Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 GBA

Quite surprisingly, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 for the Game Boy Advance isn't a whole lot different to its bigger console brothers. The portable version is the best yet for the GBA - there's not a lot of competition in the genre, to be truthful - albeit a scaled down version, and not just in physical size. The number of features crammed into the cartridge is impressive, but obviously no match for the GameCube for example, with which it can share game data - but more on that later. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 features three authentic courses - St Andrews, Scottsdale and Bay Hill - and two devilish fantasy courses which will be vaguely familiar to those who have played the home console versions. Less daunting are the friendly faces of Tiger, John Daly and a handful of other on-screen golfers, all recognisable and all selectable. Competition is not limited to the featured players, however. There is a supporting cast of unseen swingers ready to challenge for honours. There are several game modes in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 for GBA, including Career mode, which is where the heart of the game lies. This mode is where you assume the role of one of the golfers and take part in a series of tournaments in order to boost your earnings and accrue better equipment and (ahem) stylish clothing. A clever feature, exclusive to the Nintendo versions, is the facility to transfer money won in the GBA version to the GameCube version. So, as long as you have both versions and both consoles, you can swing between the two. Literally! Huzzah! The gameplay in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 is cleverly distributed about the buttons of the GBA. Almost all the features from the home console versions are present, including the new swing implementation, which means no power bar. It takes a bit of getting used to, this new swinging method in which the direction pad is used; at least EA haven't merely rolled out a slightly different version of the game. No, this is a big improvement on last year's GBA debut for Mr Woods. It feels right, once t