This weekend I was in the mood to rent a ps2 game, my eyes fell on hot shots golf 3, hearing that it was the ps2 version of the awesome Mario Golf I decided to rent it. Well it’s true hot shots golf 3 is just like Mario Golf without the fat plumber (or should I say Mario golf is like hot shots golf with the fat plumber), and since Mario Golf is one of the best golf games I ever played it’s not a bad thing.

Story:
None really you’re just out hitting the course with 3 of the playable characters. Has you progress you try to level with exp, and unlock new players and courses.

Graphics.
The graphics are in one word are beautiful, the characters look rather cartoonish but move smoothly. Also each one of them has there own personality for instance there’s a blond, a plumber, and a holly wood agent to start off with.. There are also a lot of great effects of the ball moving and landing. Along with this you also have some great backgournds of people standing around cheering you on. And like Mario golf ever course has it’s own look.

Sound.
There isn’t much music in the game, instead you get all the nature sounds that you hear at the golf course. Birds singing, insects chirping, and the wind blowing. Instead of an announcer that says good shot and stuff like that you have a caddies, caddies are chosen at random and they each say different things and react in different ways. In the end the caddie’s are there to cheer you on and give you a few laughs to. There is one bad thing about the sound and that’s when you go up to putt. When you go up to putt you hear comments from the crowd that goes around not missing it. These are distracting and because of them I have missed a couple of shots, it makes you wish there was an option to introduce a few of the members of the crowd to the back of a 9 Iron.

Gameplay.
The game play is pretty simple to understand, the basic rule is get to the hole in has few strokes has possible to get a high score. This is the basic principle in stroke mode. Of course there are more modes to it then that, the two modes I pretty much stayed on while renting it was, the vs and tournament.

In VS you have to verse someone to a match of who can win the most holes, get the most holes or 4 up or 4 dwn and you can unlock a new character.

There’s more like a 2p mode, practice and driving range.

Tournament.
Try to get the best score in the tournament and win exp. points that can improve your rank and lead to harder matches.

Engine.
The golf engine in this one is pretty much like Mario Golf, you get a grid where the golf ball may land if you hit it right. You also get a wind speed indicator and direction it’s blowing. These help in your calculation of where the ball will land. To help you out more there are little measurements that tell you on average how far the ball will go if you don’t take a full swing. This takes some of the guesswork out of swinging the ball. The next part is just pressing X twice and letting your character swings the club.

Another thing like Mario golf is the power shot that gives your ball a little more umph do it, you get 10 of these per game, and there great for holes with a par of 5.

Once your on the green you putt and like in Mario golf it is done in the same fashion. Measure the slop of a hill, aim, measure the power, and then putt away. To make it even more beneficial there are white lines running down the grid this time so you will have an easier time knowing how steep the hill is.

Exp points.
Depending on how you do and what place you score in tournaments you can get exp points, exp points are like cash that can be bought to get new things on the golf course. There are also points you can get if you win a tournament that can fill a bar at the bottom of the screen, once the bar is filled your rank goes up by one.

Final recommendation.
Hot shots golf is one of the best golf games out there especially if your a big fan of Mario Golf, and is a definitely recommended.


Recommended: Yes

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