it took about six hours to 100%, collecting everything in levels and completing all of the side quests. Honestly, it's a fair amount of time for this type of game. It doesn't outwear its welcome length-wise, even if the constant demand to cook dishes for bandmates did. 

Glitches, poor combat, and some unfortunate, disappointing design decisions aside, Kalanoro is an above average platformer that I'm glad I was able to play. My introduction to Malagasy culture and folklore was a massive bonus as well in playing this game. With a ton of lovely charm, good vibes, and some decent, but not great level design, Kalanoro might not necessarily be a must-play for platforming fans, but it certainly made this reviewer pleased to play it.

[SPC Says: C+] 

A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review. 

This game was played via the PlayStation 5 version. Kalanoro is also available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series consoles, and PC. 

Rayman Legends Retold (Multi) Game Overview Trailer

Ahead of its December 3rd release date, Rayman Legends Retold has received a new game overview trailer. The voice of Barbara, Elana Dunkelman, narrates this look at various features in this remade and reborn rendition of Rayman Legends. New levels, new modes, new features, and a whole lot more arrive in this remake, and it almost makes the recent delay sting a little less! Almost. Either way, Rayman Legends Retold will arrive on all current platforms in early December.

Isle of Reveries (Multi) Review

Cooler, more seasonable temps have finally arrived in Central City. It's my wish come true! That said, as we'll see in our next review for this month, some wishes can become corrupt. Well, that seems to just usually happen on the eponymous Isle of Reveries, and this here is the SuperPhillip Central review.

When you wish upon an isle, doesn't matter "hoot" you are.

The Legend of Zelda franchise celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and no doubt the series is a major inspiration to many developers, as we've seen many similar games of its vein released over the years. Even this year, I've covered games like Under the Island and Elementallis, for starters, each offering their own creative flavor and spin on the series's core tropes and gameplay loops.

Now, Isle of Reveries is the latest offering from an indie, delivering the hopes and dreams of another competent and enjoyable Zelda-like, this time with a Game Boy Color aesthetic to it. Does it do enough to make players want to give a hoot about it?

The titular Isle of Reveries is a skyward island, home to legends of being able to ask and get any wish granted. As the game begins, our owl protagonist Leif has started a pilgrimage of his own to the isle, in hopes of getting his own personal wish granted: to bring his deceased younger brother back to life. However, shortly upon touching foot--or talon, in this case--on the Isle of Reveries, a disturbing truth is revealed on how the isle manages to corrupt the wishes of those who have already made the grueling journey. With a new goal in mind, Leif sets off to assist saving the lost souls who have fallen victim to the island's curse.

A handful of hearts are available to Leif at the start of his adventure, 
but he can certainly earn more in true Zelda-like fashion.

While the premise of the story is one that is intriguing, the overall narrative doesn't really provide too many twists and turns to excite. Instead, what did interest me was the quest itself, which the story does do an admirable job of setting up. And I think most of us can agree that the quest is the most important piece to a Zelda-style adventure.

Rather quickly into Leif's quest, he discovers a helpful fairy, one that serves as not just a means to chat to the various characters that Lief stumbles across on his adventure, but also takes on the role of a duplication entity. Many objects within Isle of Reveries can be duplicated by a press of a trigger: from rocks to blocks, braziers to boulders, and other miscellaneous goodies to aid in making progress for Leif and thus, players as well.

This mechanic lends itself well to more than exploration, but also the plethora of puzzles within Isle of Reveries six major dungeons. These house plentiful brain-teasers as you navigate halls, chambers, and other rooms full of enemies, other dangers, and obstacles in your path. Some puzzles are as simple as placing a duplicated item to hold down a pressure-sensitive plate to keep a door open, while others require more thinking and mental finesse.

Duplicating objects--only one can be "saved" at a time--is utilized with great use in combination with the multiple unique items and tools that Leif finds across his adventure. The Clawncher, for instance, offers the ability to grab objects from faraway and brings them to Leif, rather than bringing Leif to the objects as if he were using the Zelda series's Hookshot. The Clawncher can also pull weapons and armor from enemies to leave them defenseless, or conversely, to otherwise open them up to attacks. Many of these items are used in tandem with each other as well as the central duplication mechanic, and these, in turn, are used to solve puzzles within the game and its dungeons. 

The dungeons themselves house plenty of secrets, key items, and of course challenges both physical and mental alike--such as enemies, hazards, and puzzles. The traditional aim to find treasure chests, secure keys, unlock doors, and make progress all the while solving puzzles and contending with enemies and traps is present and accounted for here, like any proper Zelda dungeon experience. What impressed me most was how well--even in the first dungeon--the puzzles were consistently complex and required some deep level of thinking to solve. Sometimes trial and error were necessary components, but for the most part, I usually was missing a key piece of insight, such as needing to utilize an item or duplication in a way I hadn't yet considered.

Leif launches the Clawncher at this foe within one of the later game dungeons.

Not all is as excellently crafted with Isle of Reveries' dungeons. It's difficult not to compare to the game's clear inspiration, so permit me to take the Zelda series and its dungeons as a comparison. Most of the dungeons in Isle of Reveries do not have a logical flow to them. You're constantly backtracking and entering and re-entering rooms to try to discover a means for progression. 

It's unlike most of the Zelda games, where dungeons lead you back to hub rooms or central chambers where items and keys you acquired that you didn't your first time through could this time be utilized. It's easy enough to know where you need to go without the game literally telling you where you need to go, and this is performed simply by how well the Zelda series' dungeons are designed. In Isle of Reveries' dungeons, I was aimlessly and repeatedly passing through well trodden territory and rooms in search of which door this key I just secured belonged, or what this key item I acquired was best suited for. 

Dungeons conclude not just upon finding the boss key, opening the door for said key, and battling the boss lurking behind said door, but you also have to escape the dungeon afterwards in a post-boss scramble for a special door. The dungeon itself becomes corrupted and you must battle and platform your way through familiar yet also altered paths (and in a more dangerous form--like with poisonous waters permeating throughout the rooms) to your destination. Some of these paths are simple enough to follow, but others just made a frustrating trek even more so.

As much as I appreciate most of the design decisions of Isle of Reveries, some did less than satisfy. For one, the simple act of needing to jump (performed with the R1 button on the PlayStation versions of the game) wasn't always conducive to the required platforming occasionally needed. Aggravating falls into water or pitfalls means you respawn from where you originally entered the room. Jumping just doesn't feel as precise as it could have been, and it's so easy to slip into pits and other hazards from errant leaps.

And while the items featured in Isle of Reveries are darn fun to use, especially a later game Rift Wand, that immediately exchanges your location with any small object or enemy the small ball of energy hits, each item uses an energy meter. While this meter refills over time after a relatively short cooldown, you're constantly having to use items and tools to solve puzzles as well as defeat enemies that your sword otherwise won't make a dent in (or a slice through, in this case) that this constantly resulted in me having to idle and wait for the cooldown to end and slowly replenish my gauge. This was just so I could use an item or tool again. When the game requires so much use of items, this energy meter and the need to refill it through time makes for an agonizing wait at times. 

Hopefully all this rain doesn't ruffle Leif's feathers!

That said, there is special equipment in the form of trinkets that can be found from planting special seeds in certain plots of land throughout the game's overworld map. A trio of trinkets can be equipped at a given time, and there are over 20 presenting different bonuses to Leif on his journey. These can make a special sound when he's in the same room as a specific goodie, whether that be the location of a plot of land, an Akedo Leaf (one of many collectibles within the game), a Goddess Petal (the Heart Pieces of Isle of Reverie), or something else. They also have other effects, too, such as limiting damage from falling into pits, nullifying Leif's slipping on ice, and having enemies drop more hearts in combat than usual.

Exploration is a common occurrence and claim to fame of Zelda-likes, and Isle of Reveries does this well, especially with its overworld map. There are eight unique, interconnected environments to explore, from marshlands to forests, as well as brutally cold mountains to quicksand-laden deserts. The world map is one that isn't overly expansive, instead serving a nice compact design to players. Eventually you can earn a special ukulele instrument that doubles as a fast travel device, further making exploration less tedious and more enjoyable. 

The overworld map is constantly opening up new areas as key items from dungeons and other parts of the game are given to the player. Because the map is so compact, it was never a major challenge to remember where a place or corner of map I couldn't previously explore was situated. That way, I could take my newly found Draco Coil or aforementioned Clawncher and use them to chart new paths, find new secrets, as well as nab collectibles and goodies I previously couldn't reach and access. This aspect of Isle of Reveries definitely lends itself better to wandering the overworld, rather than the aimless variety I did within dungeons. 

Meet characters of all types in Isle of Reveries. Look--I think Leif just mer-made a new friend!

Speaking of, there is a lot of content to be discovered in Isle of Reveries, such as miniature dungeons containing optional upgrades to tools, a full trading sequence reminiscent of Link's Awakening for some sweet rewards, and even a miniature town builder, where many of the NPCs  you rescue or interact with throughout Leif's journeys in Isle of Reveries return to, making a nice, little, cozy community of characters to ensemble in. It's really rewarding to start out with a barren area that is the Verdant Valley and eventually by the endgame see it brimming with life and bustling with characters.

Graphically, Isle of Reveries mostly looks the part of a Game Boy Color-styled game inspired by The Legend of Zelda. I say "mostly" because one issue that Isle of Reveries has that the Game Boy Color Zelda titles do not is that the former suffers from a lot of visual clutter on maps and in dungeons. It can be difficult to distinguish between what objects can be picked up, passed through, walked on, etc. The Thorny Thicket biome is especially troublesome in this regard. The beauty of games like Link's Awakening and the Oracle games was in their graphical simplicity. Objects were easy to distinguish between and the visual clutter just wasn't anywhere near as present like it is in Isle of Reveries.

Some game areas are more arduous to ascertain where you can and can't move than others.

Isle of Reveries offers an overall worthwhile and well designed Zelda-like adventure. The game's starring duplication mechanic is a massive boon to making for some seriously challenging and engaging puzzles, as does the roster of wonderful tools and items. Although aspects like the quickly depleting energy gauge, lack of logical flow in otherwise cleverly designed dungeons, and some major clutter in the visuals do detract from the experience, all in all, Isle of Reveries is yet another Zelda-inspired indie game this year that "owl" probably return to in the future. It's one I also think you should give a "hoot" about, too.

[SPC Says: B-]

A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review. 

This game was played via the PlayStation 5 version. Isle of Reveries is also available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series consoles, Xbox One, and PC. 

Mario Golf: Advance Tour (GBA) Retro Review

Sometimes I get the urge to play a retro game. Sometimes it's one I've played countless times and never reviewed, but other times it's one that slipped through the cracks of my gaming knowledge and/or prowess. 

Mario Golf: Advance Tour is somehow one of those, as it comes from my second-favorite Mario spin-off series: Mario Golf! How I never fully dove into this entry is anyone's guess, but now I remedy that with not just my completed playthrough, but a full SuperPhillip Central retro review! 

As a supplement to this review, be sure to check out my review of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, which links up to this game.

Linking up on the links, with both positive and negative results.

Out of all of the Mario spin-offs that have come around the bend and released (Mario Kart notwithstanding), one of my absolute favorites HAS to be the Mario Golf series from Camelot. It's Mario, and it's golf--a sport that is otherwise boring in real life to me, but offers so much more as an interactive video game. You have colorful, fantastical courses, strategy in how to take on each hole of a given course, an assortment of larger-than-life characters to play as, and it all usually works out to be more engaging than the real sport could ever hope to be for me. 

That said, it blows my mind that despite playing all of the console entries of Mario Golf, I've missed fully experiencing all there is of the handheld games. Now, I've played a hole or two here and there, and Mario Golf: World Tour on the Nintendo 3DS is my favorite of the franchise to this day. However, I've never seriously spent time with the Game Boy Advance entry--until now. Mario Golf: Advance Tour is the second entry in the series with a dedicated story mode, one that fans continue to miss from future installments. What makes it so irresistible to players? Allow me to take to the first tee, get out my driver, and experience this answer for myself. 

Mario Golf: Advance Tour is neither a dumbed down nor a lesser experience than its big console brother: Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour. While the visuals, of course, are not lovely polygonal 3D models and environments, Camelot has done some technical wizardry with making a duo of different graphical modes that make for a magnificent experience, whether through viewing it or actually playing it.

Who left all of the palm trees? Are we sure these are regulation fairways?!

You get an overhead look of the current hole you're playing on itself, complete with friendly fairways, the verdant putting green, as well as all the hazards that surround it: rough, bunkers, trees, out of bounds areas, and yes, water, too. What's amazing about this aforementioned technical wizardry is that no matter where your ball may lie, when you switch to setting up your shot through the traditional three-click accuracy meter (one the series has long used), the camera shows everything that is around your character to perfect quality. That is to mean that if you had a tree your ball narrowly dodged to the right, and your ball is currently sitting on a fast fairway with a bunker in front of it, the game will accurately show this in the behind-the-shoulder viewpoint. That tree will be sitting directly to your right, your character will be standing on a fast fairway, and wouldn't you know, that bunker would be dead ahead.

A second view shows off shots, as well as serves as a means to get an overhead view of the course.

Mario Golf: Advance Tour is first and foremost a golf RPG. Immediately upon turning on the game you're greeted with a Toad who asks whether you want to play as a boy or a girl character. Whichever gender/character you choose, the other serves as your doubles partner through the game's story. Advance Tour sees your ragtag group of up-and-coming golfers entering the Marion Golf Club, much to their equal delight and anxiety. "Are they ready for the big leagues?" and "Can they compete against everyone?" These are some of the doubts and questions that linger in their minds.

What follows is a LOT of verbose talkative characters and scenes, which is pretty much a trademark of Camelot's RPGs, especially if you were just coming off Golden Sun on the same platform. Fortunately, like Golden Sun before it, if you can get through the "saying very little worthwhile despite talking a lot" dialogue that Golden Sun threw at players, then you can get through a lighter version of this with Mario Golf: Advance Tour.

And you can bet that our teacher isn't Kid-ding around. (His name is Kid. Get it?)

Your room is your headquarters and place to save data, as well as switch between solo singles play and doubles play with your CPU partner. It's also the place where you'll store your multiple trophies that you and your doubles partner will hope to claim victor to. 

Starting from the Marion Club, there are four other major courses to tackle on your quest to be the best golfer. As you complete either solo or doubles tournaments and match play battles, you'll unlock access to new courses, new characters, and more content within the story mode. 

Of course, starting out immediately, you probably won't be out-driving or putting with the best of them. Thankfully, as you play and engage in every kind of golf activity there is to do in the story: whether that's competing in tournaments, facing characters in match play contests, and taking on various challenges like approach, driving, and putting challenges, you'll earn experience points--win or lose. Though, of course, you'll earn more EXP for winning. These points can be divided up between you and your doubles partner to level yourselves up. Each level nets you the ability to level up one stat: from your maximum driving distance, to your control, to your impact, and even the spin you can put on your shots.

Each time you level up, you earn a stat to upgrade! Choose wisely!

Whether you're playing in Singles or Doubles play, where your CPU partner does their best to either sink hard putts or sink your chances of making it on the green in regulation due to poorly made shots, you're at the mercy of your stats. If you hog all the experience points for yourself, your CPU partner will play even more poorly than they otherwise would.  

My doubles partner and I are out and about on the world map.

There is a wide abundance of activities outside of tournaments and match play contests. While those are the star of the show and the main events to compete in and complete, there's a whole world map of activities to take on. You have a Ring Shot-style mini-game where you drive and hit the ball through colored gates and try to make par or better on a given hole while doing so. There is a long-distance expedition of a hole that is far beyond traditional golf regulations with regards to its par, offering a Par 9 hole. The requirement here is to reach or beat par. As you continue on to the normal and hard difficulties, the par requirement lowers. 

Sink par or better while hitting your ball through all of these gates in this particular mini-game.

Thus, not only do the activities reward you with experience in point and level form, but they also reward you with experience in actual golfing form. These activities are essentially tutorials in all but name, but given a fun gamified aim to them to keep them interesting and feeling fresh and original.   

To make it feel even more like home to RPG fans--if the experience and leveling up didn't already do so-- there is plenty of discovery and exploration to be found in Mario Golf: Advance Tour. From little mini-games in each course, like one where you follow a Pokey around the Dunes Club, hitting it with a golf ball several times at different locations around the map to ward it off, to items found in cupboards and drawers, there's a lot to do and find. 

These items come in the form of instant level ups, power increases, and custom tickets are able to be traded in to a world map location where custom clubs can be created. These custom clubs can bring your characters more power, better control, straighter shots, higher or lower shot trajectories, and much more in a pinch, depending on how you utilize your tickets.  

Speaking of utilization, Mario Golf: Advance Tour utilizes connectivity with the GameCube's Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour. While this is nifty and pretty cool in theory, in practice it locks out a hefty amount of content from Advance Tour players if they don't link up with Toadstool Tour. The connectivity between the Game Boy Advance's Advance Tour and the GameCube's Toadstool Tour is available with the asterisk and expectation that you've playing through both games intently. 

What I mean by this is that to unlock most of the Mushroom Kingdom cast within Mario Golf: Advance Tour, not only do you need to link up to Toadstool Tour, but you have to at least have earned a requisite amount of Birdie Badges through the latter's Tournament mode. Further, throughout the story mode of Advance Tour, you'll find yourself unlocking different Star versions of the base game's various holes. These add Mario-themed items, gimmicks, and hazards to the standard courses, but only for the holes that you unlock them in. Most of these, unfortunately, require completing certain tasks in Toadstool Tour and linking them to Advance Tour, as well.

Not "mushroom" for error on the course today, Mario!

As a positive, you can transfer your custom golfers over to the Toadstool Tour game and vice versa and gain experience points through either game. Plus, you get a severe advantage of having a playable character in Toadstool Tour who can theoretically drive off the tee for more than 350 yards, making your power hitter and character all the more useful and worthwhile to link between the games for.

Now, to be fair, it's not as if you're missing content that is must-have or makes Mario Golf: Advance Tour an incomplete experience if you don't have access to a GameCube, a Game Boy Advance, and a copy of Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour. It's actually just gravy to the mound of mashed potatoes that Advance Tour already is, or maybe I can turn that into something golf-related. It's actually just using a 1-Wood when a 3-Wood would already suffice. Eh, I tried!

Mario Golf: Advance Tour is definitely not lacking in golf goodness to enjoy. I haven't even mentioned everything available outside of the story mode: Match Play, Stroke Play, Skins Play, Speed Golf, Club Shots, Near-Pin, and Tournaments are all featured outside of the story, accessed through the main menu. Plus, you can even check out and record your best shots. Sink an impossible putt or score a surprise chip-in eagle? You can easily look back on that in the Records menu. Amazing how a Game Boy Advance game installment can contain all of these modes and options, yet modern Mario Golf games have missed the mark content-wise by so much! Frustrating, but I digress.

It's amazing just how well Mario Golf's console level of gameplay has transitioned to the small screen of the Game Boy Advance with much less in the way of buttons and functions. You have your previously talked about traditional three-press system. One press of a button to start the gauge, one press to set the power, and one press to set the accuracy of your attempted shot. This is all the while factoring the lie of your ball, wind velocity, surrounding hazards, and other factors. Like Toadstool Tour, topspin, backspin, and special super topspin and super backspin effects, as well as being able to control where on the ball you wish to hit it in order to add spin (perfect for aiming around hazards like trees) are available in Advance Tour.

And a nice second shot from the fairway for Her Highness!

And if the "ain't broke, then why fix it" gameplay transitioned well from console to handheld, then so did the presentation. Again, while no one should expect 3D models and the level of graphical fidelity that the much more powerful GameCube can present to players, what Mario Golf: Advance Tour on the Game Boy Advance does offer is working with the system's strengths to impressive degrees. I mentioned how the game shows two viewpoints, an overhead view for aiming your shots and seeing the lay of the land, and one for actually taking your shits, and how detailed each are. It's borderline mind-blowing just how readable these environments, holes, and courses truly present themselves.

On the sound side, Nintendo continues its penchant for incorporating voice clips to show off the sound potential of the Game Boy Advance. This is something the company did ever since one of its launch titles, Super Mario Advance. Either way, it's cute and charming here with both the Super Mario characters featured in the game and the original cast of human characters introduced within the story mode. Meanwhile, Motoi Sakuraba knocks it out of the park--uh, better use another golf-ism here--rather, he sinks a clean chip-in for eagle with his soundtrack. Yes, a fair amount of it is recycled from Toadstool Tour with lesser sound quality, but it all sounds chipper, catchy, and delightful with its infectious melodies and strong synth brass and pan flute incorporated throughout.

As stated, Mario Golf: Advance Tour isn't a downgraded version or lesser experience than Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour. It's just different, and in a lot of ways it's a superior game. In other ways, it's less so. In fact, it wouldn't be a mistake to say that both games are best as supplementary experiences to one another. Both supply excellent golfing gameplay in a highly accessible form while offering a level of challenge that starts small and grows as you progress through their respective games. Mario Golf: Advance Tour is a remarkable adaptation of the franchise in portable, pixelated form. It makes me a bit sad that we haven't seen an RPG mode with this much depth from the series since this installment. At least whenever a more in-depth RPG scenario hits a future Mario Golf entry, we won't have to deal with a link cable...

[SPC Says: A-]