Mario Golf: Advance Tour came out in 2004 and was the followup to the GBC version of Mario Golf. Like it's predecessor and the GBC/GBA Mario Tennis games, it's both a sports game and an RPG. How does it compare to it's predecessor? I'll tell you by making this review.

Graphics: 7/10 While the visuals are an upgrade over it's predecessor, they're not the most impressive on the GBA. The game is shown in a top-down perspective, but the hills are still easy to see thanks to arrows shown on the screen. Overall I'm giving the graphics a 7/10.

Sound: 7/10 Like all the other games made by Camelot, the music is done by Motoi Sakuraba. If you're a fan of his music like I am, this soundtrack will be right up your alley. I will say that the music in this game isn't as memorable as his other GBA sound tracks such as the Golden Sun games and Mario Tennis: Power Tour. Like Mario Golf GBC though, Putts' theme still slaps. Overall though, the music is good enough for me to give the sound a 7.

Addictiveness: 9/10 All of the Mario Sports games are fun to play, and Mario Golf: Advance Tour is no exception. Like the other GBA/GBC games, it's both a sports game and an RPG. You level up your stats like an RPG, there's a story like an RPG (though admittedly not much of one, but I'll get to that one later). If you're a fan of golf video games and a fan of RPGs, you'll have a good time with this one. I'm giving the addictiveness a 9.

Story: 2/10 This game takes place long after the events of Mario Golf on GBC. The previous game's main character Kid is no longer able to play golf due to an injury he suffered between the 2 games, and has instead focused on teaching 4 students to take on the challenges he faced in the previous game. One of those characters is the character you choose, another is your doubles partner, while the other 2 honestly have no reason to exist. They literally do nothing but stay at the lodge, you never encounter them at any point in your journey other than the very beginning of the game which is a huge wasted opportunity. For that reason, I'm giving the story a 2.

Depth: 8/10 One thing Advance Tour has going for it over it's predecessor is the fact that you have doubles matches here, which by itself gives more for you to have to do than the GBC game. There aren't as many wacky minigames as there are in the other GBA Mario sports game Mario Tennis: Power Tour, but there's still enough for me to give the depth an 8.

Difficulty: 4/10 Mario Golf: Advance Tour isn't an overly difficult game, especially compared to it's predecessor. However, the introduction of doubles golf ups the difficulty a little bit thanks to your partner being controlled by the CPU. Despite that, it's not too difficult of a game, so I'm giving the difficulty a 4.

Overall Score: 8/10 In my personal opinion, Mario Golf: Advance is the weakest of the 4 story driven Mario Sports games. While doubles is an interesting addition for a golf game, it doesn't make up for poor writing choices. It's still a fun game all things considered, but at least in my personal opinion, it doesn't quite live up to it's predecessor or the Mario Tennis games. I still think it's worthy of an 8 overall though.