Everybody’s Golf World Tour

I love golf. I’ve been watching it on TV for years. I got into watching it after I first started playing Everybody’s Golf on the original Playstation. You’d think I would have progressed to more ‘realistic’ golf games like the Tiger Woods series but I’ve never been able to get my head round the analogue control system. There’s nothing realistic about a tiny flick of your thumb relating to hundreds of yards of distance or hooking your shot wildly into the rough or a water hazard. At least with the old ‘three click’ bar system, press X – follow the cursor up the bar – press x again – press X again at the bottom, you got a visual representation of what kind of shot you were actually going to hit. Besides the control method, Everybody’s Golf always gives you back so much more as you sink hours and days into it being rewarded with crazy characters, balls and clubs with increasingly bananas stats. It must be hard for someone who doesn’t know their golf to imagine it ever being an ‘edge of your seat’ experience but it truly holds as much excitement for me as any FPS game or arcade racer.

I’ve waited with massive anticipation for the release of the PS3 version of Everybody’s Golf. The idea of such a classic game, that holds so many good memories for me, being all HD and shiny with new advanced gameplay and online tournaments has been almost too much to bare. Switching between excitement and trepidation I slipped the disk into my PS3 and and was faced with an installation screen. Not a great start but luckily I’d been excited about the game for at least a year so I was willing to hang on a few minutes longer. Once the title screen appeared the trepidation I’d been feeling began to melt away. It looked just like… well… Everybody’s Golf. It’s bright and fun and the music is incredibly, irritatingly catchy and kitsch. Panic set in again though when I seen the new Advanced Shots option, although I was reassured by the Basic Shots option with the old three click system just waiting there for me to scamper back to my comfort zone. The fact that Clap Hanz have given you this choice is a perfect example of their whole attitude to the development of the game. Everybody’s Golf Is exactly the same as it’s always been… if you want it to be.

I thought I’d be brave and forward thinking and give the Advanced Shots a go and boy am I glad I did! Jumping into the practice mode I tee’d off and got a Nice Shot! right away. Advanced shots are the perfect balance between the old bar system and now common analogue stick system. Using the back swing as your gauge of how hard your shot will be you press x to swing. The head of the club will flash yellow as it passes the 50% mark and red at 100%. there’s a ghost image of the club at the 100% mark too so you can see the full height of your swing throughout the shot. Once you reach the percentage of the swing you want to hit you press x again. As the club comes down a target circle will slowly close in on the ball. Press x again when the circle is at it’s smallest and boom your ball is outta there. Mixing a sense of realism with the pinpoint accuracy of still basically being a three click system, this is the best golfing mechanism I’ve ever played. That’s what’s always been the winning putt with EG. Outside of the cartoon characters, stupid sound effects and frankly bizarre and disturbing caddies, EG never supplies anything less than rock solid physics and compelling, balanced gameplay.

You’ll have to spend some time with the Single Player Challenge mode if you want to unlock new players,caddies, clubs, balls and courses. There’s not as good a range of stuff to unlock as I’d hoped. Players can’t be customised with different clothes or hairstyles but loyalty to one player will reward you with increasing stats. There are only 6 courses unfortunately but they are at least diverse in difficulty and look. The multiplayer mode follows the traditionally Match and Stroke play and it’s this type of game I expected to see in the online mode but I was to be thoroughly disappointed.

Online you can jump into any available lobby and find yourself as a customisable avatar in a lovely little lounge with seats, plants and tables dotted around like some kind of super-deformed Home. I spent more time in there with Ready Up’s Simon sliding down banisters and lying on couches than we did actually playing golf. Once we got a game started, which took a while to figure out, we were subjected to a rather detached experience. Firstly we had to use our Xbox 360 chat function to talk as EG isn’t chat enabled on the PS3. Secondly we couldn’t actually see each other play as there is no ‘shots each’ option. You play at the same time with no real sense of how the other player is getting on. Lastly there is an inbuilt timer which you can alter from fast to very slow but still leaves you in a panic taking your shots without really thinking. This may be a good function when playing with strangers or in one of Sony’s regular official tournaments to keep things moving along but to not include the option to switch it off when playing with friends is a ridiculous oversight.

It’s in the online mode that the game really lets itself down but over all Everybody’s Golf is still extraordinarily fun. Clap Hanz have updated the game with an HD sheen and taken consideration of gamers current gen expectations but they haven’t messed with the magic.The game marries brilliant gameplay with fun characters and and great unlockables. I know we at Ready Up don’t give scores in our reviews but Everybody’s Golf for the PS3 has to get a score of at least 9 under par.