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Addictively fun with awesome graphics

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 26 / 26
Date: May 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm normally not a big sports game fan. But Hot Shots is so much fun with its customizeable characters and challenge modes that our entire family is now addicted to the game.

First, the basics. You have a cartoon-style character that moves from hole to hole on a golf course, with the traditional line up, swing and putt golfing moves. When you win, you earn character customizations, new players, new courses, and more. You can then change your character's hairstyle, outfit, clubs, balls, and even accessories. Many items give you bonusses and penalties. As you develop a playing style, you might work on gaining items that give you control, for example, at the expense of power.

Maybe you've done this sort of game before on a console - but you haven't seen this on a handheld! The graphics are simply gorgeous. Each course has its own look and feel, from Japanese pagodas to misty mountains. The detail of the trees and surroundings is incredible.

You might worry that the fine movements are hard to master - but actually they do a really good job with this and it becomes quite intuitive to power the main drive and to gently tap the ball into the hole.

There are little quirks with the game. In most golf games, if you are too quick on hitting the ball, you "hook" (the ball curves left) and if you're too late, you "slice" (the ball curves right). But in this game, it seems that when you miss a perfect impact, it's sort of random exactly what the ball does.

There are a few graphic issues. If you hit your ball into a tree (by accident of course), you can see that the ball hits the tree. When you move in close to do your next shot, it appears that the tree has vanished. But when you swing, POOF the tree appears again to block you :)

Luckily for you, the computer opponents have the same issues. Sometimes a computer character will hit into a tree and feel stuck - so they hit back and forth in the woods until they give up (after 9 shots).

But these are really pretty minor issues that rarely come up. Like I said, we don't normally play a lot of sports games - but this one is really rather addictive. I wish you earned new courses more quickly, but the lure of getting them gets you to perfect the courses you have available and to build up your score. You're always earning more items, more bonusses, so even your small victories still give you a reward. The little cut-scenes are cute and add personality to the game.

Highly recommended!

4.5/5

going to golf and not getting too frustrated.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love the game's simple game play. Line up, adjust swing for yardage, and hit for sweet spot - make the ball fly. Putting on the green is made simple if you follow the lines on the grid. Challenge mode lets you unlock various Golf courses. Overall, worth every single penny. Love the game, love the characters.

I M A DIK TED

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'M ADDICTED...

This game is just unbelievable. I've been a HSG fan since the original Playstation and I was pretty happy to see it was on the PSP. I was at Best Buy and I couldn't decide. This, or X-men 2? I'm damn happy I got this game. 250 unlockables, unbelievable graphics, nice sound, and ADDICTING. Oh wow.

Graphics: 9.5/10. Quite possibly the best looking PSP game ever released. Very sharp, great grass, excellent water, beautiful looking characters,it's allll good!

Sound: 9/10. The voices are pretty good, the sound of club-on-ball is great, the sound is very good, but there isn't much of it, sadly.

Control: 9.5/10. Can it get easier? ... No. Basically X.. wait.. X.. done. But you have to ( like in most/all golf games ) know geometry and what not, so you have to kinda think before you try a putt or a whack.

Fun: 9.5/10. Awesome. What's it missing? Infrastructure play. ( Online play ). That would make this game pretty much flawless. That is just about the only thing stopping me from giving this game a 10. This is a must buy. Golf fan or not, you can squeeze a lot of fun out of this game. You can even have your replays saved automatically, I got a "Chip-In Eagle", and I was wondering if I could save the replay. After wandering around the menu, I found out where I could watch it fairly easily. Pretty cool. Your stats are also recorded, and the loading times aren't bad at all for a handheld, they are in fact probably the fastest PSP loading times.

Simple, simple, simple. Awesome game, that is a must buy. It's 10 dollars cheaper originally than most PSP games, too! COME ON!! BUY IT!

Very addictive...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I cannot get enough of this game. I don't think I have ever been addicted to a golf game before, but this game is like crack; I just can't get enough of it. I've played one or two of the Mario Golf games before, but they seemed to be too complicated and RPG-ish for me. Hot Shots Golf (HSG), in contrast, feels a little more straightforward. You still have to build up your character, but you don't have to walk all over the place to find courses to play on like in the last Mario Golf game I played.

The gameplay follows the classic series of three button-presses - once to start the meter, a second time to set the distance, and a final time to set your impact (how straight you will hit the ball). The learning curve is fairly simple, so just about anybody can pick up and play this game, but you eventually learn to put spin on the ball so you can be more accurate.

I haven't played many games from the HSG series, but I understand that the six courses in this game are all brand new. There's a few holes that have some fun little obstacles that, if you can overcome them, allow you to get much closer to the green on your first hit (on holes with par greater than 3). There are tons of unlockables, including better clubs, balls, characters, and clothing items, plus you have to play through challenge mode to power up your character.

There is a putting mode where you are placed on a green with up to five holes to put for, each one with different point levels, so you can go for the easy putt for a few points or the long putt for big points. It's fun for awhile and helps you with your putting skills, but I definitely would have preferred a mini-golf game to this. My only other complaint is that there are only six courses and you don't unlock them nearly fast enough so you feel like you're playing the same holes over and over again.

Overall, a great game. I do believe I've caught it cheating a few times (my cursor is pointed to the green with a water hazard on the right and the wind blowing to the left, I hit the ball with perfect impact and land in the water - how is that physically possible, I ask you?). I definitely recommend this HSG Open tee if you're a fan of the series or a fan of golf games in general, and as you can see, it's a pretty enjoyable game even if you've never really played golf games before. It's perfect for the PSP because you can pick it up and play it anytime, even if you only have a few minutes because of the sleep function on the PSP. Even if you have to turn the PSP off completely, it will save your game data so you can finish the match later.

Fun on the run

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The PSP is one of the best systems for the gamer on the go, and sports titles that you can easily pick up and put down are, in my opinion, a good time. Hot Shots was one of the first titles to come out for the PSP, and while it's age is showing and Tiger Woods golf is more in depth, Hot Shots is great if you just like a simple, yet fun, game of golf.

Release date is May 3, 2005

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: April 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is not out in the US yet! I have the Japanese release (Minna No Golf Portable) and it's a good handheld port of the console game. It will be available here on May 3, 2005.

A great port of a great game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'll start by saying that I love the Hot Shots franchise. I've purchased every title on PS and PS2. It's the reason I bought this before Tiger Woods for the PSP. That said, this version has drawbacks. It's great to play Hot Shots on the go and gameplay is a lot of fun. Nice graphics, sound, etc. The downsides are multiple but in the end don't ruin the game.
1. You can't play multiple players without multiple PSP's. While I appreciate that Sony wants to sell units, this is a basic feature of video golf that should have been included.
2. Lack of training mini-games. If you've played HS before you'll pick up the subtleties quickly but c'mon, the one mini-game is a putting challenge? Weak.
3. The road to unlocking all courses, players is loooong. Sure, most of the tournaments are nine hole which makes the game move quickly but you have to win so many that I literally played 130 games before I got all the courses and players. God forbid you accidentally overwrite your data and have to start over.
4. Some variants of the courses (long tees, mirror courses) are so difficult that you can get frustrated. The CPU players ability (at the upper ranks) to chip in from deep bunkers a hundred yards out can be annoying as well. There are several times where "miracle shots" on the CPU's part will make you want to throw the game across the room.
O.K. I'm done. Yes, I mentioned a lot of issues but all in all it's a fun game. I can't compare it to Tiger Woods 'cuz I haven't played that one. It's worth your time if you love golf games and doubly so if you're a Hot Shots afficianado.

Fun Golf Game and worthwhile

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Has the feel you would expect from a golf game. Good graphics. I like how winning tournaments and challenges opens up new characters and gives you different equipment that can alter your player attributes (ie: extra spin or power or control).

I enjoy golf games, but I have to admit that I can only play them for so long before they feel like I'm doing the same thing over and over again. So, I played this a good bit at first and now haven't played it for a few months. I know I will pick it up again when I get the itch since it's fun. The nice thing about that is this is a game you can put down and pick up again later without missing a beat.

Good game overall and worth the money.

This game always finds its way back into my PSP

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I got this game thinking it was going to be silly, but it was cheap so why not try it. Since then I have played this game to death and then some. The golf is simple but very well done. The physics are well done, and you can shape your shots for low drives, high approach shots, curves around trees, etc. There are 6 courses, several player and hundreds of silly items to unlock as you win events. A couple more courses would be nice, but they let you play them in 'mirror', so it almost feels like a new course. Loading times are very short, as usual for HSG on other systems. It's a great, simple relaxing game that you won't be able to put down.

Very addictive game...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am not a golf fan, I hate the sport, but after playing hot shots it seems fun. I got this game with my psp,so this is my only psp game I own. It is very fun, it never really gets boring, the graphics are awesome and there is virtually no loading times. I can sit and play this game for hours and the action does not stop. I am glad I bought it, it is a little challanging though, some courses are just plain hard to beat. At points I just get mad at the game because some shots are just impossible. That is why I did'nt give this game a perfect rating. But dont get me wrong this game is worth the buy, and for it being one of the cheaper psp games it is definitly worth the money. Get it, play it, have fun.

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