Arcade sports games are better than their virtual sim counterparts, and I will die on that hill. Over the past 20-30 years, so many sports games have come and gone, but few have remained and have now established themselves as the de facto titans of their sports: Madden for football, NBA 2K for basketball, MLB The Show for baseball, EA Sports FC for soccer, and then, of course, PGA Tour 2K for golf. The problem is, most of these games, with exceptions for certain modes and difficulties, are about recreating the actual sport on a home screen instead of just having fun.
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In comes in a series like Everybody’s Golf. Originally developed by Camelot Software Planning, the first installment in this near 30-year long series, Everybody’s Golf, was published by Sony for the PlayStation 1. Since then, it’s been a PlayStation-exclusive, being published on the PlayStation 2, 3, and 4, and now after a whopping eight years on ice, it’s back with a new installment: Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots. The thing is, the torch has been passed on to a new developer — HYDE — and is being published by Bandai Namco as a multi-platform release. It’s no longer exclusive to PlayStation; it’s now coming to both PC and Nintendo Switch (but not the Switch 2, unfortunately).
Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots brings nostalgia to gamers who’ve grown up playing this golf anti-sim — a game that heavily prioritizes humorous fun — and it offers a breath of fresh air to a genre that desperately needs it. Of course, while it’s wonderful to see this game return after all these years, it doesn’t hit all the marks. Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots has provided just the boost in this space that I have been longing for — but just enough.
Rating: 3.5/5
| Pros | Cons |
| Varied gameplay | Disappointing art style |
| Progression of difficulty | Weird voice lines accompanying bland characters |
| Simple, easy to master controls | |
| Decent price point |
Hot Shots Shines With Unique Golf Gameplay
Like all sports, golf is rather straightforward. Of course there are rules, regulations, and a whole host of other things people need to be mindful of, but ultimately, it’s about getting a ball into a cup. This is what sets Hot Shots apart from other golf games: it provides players with incredibly wild scenarios that make the game unique. Overall, the goal is to make the game easy, fun, and engaging in ways that haven’t been seen in years. There are tornado holes where getting the ball within a specific range is enough. There are also holes that grow in size to make putting so much easier. It’s still golf, just with some new oddities thrown in. I love that.
Sometimes, it’s nice to shoot a good score under par instead of struggling for so long that you end up with +5. And I don’t care if my ego takes a hit because that scoreline is inflated by in-game help — it’s fun. That’s what this game is all about. Plus, while virtual sims are terrific for developing an understanding of the sport, the monotony of golf is broken up by the perspective switch here. Rather than aiming to be as precise as you can to get the ball to the right spot, you can relax and just whack it.
Hot Shots Is Challenging, but Gets Progressively Easier
The more you golf (and take it seriously), the better you will get. Practice makes perfect, or in the hugely technical and very difficult sport of golf, practice makes things a little better. That is a fundamental aspect of the sport, and it’s something Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots does so well. At first, even after doing the practice sections, it’s easy to make mistakes and hit the ball poorly. But there’s a progression with golfers and caddies that adds to the slow increase in ease with this game.
But don’t be fooled: Hot Shots also punishes players. If you improperly time your swing, you might just send the ball soaring into the air, costing a stroke and moving you forward maybe a couple of yards. It can also lead to the ball skipping off the tee and going 30 yards entirely on the ground. It’s easy to flub a golf shot in real life, and that is reflected accurately here — so it’s not a sim, but can sometimes feel like one. One minor complaint about that is that Hot Shots seems to punish players more than the computer opponents if they make the same mistakes, but that’s just another excuse for improving.
Even when you hit the ball perfectly (and trigger animations that indicate you really nailed it that time), everything else matters: the wind, the aim, the direction, the type of spin put on the ball, and so much more can end up having the ball land in an unfortunate spot despite having a perfect swing. Golf is so technical, and Hot Shots does a surprisingly good job at capturing all of its intricacies. If you don’t aim right or don’t account for the wind, things are probably going to go awry.
Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots Doesn’t Bring Quite Enough Creativity to the Table
Sadly, for this style of game, it’s not doing a whole lot with the art style or settings. There was potential for Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots to take things further than its age-old style and similarities to games like Wii Golf, but it played it safe with mostly human characters that all have a common style. They might also be the worst part of the game: those characters use voicelines that attempt to create an air of intrigue and personality, but they’re asinine at times and grating at others. If there’s anything that’ll get you to stop playing after a few years, it’s hearing, “I am calm!” for the umpteenth time.
There’s also an unfortunate lack of characters available to start. You can choose from two different golfers to play with, but there’s only one caddie option. By the time a second caddie is unlocked, you’ve built up trust and confidence with the first caddie, so it would be senseless to change. Caddies get more useful the more you use them, so you’d go back to having virtually no reads on the greens. And by the time you get new golfers, there’s so much invested in the first one that changing would be detrimental.
Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots Isn’t Groundbreaking, but it is Fun
Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots is available for $40 on multiple platforms, so it is both accessible and comparatively affordable in the grand scheme of gaming — and compared to PGA Tour 2K25‘s $70 price tag. And really, the more I played Hot Shots, the more fun I had. The progression is fantastic, and it consistently entices players to continue playing. It can get monotonous at times, making it difficult to continue playing for hours and hours, but it’s so easy to come back to at any point and continue your golf journey. It’s a game that any golf fan should have in their library because it’s fun, accessible, and generally cost-efficient in an era when games just aren’t.
With all that said, it is a game that does one thing, and it isn’t reinventing the wheel. It’s just golf, and without those extra levels of unprecedented creativity, it isn’t going to be the most memorable title to come out this year. If you don’t like virtual golf, this isn’t going to change your mind. If you do enjoy golf and miss the days of having Wii Sports golf be relevant, then it’ll be a fun, if not mind-blowing, experience.
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Editor’s note: This review has been updated for clarity and depth.
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