Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots review: A welcome return that brings solo play to the fore

What do you do when one continent knows your game under one name, and everyone else knows it as something else entirely?

There are multiple solutions to this. You can opt to retire one of the names and just stick with the same one globally – that’s what Konami did when it decided to ditch its Probotector branding in Europe and start calling it Contra worldwide.

You can go with a scorched earth approach and kill both brands – Konami tried that one too, when it decided to bin the Pro Evolution Soccer and Winning Eleven names in favour of eFootball. Or, you can do what Capcom tried to do and just jam both names into the one title to keep everyone happy, which is how we ended up with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

That’s the route Bandai Namco has taken now that it’s been given the keys to Sony’s long-running golf series. Known as Hot Shots Golf in North America and Everybody’s Golf everywhere else, Bandai Namco’s decided to simply plop both titles together to make Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots, the eighth main entry in the series.

It’s an interesting release for a number of reasons, not just the merging of the titles and Sony’s decision to hand over the brand to another publisher. It’s also only the second time in the series’ nearly 30-year history that a main entry hasn’t been developed by Yokohama-based studio Clap Hanz, meaning fans have been concerned that a lesser experience may be on the cards.

Thankfully that isn’t the case. While long-time Everybody’s Golf devotees will doubtless argue that their personal favourite remains the best entry in the series – nostalgia is a powerful drug – Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots is a solid, entertaining golf game with a healthy selection of courses and (so far at least) a refreshing lack of microtransactions.

The last main entry, which was a 2017 PS4 exclusive, divided players with some of its new ideas. The introduction of a character creation mode appealed to those who liked a bit of variety, but it came at the expense of one of the series’ trademarks, the rosters of colourful characters that could be unlocked in each game.

This new entry ditches the character creation in favour of doing things the old way, offering a healthy selection of playable characters from across the history of the series. At first you only have a couple to choose from, but as you play through the game’s single-player modes you can unlock dozens more.

The same goes with other unlockables – there’s an in-game shop where you can unlock then buy new clubs, balls, outfits, clothing eyes, stickers and food boosts, but the game’s sole currency can only be earned through normal play, with no microtransactions to be found anywhere.

It’s a positive start, then, but that’s all for naught if the game crumbles on the golf course. The classic three-press shot system from previous Everybody’s Golf games – where you start the swing, set the power then set the accuracy – returns here, along with optional alternatives for those looking for a change. The three-press system certainly wasn’t broken though, and for most players it’ll be the best option.

Your first few rounds will likely be riddled with errors as you find yourself hitting the rough and bunkers with annoying frequency, and failing to land all but the easiest of putts. That’s by design, however, as over time you’ll unlock better clubs and extra abilities for your character which will give you extra power, spin, accuracy and hit windows.

It’s a choice which may annoy golf gaming veterans but it’s also a sensible one, because it ensures everyone gets to enjoy the experience of their scores naturally improving over time regardless of their personal skill level.

“The classic three-press shot system from previous Everybody’s Golf games – where you start the swing, set the power then set the accuracy – returns here, along with optional alternatives for those looking for a change. The three-press system certainly wasn’t broken though, and for most players it’ll be the best option.”

Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots does have online multiplayer – in both Group Match and World Tournament flavours, with the latter essentially acting as a global leaderboard – and also has a healthy selection of local multiplayer options, including some new ‘Wacky Golf’ modes which throw in comedy rulesets like exploding balls, the ability to steal your opponent’s clubs and the pleasantly random Colorful mode which throws a bunch of random modifiers at you.

It very much feels like a single-player game at its heart, however, and both the main solo modes will have you playing for hundreds of hours should you have the appetite for that.

Challenge Mode offers a selection of tournaments where the aim is to place top of the leaderboard. This is the best way to earn cash and unlock other items and characters. It’s the World Tour mode, however, where the game’s real personality can be found.

Here, each character gets their own story mode, where they meet other characters and take on a variety of match play and tournament contests. The addition of extra challenges for each chapter – win without using a power shot, win with a Perfect Impact rate of at least 20% and so on – adds to the replay value.

Given how many characters there are, the fact that each one has their own World Tour story and unlockables means there’s a lot of gameplay to be found here, and that’s before you consider each character has their own levelling system where you can unlock further abilities and stat boosts up to level 50.

The only real negative to all this is that it makes the lack of a Switch 2 port all the more disappointing. This is a game with the sort of lengthy progression system that has a daily commute written all over it, so it’s a shame that Switch 2 owners will have to put up with a regular Switch version for now.

This aside, at launch Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots is an entertaining golf game that gives old-school vibes for all the right reasons. With its three-press shot system, the charmingly cheesy World Tour dialogue and the fact that everything is unlocked through normal in-game progress, it’s a welcome return to simpler times.

I just hope it stays that way – this is, after all, a publisher that released Tekken 8 without any microtransactions, then updated it a month later by adding a Tekken Shop and a new Tekken Coins premium currency. As long as Bandai Namco can resist doing the same this time around – the odd DLC course or crossover character in the future aside, maybe – the base game will continue to be well worth its $40 asking price.