Dreamy Links
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 proves that, yes, you can improve on near-perfection.
Published: June 23, 2008
Oh, that's right, I suppose I did forget to mention that the game supports Infrastructure play, meaning it's possible to challenge other players online at any time, and the games are, predictably, quite smooth and perfectly paced for quick matches (though because everyone plays at the same time, the game's waiting period between holes can seriously slow down the flow of matches). There are options, too, for 16 player tourneys that you sign up for much like in the PS3 game. Pick your pre-set time, sign up, and then come back to compete with everyone else. It's a great (if barebones) system, and oh so welcome in a portable experience.
Hot Shots Golf has always been something of a delicate balancing act between cutesy little Japanese character designs and something that approximates a real-life golf course. In years past, Sony apparently thought the Hot Shots audience would hate the original characters and opted to westernize them with new ones that were usually far, far worse. This time, aside from an absolutely hideous bit of box art and some slightly annoying voices, everything else is preserved perfectly.
This is good, because in all honesty, the cute look of all the characters fits with the customization aspect, and the courses really are the star here. There's a dozen of them in all, half new and half returning, and the late game ones are insaaane, with greens that break in diabolical ways. And yet, through it all little touches like wisps of wind curling around, and lighting that paints different courses in completely different moods keeps it all interesting. It's not unfair to say this is arguably some of the best course work Clap Hanz has ever done, and it all runs quite nicely, with plenty of detail in both characters and their surroundings.
The audio too (aside from a few of those previously mentioned voices), is really quite solid. There are a ton of little ambient noises, the menu music is instantly familiar (though it is new), and all the effects, from the plink of smashing a shot off the tee to the whooshes of a miracle hole-in-one are all handled with all of the series' trademark aural charm.
It's really, really hard to bag on any one part of Open Tee 2. One could certainly make the case for the game being overly familiar -- especially because in reality so little has changed compared to even the PS3 effort -- but what's here is so amazingly packed with replay value, that it'd be possible to buy just this one golf game and never have to worry about another one on the PSP. The inclusion of the Minigame mode where you try to score holes-in-one and unlock new trick holes by banking big points is definitely fun, but you'll need to unlock the late-game players to really enjoy it fully (some of the holes are simply out of reach for the starting and even intermediate players' stats).
The bottom line is that this is a fantastic value for the measly $30 Sony is asking. Sure, there may be quite a bit here that any tenured fan of the series has seen and done before, but the little tweaks here and there to things like the loyalty system and leveling up characters with cards and finding the hidden accessories that add up to stat boosts and playing people online to win new equipment, all these things add up to one of the most value-packed games on the PSP. Hell, on any system, really, and that's precisely why you need to make this game part of your games collection. Let's just hope that if there's an Open Tee 3 that we see just a bit more of an update to more of the core game.
