After the complete disappointment of Mario Golf: Super Rush (my review) with simplified but RNG mechanics, very little content, and pretty much zero charm in a MARIO title, I wanted to play an arcade golf game that was actually full-filling. Growing up as a Nintendo fanboy, I've never really grown with the Everybody / Hot Shots Golf series but I see people constant recommend this game! And I'm GLAD to have play this because it's GOOD for being the OPPOSITE of Mario Golf: Super Rush: Full 3-click swing that's HARD to master, the MOST number of courses I've seen in a cartoony arcade golf title, and the HUGE amount of personality. Seriously, do give this game a look if you have the ability to play PS2 games.
To quickly go over the game's strengths:
Game Mechanics: Classic 3-click system (1 press to start swing, 1 to set power, 1 to set accuracy), but the bar speed travels very fast! Later characters that trade more accuracy for power required you to nearly always have to hit the sweetspot with the driver, or you'll easily mishit! Much more punishing like using Star-rank Bowser from Mario Golf.
Courses:12 FULL 18 hole courses! The courses don't go Mario Golf Mushroom kingdom crazy with obstacles, but many of the courses still have terrain that isn't feasible in real life. I.E. the China Silk Road course has some holes where you hit across tall cliffs, the Blue Lagoon courses sometimes have you playing on an island archipelago, and the Day Dream park is outright amusement park themed. Two of the courses are based on real-life Japan courses too! Each course also has four seasonal variances that alter the appearance and possible weather conditions, as well as having a mirrored version! This isn't to mention there is ALSO a 9 hole shortcourse, and even 2 9-hole PAR 2 minigolf courses!
Personality: Plenty of holes have unique set-pieces to keep them distinct, even including the basic country club courses which have roads and other facility buildings. There are also 18 different golfers AND 8 caddies split among a huge range of personalities and appearances! Each character I believe has TWO unique and over-the-top animations for Birdies / Pars as well. Even the small details are fun! Tournament mode actually features visible crowds with constant chatter that scram when you hit the ball, and it's also fun seeing your caddie humorously sprint and then trip over to where the ball lands.
A couple of cons or just more critical points about the game at least in my opinion:
This game is HARD: While the early AI is really stupid and even hits OBs time to time, after like 1/3 of the way through the stroke-play matches, the character's AI picks up FAST. They'll often usually set up for a Birdie, and then typically sink it in if not getting within a foot-reach for a par. Also when you're at max rank, you have to beat a score of like -12 to be 1st in a tournament. There's this on top of the fact the swing timing is much less generous than Mario Golf. There are EASY-mode clubs that have 100% accuracy always, but you can't apply spin and your power is significantly reduced to be a big disadvantage later.
Unlocking all courses is a GRIND: You'll start out with like 3 courses and will have to play like at least 3 entire 18 hole
tournaments on TOP of playing a trial in a course you already own...
only to unlock the next hole and have to start the process all over!
Even after the third trial, it would take about 1.5-2 hours to even
unlock the next hole assuming you don't mess up! Since this game has
so many courses, you're easily looking at a 20h+ grind to get all
courses. This heavily contrasts to Mario Golf when you can unlock all
courses immediately and within like 5h.
What the hell happened to the character designs for the NA version: So fun story. Apparently golf games in the 2000s have to be marketed as super edgy and hardcore to sell in the NA market. This results in some hilariously-dumb (link) game-covers (link).
Hot Shots Golf Fore! and all previous games in NA had nearly the entire cast replaced and reskinned over the more anime-looking generic golfer characters in the JP/PAL version. And my god... the NA versions have to be the most racial and social stereotyped cartoon characters I've EVER seen in a game. Seriously they somehow managed to get it all in this game: a Punk guy, a Black Thug and a Black Big Mama, an Italian Mafia leader, a basement nerd with speech issues, a maid that looks like a pornstar, an Asian that always performs Kung-Fu... it goes on and on and... just wow. Also, the dialog from the NA version is so ear-grating!
I'm not saving the JP version isn't stereotyping either as it's got the mid-aged drunk adult, the over-peppy businessman, and a super-serious samurai and shinobi, but the rest of the characters are more neutral overall. The biggest WTF change to me from the JP/PAL to the NA version was how they took a levitating Indian Guru guy to... a magically levitating hippie who's probably too high or something. Weird.
I'd probably never play touch this game if I only saw the NA cast because man they are a product of its time, but this is more of a matter of personal opinion.
Overall I highly recommended this game for those wanting an arcade golf game with a LOT of single-player to sort through. However, I would not recommend this game over Mario Golf / Wii Sports for a party setting, considering the game is mechanically more complex and you wouldn't have a lot of courses to play unless you spent 20h to unlock them!
