Infectious gameplay, solid controls, and cute, quirky graphics make for one amazingly fun golf game.
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee for the PSP is absolutely no lightweight in this series. All of the features that you would expect out of a golf game are included plus tons of unlockables, which adds immensely to the replay value. Aside from a few minor problems, I find this to be the best golf game on the PSP and a console-quality portable title.
Graphics
The overall graphical quality of Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee is good, but not great. Although, the style remains very true to the series with disproportional, cutesy Japanese characters and brightly colored courses and backgrounds, there is a minor graphical issue. The textures on the fairways and the greens are misaligned and shifty. One of the textures is filtered, while the other is not and it looks as though they are battling for dominance. This might sound frightening, but it is only an annoyance to some people, while to others it is not. I personally, was agitated at first, but slowly became more accustomed to the crazy textures.
On another note, the framerate is quite solid, as it never drops below thirty frames per second, but it never makes it to the sixty mark either. This framerate is not bothersome at all because it is a golf game, therefore not requiring a high framerate like a racing sim or a FPS.
Sound
The sound of Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee is its weakest aspect. When first starting the game, the sound is actually delighting and fits the mood and atmosphere of this quirky golf game quite well. The caddies’ voices get VERY repetitive about four or so hours into the game. If there were a few more caddies to pick from, it would dull this annoyance quite a bit, but because there is not, players that find them of an annoyance will just have to suffer. The sound effects of the game, however are very nice. Most of the classic sounds are included, from the whoosh of the driver to the plopping of the ball on the fairway. The sound effects do not get annoying and do fit the atmosphere of the game very well.
The music is fine, but during the matches, the music is not so fine. It sounds like Hot Shots Golf, but is overly repetitive. I am very thankful that there is an option to turn the music off during play. Hearing it while menu navigating is not so bad as most of the time you will not notice it playing.
Gameplay
Solid controls, highly exaggerated ball physics, and nicely designed learning curve makes this anybody’s game of golf and is the reason that it should be picked up. As you can see, the gameplay is this game’s strong point. No golf game has struck my attention like this. Golf on the go is a difficult thing to pull off enjoyably because of the requirement of limited play time. The gameplay in Hot Shots Golf is incredibly fast paced, but still maintains the fun golf feeling. The controls are absolutely fantastic, highly responsive, and the perfected three click swing system will not disappoint. Everything in this aspect feels great.
The exaggerated physics is something to expect of this game because of its arcade nature. Some people expect to see an accurate representation of how the ball should be placed and that is exactly the opposite of what is should be for this game. Making your ball go 400 yards with a fiery power shot is stunning.
The learning curve of this game feels just about right. The AI can be ridiculously weak for beginners and unimaginably hard for gurus. As your skill increases, the AI challenges you a great deal more, thus making you a much better golfer. Truly anyone can play this game of golf.
Value
The plethora of unlockables alone make this game have an immense amount of replayability. Besides the main Challenge mode, there are Training, Stroke Play, and Putting Challenge modes, but most people will be spending the majority of their time in Challenge mode because that is where all the unlockables are. The characters in this game are highly customizable. You can change the hair style, hat, glasses, watches, necklaces, pants, shirts, skirts, dresses, golf clubs, golf balls, and many other accessories that you will win in Challenge mode. Also, the more you use a certain character during play, the better their skill levels will get and the more variety of shot types you have to use with them. These are all great ways to keep you coming back for more.
Overall, I absolutely love this game and I highly recommend that you pick this up if you enjoy golf and do not require a die-hard sim. Even if you don’t like golf, think about picking this up or at least renting it because the Hot Shots Golf series alone got me into golf games.