TGS '07: Minna No Golf Vol. 2 Hands-On

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee was not only one of the first sports games for the PSP, it's still one of the best. It's good news then that a sequel is in the works. We played a Japanese demo of the game at TGS '07.

There wasn't much to the demo on the show floor, but it was enough to give us an idea as to how the game is shaping up. There were two playable characters--a blond girl named May and a brown-haired boy named Reo. The only available course was an urban course called Nakagawa. It was on the outskirts of a city, and there were office buildings in the background, as well as power lines running directly across the course.

The first hole we played was a fairly straightforward par 4. Using the series' traditional three-button swing, we nailed a shot right between some power lines, earning the coveted music note in the process. A nice iron shot and a spot-on putt later, we earned an easy birdie. The next hole was an elevated par 3, which we parred, even with a nasty crosswind. The final hole was a par 5 that doglegged to the left. Things didn't go as well as previous holes because we ended up short of the green and in a bunker with our second shot.

Much to our dismay, that was all there was to the demo. Even with our short time with the game, we can safely say that it plays like Hot Shots. It didn't seem like the new shot system that is being implemented on Hot Shots Golf 5 for the PlayStation 3 is being implemented here, but we were playing an unfinished game with Japanese instructions, so anything's possible. Hopefully, we'll have more information (such as a North American release date) soon.