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Mario Golf: World Tour irons out DLC plans, season pass
Nintendo revealed it's taking a swing at season passes with Mario Golf: World Tour, after it announced the 3DS game's DLC schedule today. The arcadey sim gets three packs across May and June, each offering two 18-hole courses and a new playable character. Admission to each one is priced $6/£5.39, but the season pass bundles the lot at $15/£10.79. Brits do get the greater handicap but it's a limited-time offer; after May 31 it reverts to £13.49. The triforce of DLC tees off alongside the game on May 2, starting with the Mushroom Pack which features the pink-as-can-be Toadette. Nabbit steals into the Flower Pack later in the month, while Super Mario Galaxy princess Rosalina features in the June-bound Star Pack. If you're wondering what Gold Mario's doing there, he's just chilling. Oh, and he's a bonus for anyone who buys all three packs, whether that's separately or via the season pass. For a standard membership, the World Tour clubhouse grants you access to 10 different courses comprising 126 holes. Also, going by Nintendo's site, players can expect a roster of 16 characters that includes traditional favorites like Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad, as well as the likes of Daisy, Waluigi, Birdo and Boo. That's the ghost thing, not the girl from Monsters Inc (sadly). In addition to single-player shenanigans, players can take to busier fairways in both local and online multiplayer, or compete in regional and worldwide tournaments. [Image: Nintendo]
Mario Tennis Open review: Holding court
Mario Tennis Open, like most of the Mushroom Kingdom's forays into the world of athletics, isn't really a sports game. All of the pieces are set in place to look like a tennis game, with a layer of Mario's signature whimsy on top, but the game itself is all rhythm and pattern recognition.This simplicity makes it easy to pick up and play, with the unfortunate side effect of making it lose its challenge too quickly. It's a satisfying game and packs some exhilarating moments, but it exhausts its mechanics too soon.%Gallery-152514%
Mario Tennis Open puts a new spin on an old classic
Camelot's Mario Tennis franchise debuts on Nintendo's 3DS handheld with Mario Tennis Open. But this isn't another RPG-fueled handheld installment that have veers from the groundwork laid by console games. Mario Tennis Open is designed to be a console-quality experience for the 3DS.That made for an ultimately unsurprising gameplay experience in the recent preview build I was able to sample -- it felt just like you'd expect a Mario Tennis game to feel. But hiding under the surface was something far more interesting and exciting. Super Mario Tennis is an inventive mini-game that reimagines Nintendo's classic platformer.%Gallery-152514%
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn review: Djinni in a bottle
Camelot Software Planning has been gone for a long time. Oh sure, the studio has put out more than a few Nintendo sports games over the last few years but, as far as I'm concerned, Camelot closed its doors seven years ago. That's when the last Golden Sun was released (on Game Boy Advance!), adding another title to the company's catalog of quality role-playing games, which includes Sega's excellent Shining Force series. Now, after years in Mario sports exile, Camelot has returned to its RPG roots with Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. All I can say is: welcome back. %Gallery-95769%
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn's Hiroyuki Takahashi on the new game, hoaxes and 3DS
It has been seven years since the last Golden Sun game, the GBA's Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Now, after that long wait, Camelot Software Planning has put aside Mario-flavored sports games (and Capcom's We Love Golf) to produce a new entry in the revered RPG series, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, available next week on DS. We spoke with Hiroyuki Takahashi, one of the two Takahashi brothers responsible for creating the series, and Nintendo assistant producer Yuya Sato about the new game and about bringing a seemingly lost series back to life.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn ad is a warning for parents
Perhaps Nintendo picked the wrong message for its Golden Sun: Dark Dawn ad: "Coming soon: the game that will maim your parents." Focusing on the cute, collectible djinn is a good idea for trying to trick Pokemaniacs into picking it up, but maybe we could lay off the family injury next time?
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn features a hyperlinked 'Encyclopedia'
The "Doing Things that Should Have Been Done Long Ago" department at Camelot Software Planning has come up with something brilliant for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, something you've seen before in other contexts: hyperlinks. To help fill new players in on the Golden Sun lore, and to help returning players remember the people, places, and events from those GBA games, the dialogue in Dark Dawn is peppered with links like the one above (the "Tap!" graphic is there because that was the first such link to appear). Tap and an encyclopedia entry for that entity appears on the top screen. It's also saved so you can go back through them later. Who were the Warriors of Vale? What's a Sol Sanctum? The game is free to refer back to this stuff, secure in the knowledge that you can figure it all out. Now that it's been done, all games with lots of characters, or lots of backstory, should implement this immedlately.
We Love Golf American release to include online play
Capcom's upcoming North American version of We Love Golf will add four-player online matches to the recently released Japanese game. Wii players will be able to connect with or without Friend Codes, and they'll have the option of Mii avatars in games.Due sometime this year, the Wii golf game is being developed by Camelot Software, long-time cartoon-golf developers. Collectables and other touches add value to the OCD set; the poll results are in, and we'll get Ken and Morgan costumes in this version. But screw those extras, Capcom had us at "Friend Code optional."%Gallery-18257%
