Playing with a particular character (unlocking new ones, it should be noted, is still done by playing against them in a one-on-one competition, and getting ahead or behind by three strokes will still end the match early) and earning a handful of new clubs or balls or outfits is all well and good, but it's really only local bragging rights until you decide to hop on. We recently were able to have a peek at what the US release's online modes would entail, and they're a dream come true for competition-starved golfers.

Though you still play the game with your normal character just as you would in the offline game, you can now drop into a common waiting room (we saw something that looked like the foyer of a quasi-futuristic office building and a savanna course that looked ripped straight from Afrika -- cross-promotion, perhaps?) and chat with other people by means of a custom (and rather Mii-like avatar). The avatars have a number of simple face, hair, clothing and accessory options to help with the customization, and holding one of the four main directions on the right analog stick will emote with love, dancing, crying and shouting. This, along with the ability to pull the L2 trigger and pick from a handful of pre-set responses or pull R2 to rattle off a few characters with the in-game keyboard (a USB keyboard can be used too, but no voice chat, sadly), is how you find matches.

Once you've hooked up with other people looking to play, you can drop instantly into a lobby someone else has created (or set up your own, defining limits to characters, hardware, skills and even setting a per-hole time limit where lagging players will be bumped from the rest of the match if they're too slow) and get your game on. Alternatively, up to 50 players can compete in tournaments that are arranged at pre-set tee times. Everyone can then agree on a common time when they want to play as schedules dictate, and a massive showdown can begin.

What's truly interesting about the online play is that everyone -- at least everyone in the quick lobby games -- plays at the same time. You can't influence the other players' shots, but you can see them taking them. There's nothing so satisfying as nailing a perfect top spin shot and watch as your flaming blue ball arcs just a biiiit higher and lands just a little farther than two or three other shots flying out in parallel. It's even more enjoyable when everyone gets to the green because you can watch all the shots that drop in or rim the cup or just flat-out miss -- then watch as all the golfers dance, cry and rage all over the green.

Though the game could still benefit from a bit of anti-aliasing on the characters, the environments are absolutely gorgeous -- particularly when the ball drops into the rough or tips into the cup and you get a close-up of everything. The familiar little touches like ants crawling around the inside of the hole or blades of grass partially obscuring your ball emblazoned with its particular attributes are still here and they look absolutely fantastic in 720p. It also appears that by and large some of the framerate hitches we saw before have been ironed out, though we still saw a little bit of chugging during the online matches when a half-dozen or so characters were all taking their shots. Still, it wasn't enough to annoy, and the game is still an absolute looker.

It's hard to put into words how excited we are for Hot Shots to finally make its US PS3 appearance. That the game was released in Japan around six months ago means that all of the patches and piecemeal upgrades that were slowly added after the game shipped will now all arrive on the Blu-ray disc. Though the game does require a hard drive install, once it's all there, you have access to everything without having to grab any updates. With only a month or so to go, we'll be sure to update you with the progress of the final builds of the game, but for now, be sure to check out all the media we've kicked up for your perusal.