The Most Mechanically Deep Golf Game?

The World's Absolute Best Golf Game - Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

Today, we’re talking about a game with all the features we love to see featured on this channel.

This is a game that demands quick reactions, complicated strategies that reward intense study, and skill expression that rewards those select few who commit to fully mastering the game. But despite all these factors, its esports potential has gone largely unnoticed by the community.

In today's video, we’re changing things up and talking about an old-school game in a rife genre with solid esports contenders that is still waiting to fully realize its potential.

Grab your clubs, make sure to account for the wind and we’ll see you on the green. This is Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour - an esport in the waiting?

0:00 - Intro
1:04 - What is Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour?
8:30 - Can it be an esport?
10:23 - Outro

[electberet]

Love how Mario is probably one of the most well rounded fictional characters in terms of sports.

[mega]

GameCube really has some of the greatest games. It's wild how many of them have a budding or thriving scene.

[Bluekandy]

There's a reason that I still play this game nearly 19 years later—speedrunning it for 5 years, creating a TAS for it and more.

If there are hundreds of fans hidden in the rough (lol) who are watching this, please hit us up. We want to make a competitive scene for this game. I have experience running the largest Super Rush competitive scene with a ranked ladder system, tournaments and a team of dedicated individuals. The same is just WAITING to happen for MG:TT :D

Thanks to the team at Akshon Esports for this video! What an absolute jewel of a game. It will permanently remain in my top 3 games of all time, simply because the time I've put into it personally has led me down paths I would never change. Even my partner, the love of my life, exists in my life in part because of MG:TT, being recommended my stream years ago since speedrunning it was so niche. Just a reason why I'm still playing. :)

[thechknnuggetgod]

I wish Nintendo had a circuit for all its legendary sports games and have a big tournament like evo once a year and just watch high level Mario sports I’d never watch on my own

[realislit]

So nintendo Gamecube era is really just their esport era with how much of their games become esports

[bitHero]

Akshon Esports Mario Golf content? Yes please.

One of my all time favorite franchises.

Worth talking about Mario Golf World Tour as well! The true successor to Toadstool Tour!

[Dzzy]

I never had Toadstool Tour when I had a Gamecube, but I love how these games have communities that are keeping them alive. One other Gamecube game I'd like to see revived as an eSport is Wave Race: Blue Storm. That game was really fun and had some cool advanced skills for players who took the time to learn the controls. There might be potential there.

[hephlex]

Thanks so much for featuring me in your video, it was a great watch! The underlying complexity of what appears to be a simple Mario sports game on the surface, combined with varying strategies every time you play each hole that you already thought you knew how to tackle, are what keep me going after reaching what I thought were my goals with Toadstool Tour.
A few years ago I tried this game out as a quick speedrun and left it to rest, thinking the game was too hard for me and that it it wasn't worth the time investment. I think a lot of people share that feeling when they give this game ago, because I was one of them too. Fast forward about a year or so ago and one day I decided I wanted to try and see how far I could push my own limits playing Mario Golf, and I realized that this game absolutely rewards the player for just grinding and grinding away better than most games out there do. The holes reward you for your course knowledge. All RNG is adaptable. Weather is able to be overcome. Proper shot selection gets better with time. Using putting and chipping scenarios being absolutely critical to finish off any minor mistake you made. It's a beautiful game to pickup, and I definitely recommend giving it a try. And it also helped me learn that its alright to not jump in headfirst sometimes, this game was there for me when I was ready. Other things in life will be there when you them to be too.

[MetalYoshiProGamer]

I really wish that was my PFP. That MetalYoshi art is badass!

That aside, I'm super happy with how this turned out and all of my cohorts had fantastic insight. We are super welcoming and awaiting competitors both for speedrunning and for serious skins match play! All you need is the ability to run Dolphin with Netplay. Our Discord community, social media, and other resources can be found on the SRC page for Toadstool Tour. This is - all puns intended - a diamond in the rough.

Massive thanks to Akshon Esports for the interviews and this presentation of the game and its community, and massive thanks to my cohorts keeping the spirit alive as I age and atrophy. Everyone keep doing what you're doing!

[clashmanthethird]

You can't just talk about golf e-sports without doing an episode on Neo Turf Masters.

[onyslightly]

I love this! I have been a fan of toadstool tour since launch, and NO ONE around me liked the the game at all. It was a joke how much time i sunk into this game, and I still break it out on my Wii to show new people all the time. Nice to see it get some exposure and love!

[jakk]

My first golf game even before Wii sports and I love it

[thechknnuggetgod]

I love y’all’s content, you guys got me hooked on dinger city, I wanna learn how to get dolphin lol and I only started playing rivals of aether because of y’all, I’m just saying you guys do a great job of making random scenes really compelling, keep doing what y’all do

[DylanMatthewTurner]

I prefer the two click system bc it's not JUST a two click system. The accuracy is determined by the power and the terrain, so there's a different kind of strategy in not hitting as far sometimes in order to stay within a safe accuracy, or you can take the risk. If you have a three click system and just have to time it, there's no strategy anymore.

[grinbrothers]

Absolutely adore the charming opening you made for this video; great job on that and on the video as a whole. It was interesting to learn why the scene hasn't shifted towards the latest Mario Golf game but is there a reason why the 3DS game is ignored in favour of the GameCube entry?

[austinarcher]

this intro is nice!! that soothing golf voice haha

[markelcraig]

The way you open this video was brilliant man

[datalphalion]

Mario Golf World Tour on 3DS is highly underrated. So much content right out of the box plus awesome paid DLC and weekly online tournaments.

[chillmadude]

i think a toadstool tour competitive scene is very viable, i wouldn't know what would be needed to get it started or keep it going, but i think that a competitive scene could easily be created and fostered

[potatoplaya]

I’m loving these videos about these games that have potential to become an esport.