The beloved 'Hot Shots Golf' is back under a new name, but it's just as good.
I absolutely hear you on the grind-based gatekeeping, Patrick, the structure is anathema to just jumping in and playing a round, and by the end of unlocking the ability to play the other 9 holes of the first course (which, frankly, is an absurd unlock on its face) I was so beyond the capabilities of what the tournaments deemed me ready for that even my somewhat variable putting ability couldn’t keep my score above a -3 on the regular. It sucks because it’s otherwise a terrific game, and I feel like it’s really kneecapped itself in a way it didn’t have to. I don’t know if the model can sustain itself once the hours start adding up.
So for whatever reason, when my RSS reader pulled this story, it had Austin Walker credited as the author. I’m idly reading when I come across the line “since the birth of my daughter”, and I did a spit-take, double-take, and piss-take all in succession. Only when I clicked through to see it was a Klepek article did I calm down. Just thought I’d share.
Yeah, the early grind was pretty rough, though now that I’m on the third course I’m starting to need those repeat plays to learn the course.
“Serious mode” (once I discovered it) also helped bump up the challenge for the first two courses.
i’m not super far in, only doing the back half of the first course at rank 2, but i kinda appreciate the grind a lil because the familiarity with the courses makes it a decent podcast game. i hear there’s only 5 courses in total so i’m wondering if it has legs in the long run once you’re familiar with all of those, though. i guess there’s already 2 courses as dlc up on the store…
also: the character creator in this game is amazing. it feels like an expanded version of a mii creator, and i was able to make a golfsona of myself pretty easily. on the other hand if you feel like it you can also totally make piccolo be your golf guy. it’s pretty good. the one weird thing about it is whenever you unlock a new hair or beard style it’s only available to you in one colour.
