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Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational Review for PS Vita

Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational Review for PS Vita

Challenge The World

A Sony console just wouldn’t feel right without a Hot Shots Golf game. The PlayStation Vita remedies this problem extremely early in its lifespan, with Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational launching right alongside the device. This time around, there are some new innovations to the classic franchise, but are they enough to make this a worthy addition to your game library?

Well, that depends on what you expect from the title. If you need a fancy new title to show off the graphical capabilities of the Vita, World Invitational does just fine. Its courses are heavily detailed and its environments are gorgeous. Starting a course in a particularly high location and being able to look over the landscape below—there are several courses laid out this way—proves just how much of a visual treat the game is.

Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational Screenshot

To add a bit of visual flair—and to keep true to the roots of the series—World Invitational comes with a roster of goofy, caricature-like players. Only two are available right out of the box, but as you earn points by placing in tournaments, you’ll be able to unlock more.

And speaking of unlockables, this is actually one of World Invitational’s greatest strengths. You’ll never run out of things to unlock with your points. There are new characters, additional outfits for these characters, new equipment like balls and clubs, and more. There’s even an avatar that sits in the lobby that can be totally customized with new facial features and outfits. Completionists be warned: You could get totally consumed by unlockables here. Of course, the downside to this is that it can start to feel grindy pretty quickly.

Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational Screenshot

Each character comes with his or her own set of stats, but they also earn new skills via a level-up system called Loyalty. The more you play as a specific character, the more “Loyalty” that character earns and the more skills he or she will be able to use. This actually makes unlocking new characters a risk/reward balance, especially since some of them are rather expensive in the points market. Do you want to spend all your hard-earned points on that new character and have to start your climb up the Loyalty ladder all over again, or do you want to save them for new equipment and just max out the Loyalty of your current character? Then again, you can max out your Loyalty pretty quickly with each character, so getting several characters maxed out shouldn’t be a problem.

Of course, the main thing that sets this entry apart from its predecessors is the touch-based controls. And there are a couple uses of finger-swiping/tapping that I even found to be somewhat useful. The first is that you can pinch your vita (a thumb on the screen and a forefinger on the back touch panel) to actually pick up your character and move him or her around to modify their tee position. This results in a silly little animation where your character will kick their legs wildly. Even more useful, though, is the ability to tap an icon on the screen to bring up a top-down map of where your ball is projected to land. Since a lot of the courses have some ridiculous hazards—seriously, who builds a tournament golf course in the middle of a farm?—this feature can come in handy in those instances where you don’t have a lot of visibility.

Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational Screenshot

An incredibly cool feature that comes packed in is a set of Daily International Tournaments, where you compete against players from all over the world on a particular set of courses. It’s a lot of fun watching your name rise and fall on the daily leaderboard. Unless, of course, you are awful at the game. (I admit that I came in absolute last place during my first Daily International Tournament.)

Now, golf is a sport that requires patience, and the same could easily be said of Hot Shots Golf. Even with all the unique character personalities and micromanagement—choose a club, choose a ball, line up your shot, study the course layout, etc.—playing the tournaments can get a bit tedious. The eighteen-hole tournaments especially can begin to feel like they are dragging on (the nine-holers aren’t so bad). And, as I mentioned earlier, unlocking things can start to feel like a grind. To make matters worse, you can be ranking in first place for seventeen holes, then completely screw up the last hole to wind up down at the bottom of the ladder and have to completely start the full tournament from scratch. (This is actually what happened during my first Daily International Tournament. I got stuck in a particularly nasty sand trap on the final hole, and finally got out of it to end up with my ball in the pond.) But such is the game of golf.

Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational Screenshot

On the audio side of things, World Invitational sounds like a golf game. The music is generally pretty low-key, though it does get a little more intense during the putting sequences to keep you on edge. (I admit, the background music for the Harvest Hills Golf Course is not for me, but it’s actually pretty appropriate for the course.) More subtle, though, are the sound effects, which are great and make each swing feel satisfying. There is some brief voiceover work, as each character has his or her own personality, but it’s definitely not enough to make or break the game. Personally, I found some of the accents a little odd, but this never bothered me much.

All in all, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational doesn’t break from the traditional Hot Shots format except with the addition of touch controls. And even then, I’m sure there are a lot of players who will completely ignore the touch features. But it delivers an enjoyable, somewhat arcadey golf game, and that’s really all we need from this particular franchise.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 4.5 Graphics
The courses are gorgeous and detailed, and the characters have a distinctive cartoony look. 4.0 Control
The traditional controls are great here. The new touch-based controls have a couple neat practical uses. 4.2 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
An appropriate soundtrack. It’s the spot-on ball sounds, though, that make each swing satisfying. 4.4 Play Value
There’s a staggering amount of content here, between the amount of various courses and bonus content. 4.3 Overall Rating – Great
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Enjoy the over-the-top characters, costumes and comedic golf action and stay connected with your friends’ latest scores to stay on top of the leaderboard.
  • Innovative touch panel controls provide access all the info for the next shot with this new touch-sensitive interface.
  • Look down the fairway and golf course in real time to set up the perfect shot.
  • Master the PS Vita’s motion-sensing abilities to add extra power onto shots.
  • Enjoy support for up to eight player wirelessly, or join a game on PlayStation Network where dozens of players can compete on individual holes.

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