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Graphics: 4 Sound: 4 Funfactor: 5
Byline: Review: Ever since the day I played a 9-hole demo of the first Hot Shots Golf on a PlayStation Underground CD, I was an unabashed Hot Shots Golf fanatic. For about a month I played that brief 9- hole demo nonstop, even though I had other games to play. It was just that good. I was then and am now only a casual golf fan - I watch some of the major tournaments like The Masters, The Players Championship, and The Ryder Cup, but thats pretty much it. Ive also never cared for golf games much. They all seemed so focused on simulating the sport of golf that playing them felt like work. You had to mess around with an overly complicated interface and worry too much about stuff like club selection. The fact that Hot Shots Golf took the sport and made light of it by utilizing over-the-top characters and an arcade-style of gameplay is what drew me to it. The first two Hot Shots games for the PS1 were both great; they incorporated just enough of the technical aspects of golf to make the game fairly true to the sport, but at the same time they were easy to play right off the bat, had plenty of modes and options, and were just plain fun - especially if you had a friend or two to play against. Thankfully, Hot Shots Golf 3 retains the elements of the first two that made them so great and adds a few things into the mix to make 3 the best in the series thus far. Visually, Hot Shots Golf 3 definitely looks like a 2nd generation PS2 game and is a big improvement over its predecessors. With that said, it still retains the visual style of the first two Hot Shots titles while looking a whole lot better than they do. The character models are big, colorful, and sleek, and the courses look amazing. Everything from the water to the grass to the sand in the sand traps looks almost photo-realistic. There are also supplementary aesthetics like spectators, birds, and bugs that buzz around the greens. The cartoony characters aside, the overall graphical presentation in Hot Shots Golf 3 seems pretty close to real life, though there are a few caveats to mention. In the first two Hot Shots games the gallery - golf-speak for the crowd of spectators - was pretty sparse looking with maybe a dozen on each hole. At most professional golf tournaments youre going to have hundreds of onlookers at the very least, and when youre talking about major professional championship tournaments then the number of fans will reach the thousands. It wouldve been nice if Clap Hanz, the developer of Hot Shots Golf 3, had noticed how miniscule the crowds were in the first two Hot Shots titles and beefed up em up for Hot Shots 3. Unfortunately, that didnt happen. Its a minor, purely cosmetic, deficiency though. A slightly more bothersome problem is the fact that the in-game camera sometimes gets stuck behind objects like fence posts and rocks. This is especially annoying if youre trying to sink a crucial putt and are hampered by a stuck camera. Fortunately, the camera rarely gets stuck so its ultimately a minor problem, but it shouldnt really happen at all. Aurally, theres a lot to like about Hot Shots Golf 3. Most of the music consists of really soft, beat-heavy lounge music tracks that wouldnt be all that great under normal circumstances, but fit perfectly in a golf game. The Hot Shots series is all about lighthearted golf thats more fun than fiercely competitive, so the soothing, laid back music doesnt seem out of place at all. In fact, developers Clap Hanz were apparently confident enough in the quality of the games music that they included a music player option as an unlockable prize in the game. Not to be overshadowed by the music, there are a good deal of sound effects too - spectators clapping when you make a nice shot, birds cawing, and various different sounds when your ball hits different objects such as rocks, cart paths, wet grass, and sand to name just a few. Theres even a really nice sound effect when your club makes contact with your ball. All of it, aggregately, does a really good job of replicating the sounds you might hear while playing or watching a real game of golf. The gameplay is always the most critical aspect of any game, and Hot Shots Golf 3 comes through in that regard with flying colors. Obviously embracing the idea of "if it aint broke, dont fix it" developer Clap Hanz has taken the gameplay system from the first two Hot Shots games and put it in Hot Shots 3, with a slew of additions, of course. The games main menu is laid out similarly to those in Hot Shots Golf 1 and 2, which is good because its an easy, straightforward menu system thats easy to navigate. At the main menu youre given six options: Single-Player Golf, Multi-Player Golf, Short Course, Data, Continue, and Options. Single-Player Golf gives you options like Versus Mode, Match Play, and Tournament Player whereas the Multi-Player Golf options gives you a choice of Stroke Play or Match Play, as well as the option of 4-player action. Theres even a cool National Tournament option that lets you compete against other Hot Shots Golf 3 players from all over the United States. Its not online play, but its the next best thing. By going to Sonys Hot Shots Golf 3 website at http://www.hotshotsgolf3.scea.com you can register and receive a special password that can be inputted at the National Tournament screen in the game. You then play the courses and, once youve finished (youll get a special password at the end), go back online and get your scores posted. There are, of course, prizes to be won, and there will be multiple tournaments held throughout the remainder of this year. On top of all that you can even go so far as to change the outfits of the various players and make each player left or right handed at will (a very nice option to have for the lefties out there). Also, by playing in any mode, other than the Practice Mode, you earn points that can be used to buy new stuff like better clubs, better balls, and main menu background wallpaper. You also win stuff by winning tournaments, including new caddies and items like Head-speed Radar (measures the speed of the club face at the point of contact with the ball) and Pinch-Hit Coupons (allows you to let the computer take a tough shot for you), although all three can also be bought in the Shop. Theres a lot more in the way of options and features - like the Video Mode for watching spectacular shots that youve made - but to talk about them all at length would take a really long time. Suffice to say Hot Shots Golf 3 is a pretty deep golf game as well as being a lot of fun. You start out with a total of three characters to choose from, and by challenging new ones in the Versus Mode, you can unlock well over fifteen (one is even named John and looks exactly like real-life PGA Tour player John Daly). Once you beat the first fifteen characters youve got to contend with another wave of challengers, which means you can end up with a big roster of selectable characters if youre skilled enough to beat the second wave of challengers. As is the case with the characters, you start out with only two courses to play on but can unlock more by playing in the Tournament Mode and improving your skill status (you start out at Beginner Level 1 and work your way up). Within the Tournament Mode youll find a grid that has Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter written along the top and different skill ratings like Amateur, Pro, and Semi-Pro written along the side. By winning the Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter tournaments at each skill level you can then play those same tournaments at a higher skill level. By working your way down and winning tournaments and each successively harder skill level you unlock new courses, win prizes, and improve your skill rating. Each course also looks different depending on what season it is. So, for example, the trees on a given course will be lush and green in the spring but will have colored, falling leaves in the fall. The way each course plays is also affected by weather such as rain and snow flurries. Additionally, you can win extra bonus prizes at the end of each tournament by playing a sort of Casino-style slot machine type game complete with three spinning panels that alternately display "Win" and "Lose". If you get two or more "Win" panels you get a prize. Bottom line - if you like sports games and or the sport of golf (and providing you dont take it too seriously) youll have a blast with Hot Shots Golf 3. Fans of the series already know how good it is and have probably already gotten themselves a copy of Hot Shots 3. If youve never played a Hot Shots game before then, by all means, do yourself a favor and give Hot Shots Golf 3 a try. Its an incredibly entertaining, surprisingly deep golf game that has loads of replay value, a slick interface, great graphics, solid music and sound effects, and fun, albeit quirky, characters. Hit the links!
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Byline: A routine single at best.
Developer: Wow Entertainment
The Bottom Line:
A Closer Look: One of Home Run Kings best assets is that its a real nice game to look at. The player models are very slick (although the faces couldve used some additional work), the stadiums look detailed and accurate, and some of the minor nuances of the game of baseball are replicated quite well. For example, the real life batting stances of the players - which vary from player to player - are done perfectly. Ken Griffey Jr.s tight, closed stance is just how his characters stance is in the game, and the same holds true for a guy like Mo Vaughn who has a fairly open batting stance. Also, the movement of the players is spot on, from how they run to when theyre standing at a base. Youll see some players blowing bubbles with a wad of gum and bending down to tie their shoes after running out an infield hit. The weather effects are also done very well and further enhance the overall presentation. However, being that the players and stadiums look so good youd think that the crowds would look good also, but unfortunately thats not the case. When the camera occasionally cuts to the crowd what you see are poorly animated cardboard cutout people that dont resemble a real bunch of spectators in the least. Considering the power that the GameCube has it wouldnt seem to be asking too much for decent looking fans in the stands. The sounds of the game of baseball are definitely an integral part of the experience of playing or watching the game, and that holds true just as much when talking about a baseball videogame as it does about the real thing. In this regard Home Run King does a pretty good job, but not a stellar one. Before each game begins theres a brief hard rock tune thats actually pretty catchy, but it doesnt last very long. Once a game is underway the decent, though under whelming, announce team will start doing their thing. They sometimes blurt out stupid things though. A good example would be their astute observation that "the pitcher shouldve been paying more attention to that runner!" after said runner successfully steals a base. Brilliant analysis indeed. Also present is the typical organ music and PA announcer, as well as some very subdued crowd noise. Some additional sound effects, like food vendors yelling out things like "Get your hot dogs here!" or obnoxious fans yelling at players, wouldve added a little extra something as far as accurately recreating the atmosphere of an MLB game. Regardless, what sound effects and music are present do a respectable, though less than stellar, job. As always, gameplay is the meat of any and every game, and Home Run King is pretty average in that respect. While it does have all of the modes youd expect to find in any current, respectable baseball game, the gameplay itself seems like a somewhat awkward amalgamation of sim and arcade style play. On the sim side of the equation youve got the standard modes like Playoffs, Home Run Derby, Quick Start, Season, Player Create, and even a Customize mode where you can essentially be a GM and manage a team. The rules of baseball are observed in the game, and you can do all of the technical stuff like shift your infielders and or outfielders, pick off base runners, and adjust lineups. On the arcade side of things youve got players like Atlanta Braves pitcher Greg Maddux hitting 438 foot bombs to center field. Sorry, but that never has and never will happen in real life, and it shouldnt happen in any halfway decent baseball game either. Additionally, at certain times - most often when fielding a ground ball - the movement of your players seems to inexplicably slow down, which interrupts the flow of play and makes fielding a chore. The sluggishness spills over into the outfield, where it often seems like your players are running in a stadium filled with water. Pitching and batting in Home Run King are fairly straightforward, though there are a few intricacies that bear mention. When pitching youll notice a baseball icon right smack dab in the strike zone with three or more bars extending out from it. These bars represent different pitches like a Fastball, Curveball, Slider, and so forth. When you throw a particular pitch you deplete the bar corresponding to that pitch, so its important to use your entire repertoire so as not to deplete one particular pitch too fast. By pressing a direction indicated by one of the aforementioned arrows and then hitting the A button youll be your windup. After your pitcher has started to throw a small, vertical bar will begin to fill up. This is the power bar and effects how hard you throw. By pressing A again you determine where the bar stops, and conversely how hard your pitcher will throw. As far as batting goes, youve got a little blue circle that you can move around, and thats about it. Youve got to anticipate where the pitcher is likely to throw and move your cursor there quickly so you can hit the ball. Thats pretty much it. All of the players have stamina bars that run down at different rates, so some players will grow tired and subsequently not perform as well faster than others. Both interfaces just feel a little unnatural and detract from the overall playing experience. All in all, Home Run King couldve been a much better game than it is. Its as though Wow Entertainment couldnt decide whether it wanted the game to be a sim or an arcade-style title. It ends up borrowing elements from both sub-genres, and as a result is decidedly average. For those who only own a GameCube and not a PS2 and or Xbox, theres still a better alternative to give you some hardball satisfaction - Acclaims All- Star Baseball 2003. Should there be a Home Run King sequel, and assuming Wow Entertainment addresses some of the first games major flaws, it could become a series with a lot more redeeming features than the initial offering has. One things for sure though - a decision needs to be made regarding whether the series will be more akin stylistically to games like NFL Blitz and NHL Hitz or Madden and Triple Play Baseball. Pros/Cons
Graphics: B+
+Accurately reproduced stadiums -Crowds look like cardboard cutouts and have wooden movement
Sound: B-
+PA announcer sounds realistic and accurate +Sound effects, such as cracking bats and players hitting the ground, sound authentic +/-The play-by-play team fluctuates between being tolerable and annoying -No sound of food vendors or specific fan comments -Crowd noise seems unnaturally subdued
Gameplay: C-
-Sluggish player movement at times makes fielding a hassle -The blending of sim and arcade style play just doesnt work well at all -The pitching and batting interfaces dont feel right
Replay Value: C-
-The offense-oriented gameplay makes for a very shallow playing experience -The less than intuitive pitching and batting interfaces are annoying and make playing less enjoyable than it otherwise might be Overall: C- Disclosure: XenGamers purchases this title for review directly from retail. -Ian Johnston
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