Hot Shots Golf has reached its third incarnation on the Playstation 2, but how much can you expect from a cartoony golf game? Well, quite a lot as we've found out after many rounds with HSG3. Don't let the graphics fool you; there lies one of the most in-depth golf simulations beneath that funny exterior.
I don't mean to say that Hot Shots Golf 3 is an ugly game. It just doesn't sport realistic players or PGA tour stars. The graphics are quite impressive actually. The courses are really a thing of beauty. Lots of trees line the fairways, and there are a number rolling hills, bunkers, buildings, and water to keep your eyes busy. The water is particularly impressive, and it is vaguely reminiscent of the H2O found in Baulder's Gate: Dark Alliance. Each course varies in some degree from the others. At the Hawaiian course you'll see an abundance of palm trees, while at the mid-west course you'll see lots of reds and browns on display on canyon walls. The developers have even taken it one step further and added all four seasons to each course, which changes the color of the trees and landscape.
The characters accentuate the course perfectly. They have bright, colorful personalities that often match their outfits. Like I said, Hot Shots opts for cartoon style characters, and this is apparent in things like big heads and exaggerated animations. There is only one real golfer in the game, John Daly, and even he is a caricature of his real self. Players break their clubs after bogeys and celebrate birdies in a way that makes Chi Chi Rodriguez look mild. The only problem is the post-hole animations are too few in number, and you'll be tired of seeing them over an over again.
The other visual problem has to do with the camera work. While it's neat to see your golf shot from many different angles, it would have been nice to reserve those only for replays, or at least let you choose which angle you'd like to view for your shot. Too many times after the ball was struck, I didn't get a good feeling for where the ball was going because the game usually picks some strange side view around the landing area of the ball. I really prefer staying behind the ball or following the ball in flight.
The same problem of repetitiveness in the animations also applies to the sounds. The Mario-like music isn't too bad as ambient background noise for golf, but the spoken lines have to go. Your caddy only has one response for every situation. Every time you putt for a birdie they say their one canned line, and they have the same stinking line for when you make or miss it. This will dramatically improve your putting game because you won't want to hear them comment on one more shot.
One thing you won't be disappointed by is the amount of playtime HSG3 has to offer. Even without a superb, in-depth golf engine (which is has) the different modes of play and number of things to unlock would probably still keep me coming back for more. On top of standard single and multiplayer matches, you can also play in tournaments or versus matches. The versus mode is where you play to unlock the new characters. You earn them by beating them in classic one-on-one match play. Challengers get harder as you move up the ladder, but correspondingly, their stats are higher as well. In the tournament mode you can use any available players to tackle a variety of events for prizes. As you earn experience by placing in the tourneys, you unlock higher-level events that offer bigger challenges and rewards.
Once you get to the golfing, you'll see where HSG3 really shines. The first noticeable welcome sign is the lack of loading times. You can skip shot and celebration animations and play a full round of golf in 10-15 minutes. Once over the ball you'll be greeted with a traditional 3-click swing meter. Stopping the meter at the top of the bar sets the strength, and stopping it back at the beginning sets the accuracy. Every player has a natural swing tendency, whether it is a low draw, a high fade, or a medium straight shot. It's up to you to play each character to their strengths. During the swing, you can hold one of the eight controller directions to help guide the ball on the flight path you desire. For example, by holding down, you can put more height on the ball causing more backspin on the green.
All of the controls come together to form a surprisingly deep game of golf. If you can picture how it would work on a real golf course, you can get it done in this game. If there is a tree in you ball's flight path on the way to the pin, assuming your character has strong spin and control stats, you can draw or fade it around to land near the pin. I've been in situations where the pin was located on a small section of the green (about 220 yards away) with a bunker in front and water behind. If you manage to hit a long iron or wood far enough to hit the green over the bunker, you are pretty much guaranteed to roll over and into the water. Luckily to the right of the pin, I had lots of green to work with. So, by aiming over to the right front edge of the green, I played a shot with heavy draw and topspin. The result was a shot hitting the front of the green but with enough of an angle that it was rolling toward the pin with the extra spin. It's a tricky shot for a pro in real golf, and it's no simple task in the game; but it's doable.
The breaks on the green are also perfectly implemented, and HSG3 has added a new grid (with motion) that makes it super easy to read them. This really helps with your approach shots because you know how the ball will bounce if you land on a heavily slopped portion of the green. It also helps you guide in chip and run shots from around the green. Putting can still wreck you, since even though the direction of the break is easy to read, you still need to know how far off to aim and how much power to put behind it. 30+ foot putts are possible, but you won't be dropping them every time on the putting surface.
That pretty much sums it up. I can't imagine the series, or video game golf for that matter, getting much better than this (of course it will). The graphics are great, the gameplay is tight as can be. Throw in a national tournament, which you can follow with an online leaderboard, tons of stats, and modes of play and you've got the one golf game you must have for the PS2.
