Hot Shots Golf Fore! Review

For whatever reason, I asked Sony to send me a copy of Hot Shots Golf Fore!. I’m not a fan of golf, and I’m not a fan of golf video games, besides Tiger Woods 2004 for the N-Gage. Heck, I’m not even a fan of sports, besides tennis and baseball. By the statements said in this paragraph, you’d think that Hot Shots is bound for an abysmal review. Fear not SCEA, for I am the unbiased review writer, that doesn’t hint at what his ratings are going to be in his first paragraph *wink wink*.

Seriously though, if you’re looking for straightforward golf gaming, HSGF is probably the game for you. The game has convincingly realistic courses, with oddball characters playing the role of golfer and caddy. The game’s three X presses reminds us of the old days back on the Genesis. Instead of using your analog stick to simulate the swinging of a golf club, we’re still using the old and tired method of pressing a button thrice.

Offline modes will include a tournament, pinning you against 29 other golfers, with a goal of being the player with the lowest stroke count at the end of 18 holes. The versus mode puts you against the computer, who by beating them, they become active golfers for you to select later in the game. Returning by popular demand is mini golf, which calculates not only how many strokes you take, but also the distance of the ball. Also offline is two and four player multi-player play.

HSGF’s biggest changed comes from the insertion of online gameplay. Had it not been for the online game modes, HSGF wouldn’t be recommendable over its budget-priced counterparts, which are similar in style and feel to this one. For those big on online gaming, Fore! should offer an uncountable number of hours for you to swing away in cyber-space.

For the most point, I avoid talking about graphics and sound, since I find them irrelevant to a game’s success, in most cases. However, the sound department in Fore! will leave the television on mute. Your golfer will spew a given sound bite a countless number of times, dragging the otherwise positive experience in the mud.

The annoying sound might not be enough to disqualify HSGF from your ‘buy’ list, but the lack of new game elements, absent online gameplay, makes you wonder what the major differences between this and the third outing in the franchise really are. So while Tiger is the king of real-world golf, he’s quickly overthrowing any crown that Sony might have formerly had in virtual reality. Hot Shots Golf Fore! is slightly under par, but compared to Tiger, this one’s in the sand trap.