The inaugural DLC for Mario Golf: World Tour features two new 18-hole courses and one new character, but outside of the unique additions to the challenges mode, not much new is added. The courses, Toad Highlands and Koopa Park, originated from Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64, and accurately highlight how vanilla of a golf game the series was back then. Outside of some fun warp pipes, they are just regular old courses. The normal 18-hole ones found in the main game are even more creative than these new downloadable courses. I began preferring the somewhat zanier courses as I progressed through World Tour, and Toad Highlands and Koopa Park are in the opposite direction of those.

Fortunately, when you buy this pack you also unlock challenges for each of the two courses, giving you 40 more in total. They are heavier on ring and star coin challenges, but they are also extremely inventive. One of my favorites is a ring shot on a par 3 hole that basically requires you hit a low-to-the-ground line drive that expertly skips over the sand trap. If you are enjoying the challenges, then the new ones are worth the price of admission of the DLC pack. They also amp the difficulty way up.

The new character, Toadette, is extremely weak. She has a really awful drive and is evidently one of the worst playable characters. Outside of the ravenous Toadette fanbase (if it exists), I have no idea why anyone would want to play as such a poor character. If you dove in headfirst with the DLC and bought the Season Pass, you also unlock Gold Mario with this pack. Aside from being great for breaking the game’s economy since every shot he hits earns coins, Gold Mario is weird and uncontrollable. He has an excellent drive, but the ball randomly bounces around after every hit. If you got the Season Pass, I recommend playing through one round with Gold Mario so you get more than enough coins to buy every piece of gear in the game.

The characters clearly aren’t worthwhile in this pack, but even though the two new courses aren’t my favorite, I do like having more variety in courses and the challenges are excellent. I’m more optimistic for the later DLC packs, as Rosalina and Nabbit seem to be more unique characters and the later courses seem to be more interesting. I can only recommend this one if you are desperate for new courses or love the challenges.