Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots review — A swing and a miss

Although the Everybody's Golf series has been a reliable companion franchise for SONY’s PlayStation for almost three decades, it has now landed on the Nintendo Switch for the first time. Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots arrives on a Nintendo system in the face of competition stemming from the likes of Nintendo’s own Mario Golf: Super Rush, and to a lesser extent, Golf Story.

The latest entry, Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots, is a fusion of the PAL version's name, Everybody's Golf, along with North America's alternative namesake for the series Hot Shots. Not only this, but the original developer of Everybody's Golf, Claphanz, is out, and a new team,  Hyde, is in, so there are plenty of expectations to meet as they take aim and drive the latest entry neatly down the fairway.

If you aren’t in the know, Everybody’s Golf is an arcade golfing experience where you play as a bunch of bubbly golf aficionados who are playful and delightful, sporting an array of fun catchphrases. The series has been a welcoming and accessible burst of fun for PlayStation fans over the years, though the series fits harmoniously with Nintendo’s core values and feels right at home on Switch. 

Playing Hot Shots will feel like classic arcade golf to veterans of the series, and will be accommodating to newcomers. There’s a meter with a three-click system you need to rhythmically time that’ll determine shot distance and height. If you time your shot correctly by clicking where the red flag is, then the little white margin line on the right side of the meter, you should land a successful shot that’ll sail gracefully through the air. Once you reach the green, all that matters is trying to line up the shot with the golf flag, and hopefully you’ll sink the ball. 

Hot Shots immerses itself in the variables of the game, like weather, wind direction, and the slope of the green. Heavy winds can blow the ball right off course, pushing the ball away from the hole, so you need to focus on configuring your shot to account for those variables otherwise, you’ll become prone to repetitive putts and a lower score.

You can utilize spin on the golf ball and attempt to mitigate the impact of natural elements, ensuring your ball rolls in the desired direction to keep you on track towards the hole. Adding spin is a cinch utilizing a golf ball diagram that pops up, and you can place a cursor on each side of it to dictate how much spin you want. 

Of course, it’s not only nature you need to keep in mind, but hazards as well. You’ll want to hit the fairway more often than not, and while it’s not a deal-breaker, staying out of the bunker is for the best. What you definitely won’t want, though, is the ball to hit out of bounds areas or plunge into water. Rebounds may happen from time to time, too, where you smack the ball into an obstruction and the ball pings back in the opposite direction. Retaking shots sucks, so it’s best to avoid a Happy Gilmore mindset and continue as well as you can despite the setbacks.  

The suite of game modes in Hot Shots is geared towards pick-up-and-play stylings, where you can unlock new characters and spend money in the item shop. This will let you purchase new clubs and clothing for each of the characters. These modes aren’t afraid of getting tough, though, if you’re looking for stiff tests akin to swinging a ball to the hole from a bunker.

Your headliner is simply titled Challenge Mode, where you compete in a series of tours measured by difficulty level. You start as a lowly beginner where your opponents are neophytes like yourself, but as you win and gain momentum, you’ll fill a meter that, once topped up, allows you to face a rival in a tense turn-taking golfing joust. Besting rivals in Challenge Mode unlocks new characters to populate the roster, incentivizing you to take on all comers while strengthening your golfing prowess with every victory.

Moreish by its very existence, the Challenge Mode in Hot Shots keeps you improving your game and does a good job of providing you with a sense of ascendancy as you climb through the ranks. You might find it’s a bit cut and dry without much substance beneath the surface as you stride from one golf course to the next, but it’ll keep you busy at perfecting your game for the long haul. 

Alongside Challenge Mode, World Tour gives you a great opportunity to utilize the characters you unlock from Challenge Mode, and witness their own miniature stories as they make waves in the golfing world. The distinctive mannerisms of each personality allow World Tour to feel fresh, and like Challenge Mode, will keep you invested as you play each character’s story. 

There’s a lack of zing to World Tour, as bouts are basic, and there isn’t anything particularly epic about the mode to help it truly stand out. Yes, you do get to participate around the world, but we can do this in many golf titles. Hot Shots provides additional modes in the form of Wacky Golf (which should’ve been placed inside of World Tour for a sense of explosiveness and unpredictability), as a raft of party modes ideal for co-operative play.

Wacky Golf injects Hot Shots with sparkle by including electrifying mini games you can play alone or with co-op buddies. There are four types of Wacky Golf, each of which is an enjoyable burst of golfing goodness that will bring much laughter if you bring along some buddies to play with.

Colorful Mode brings an air of extreme unpredictability to the fore by throwing variables on you that you won’t see coming. There are coloured zones on the golf course that can either drop a significant challenge for you to overcome, give you an advantage, or make golfing easier.

Scramble Mode has you team up with an AI partner, and the two of you try to beat your opposition. This option is less wacky than the rest, and could be more frustrating if the AI doesn’t boast the profound golfing ability that you do and messes up your hard work. 

Survival Golf is all about trying to steal your opponent’s clubs while ensuring they don’t steal yours. Obviously, you can’t play as your character and actively filch golf clubs from their bags, but you can deprive them of clubs if you best them on the golf course first. Survival is all about trying to take away the equilibrium of your opponent because if they lack clubs, certain shots will be much harder for them to perform successfully-so you can either be handicapped yourself, or you can sit back and watch in glee as your opponent struggles helplessly with every shot. 

Rounding out the Wacky Golf options is Boom Golf, where the course could explode right where your ball lands, and can either put you in a good position to win a round, or throw you right off course. It is best to avoid the explosions, though, otherwise you’ll find golfing as difficult as driving a car with one inoperable gear. 

The roster in Hot Shots consists of 30 unique golfers, though it is fair to say many of them are stereotypes. For example, the first two characters you gain immediate access to in Hot Shots are polar opposites. Aile is a bright and cheery former cheerleader who is trying to hit it big in the world of golf. The other is a young man named Mizuki, who behaves like a generic anime character cliche, behaving like an emo kid who would be better placed in a depressing JRPG than inside a golf video game.

The good news is that the roster is hefty, but Hot Shots does have a tendency to jump you through hoops to unlock new golfers and caddies. The loyalty system in Hot Shots can help you unlock new caddies if you keep using the same ones over and over again. Grinding challenge mode allows you to add more characters to your roster too. While playing to unlock new golfers is great, the fact that you need to grind considerably for them is a hassle.    

Performance on Nintendo Switch is lamentable. Using Special Shots can dip the framerate, and the lack of a 60fps option is disappointing. You can’t expect the Switch’s performance to trump the PS5 version, though you’d think the game would perform a little better. With that said, it still runs fine most of the time, but the Switch deserves better than to languish and become the inferior version. 

In terms of audio, the voices given to the characters are grating, but on the plus side, the soundtrack is pleasantly upbeat and gives you a splendid array of tunes to listen to as you golf. The swings and sound of a successful putt all feel as playful as the game’s art style, and remind you that you’re playing a bubbly arcade golf title.

 With Everybody’s Golf finally swinging onto the Nintendo Switch, it’s agreeable to expect a sleek-performing golf title that you can play hours upon hours, whether alone or with a co-op buddy. However, this Switch version’s performance chugging can become off-putting,  and it can sully an otherwise sparkly sports title.

 On top of this, the visuals and general look of the game aren’t  appealing, and the characters and their dialogue are super generic. None of these dings should be enough to stop you from wanting to play Hot Shots, but there is definite room for improvement. Hot Shots is ultimately worthy of your investment, but this Switch version has to settle for a Double Bogey. While it is competent and enjoyable, it’s also grind-heavy, the Switch’s performance is jittery, and the series could do with a big and exciting evolution because this isn’t it.