Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots Review

As a lifelong sports fan, golf was the one I never got heavily invested in. I owned a set of clubs, briefly joined my team in high school, and would occasionally hit the local course with some buddies a couple of times per year. Still, I never really followed the sport nearly as closely as anything else. And then, I turned 30.

These days, I fall asleep watching Good Good and Bryson DeChambeau. I just caught a LIV tournament an hour away from my house. I’ve been upgrading my bag steadily over the last few years, and I must say, it’s gotten moderately respectable, though my game itself certainly still is not.

At the same time, golf video games have always been my jam despite just recently getting into the sport for real. I’d argue that Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour is a top 5 sports game ever. I still have Outkast stuck in my head thanks to dozens of hours in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005. Along with this, Everybody’s Golf from 2017 was steadily in my rotation, and I have a ton of love for that game too.

Because of this, I was genuinely stoked when I saw that Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots was releasing this year. This then followed by immediate apprehension that Clap Hanz, the developer of the franchise since 1999, wasn’t attached to this new game, and that HYDE would be taking a stab at the series instead. But the foundation had been laid. Surely, this latest entry would still be great, right?

Unfortunately, no. Despite my sincere and long-running love of arcade golf games and heavy interest in real golf these days, Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots is a massive slice off the tee that lands a hundred yards out of bounds. Sure, I was able to wring some fun out of this title at times, but it was unfortunately a sincere challenge. Let me explain.

Performance That Kills The Experience

The good thing about Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots is that it lets you get into the action immediately. As much as I loved Everbody’s Golf from 2017, the forced introduction to the game is a big pain point when you jump into a new file. I was pleased to see that this new title mostly takes the training wheels off from the get-go and just lets you hit the links.

That said, this also means it won’t take you long at all to realize that Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots was not ready for the pro tour in its current state. The game doesn’t run well, and that kills it from the start. At first, I thought maybe this issue just applied to my character’s emotes and the golf ball as it flew through the air. This would’ve been annoying, but ultimately forgivable.

The real issue is that you feel this frequent performance dip in your swing’s power meter itself, and that means Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots is disqualified from being a good golf game instantly. The entire game is based around the three-button swing input system you know from every Hot Shots and Mario Golf title. If this system doesn’t work, there’s just nothing else that can redeem the game.

The worst part is that you can’t even get used to the jank and adapt your swing inputs to compensate. Sometimes, the game will run fine, and the power bar of your shot filling up will feel smooth. One shot later, right when you begin your swing, the power bar will start to stutter ever so slightly, and your only option is to pray that the game registers your inputs in the proper locations.

…the direction and distance your shots ultimately go feels super random.

Way more often than not, this performance dip will impact either your power input, accuracy, or both, and your shot will turn into a bad slice or hook as a result. It took me about 10 minutes to become wildly disappointed by this, and the game never corrects or improves itself as a result. God help you if you get caught in the rain too, as the added visuals of the water droplets affect all this even more.

Even if you could somehow compensate for an inconsistent feeling shot meter, it doesn’t matter much anyway. For whatever reason, the direction and distance your shots ultimately go feels super random. Some of this comes down to a character’s Control stat rating, but it’s always a thing regardless in the end.

There’s nothing worse than thinking (or knowing) you hit an okay shot, but you veer off into the rough, plug yourself in a bunker, or overshoot the green by 10 yards anyway. Yes, there are things that go into this, like the lie of the ball, wind, etc., but that’s not the problem here. Trust me, the game will just randomly decide to punish you, and it’s up to you to recover.

Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots does also offer two other types of swing meters, one based on visible feedback during your backswing, and one that’s the same power bar, but curved! Ultimately, these are either the same or worse than the traditional, flat, three-input bar, so they aren’t worth your time and are just kind of frivolous.

Regardless of which swing style you choose, all the same issues stand the same. When this game did briefly run okay and my shots felt like they were translating properly to the flight of the ball, I was able to have a fine time here and there. Sadly, these moments rarely lasted, and were entirely too few and far between.

Chatter In The Backswing

If you enjoyed creating your own avatar in 2017’s Everybody’s Golf, buying new outfits and equipment, and rising the tour rankings like I did, there’s unfortunately more bad news. There’s no custom character creation here, and you’ll instead have to steadily work towards unlocking 30 total pre-made golfers, starting from a paltry selection of two.

I’m ultimately fine with the progression of unlocking new players, but losing the means to personalize them aside from outfit color swaps is a bummer. Worse is that a lot of the player options here are simply annoying and grating, full of constant nonsensical quips that drove me to turn character voices off entirely after a few rounds.

Here are a collection of real, word-for-word lines you’ll hear about 100 times each. “This is so cringe.” “I feel the evil dragon within my left arm stirring, ahh!” “OMG! I’m like totally killing it.”

And then there was me, constantly muttering “Yikes” under my breath.

I know what you’re thinking. “Have you ever played any JRPG? Character quips are a thing. You get used to it.” Believe me, I understand, and I’ve played many games where these things ultimately become endearing in the end. Shoot, Persona is one of my favorite franchises of all-time, and I love the cheesy, quippy campiness in those games.

The constant chatter and emoting are genuinely distracting.

That’s not what’s present here in Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots. It simply gets grating quickly. This is compounded by the fact that the crowd and your caddie chatter constantly too, and everyone is always talking over one another, much like The Gang during a chaotic scene from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

I was ready to embrace the quirkiness of the characters and find my favorites. In theory, I actually kind of dig the idea of a golfer that thinks he’s possessed by the spirit of a dragon. But do I need to hear about it 300 times during a match? Do you need to have him collapse to the ground as he wrestles with the invisible dragon and directly block the view of my putt until he finally decides to stand back up?

The constant chatter and emoting are genuinely distracting, and I wound up completely muting my characters and the crowd. I’d have loved to mute my caddie too, but they did occasionally have a helpful tip about a tricky putt, so I put up with them just for that small benefit.

Prepare To Grind

A handful of single player modes are present here. There’s regular Stroke and Match Play, as well as the ability to just hit a course solo for some alone time on the links. The meat and potatoes are the Challenge Mode and World Tour. Challenge Mode gives you increasing difficulty levels of random tournaments on a single course. Some are a full 18 holes, others are 6 or 9. Nice.

Succeed at enough tourneys at a certain course and difficulty level, and you’ll earn the right to challenge a new, unlockable golfer during a Versus Match, which will then unlock your next new course upon completion. This loop is fine, but feeds into the ultimate grind of this game immediately.

It’s really rough that you start the game with one, single playable course until you start to earn more in Challenge Mode. I truly enjoy unlocking players and courses in other games (like Mario Golf), but barring so much content from the start was a questionable choice. One solitary course and two golfers at startup is tough. Ten courses and 30 golfers is a nice collection eventually, but you’re going to have to grind for it.

World Tour is essentially Story Mode, and each of the 30 golfers has their own set of challenges to complete. Before and between each challenge, you’ll be treated to a visual novel-style interaction between one or two characters, devoid of any voice-over whatsoever, with largely throwaway writing that isn’t really serving any purpose at all. You can opt to skip these scenes entirely, so it’s like the devs knew these weren’t necessary content anyway.

New in Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots as well is night golfing, which just means it’s dark outside and your golf ball is now glowing. And… that’s about all I have to report about night golfing.

Online play is here, which comprises of creating or joining a room for a game of Stroke or Match play. You can also try to rise the ranks of a timed leaderboard at a preset course with a determined number of holes. There’s local multiplayer too, so you’re able to get in the action with a buddy on the couch as well.

The remaining mode to talk about is Wacky Golf, available in both single player and local multiplayer. This features Colorful Mode, Scramble (which is actually Alt. Shot), Survival (spin a wheel and steal an opponent’s clubs), and Boom Golf. Colorful Mode and Boom Golf are the two worth discussing.

Colorful Golf places random, different colored landing patches on the ground, some giving perks, others debuffs, and others items. These things mix up a match in interesting ways, such as spawning more holes on the green, or being able to summon an animal to mess with your opponent’s ball. I can see this mode being sporadic fun with a friend.

Boom Golf places twenty hidden bombs under the grass that will explode if you happen to land within the radius of one. The explosion will launch your ball in any direction. While this can be chaotic and humorous, it’s also completely random and unable to be strategized or planned out at all. Again, I can see it being fun on occasion with a playing partner, but the novelty will wear off quickly.

Good For Golf 101

I will give a shoutout to Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots for being a super approachable golf game from a training and explanation standpoint. That’s not to say the game is simple either, though clearly more so than a golf sim like PGA 2K25. Still, I will always say an arcade-y golfer is my preference in the genre, but I still prefer there to be some real world strategy to consider as well.

Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots has more real mechanics and golf philosophies to consider than you might expect, but it’s all explained genuinely well by help boxes and a quick but super serviceable training mode. Nothing here will be surprising to an avid golfer, but it’s all still a nice refresher either way.

If you’re brand new to golf, I really do think this game does a nice job of getting you up to speed quickly, even to the point where you’d be able to understand real world golf even better as well.

Sadly, this game isn’t just a golf education tool, and your new golf knowledge will just be translated into a video game that has all the issues we’ve previously discussed. Still, I appreciate the attention to detail here that creates a welcoming and approachable environment. Lots of golf courses don’t always feel like that in real life.

A Victim Of Comparison

I hit a point in my time with Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots where I thought maybe I was misremembering previous games in the series and simply being too hard on this one. I put a really nice chunk of time into the 2017 game, but since it’s been eight years since the last mainline game, it was possible my memory was wrong.

To test this out, I re-downloaded 2017’s Everybody’s Golf to do a direct comparison. After suffering through the game’s intro explanation dump once again, I jumped onto a course to see how this game still felt. The difference is immediately apparent.

The 2017 game’s swing meter is buttery smooth. I was instantly nailing shots, and the ball was flying through the air in a way that actually made sense. It felt great. After playing a couple holes, I jumped back into Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots, and it’s sadly drastic how much worse the game feels in every possible aspect.

And it’s not only the feel. The picture above is of a course from the 2017 game. It’s more visually appealing, interestingly laid out, and good-looking than the courses in the new game. 2017’s music is way better and catchier. The textures are better. The fun vibe shines through. The general presentation is charming. Being able to drive a golf cart around is pointless, but a blast. The new game lacks in all of these areas.

The weird hub world from 2017 still doesn’t entirely feel necessary, but it at least feels like Clap Hanz was really going for something with it. That feeling applies to the entire game and experience. There’s a level of care and innovation present that I still appreciate all these years later.

2025’s Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots has better character models. Truly, that’s the only edge I can give the game. For there being an eight-year gap between these games, that’s a truly baffling opinion to be left with. In pretty much every way, this game feels like a step back.

The entire system from 2017 of your clubs leveling up individually as you hit good shots with them is also gone, and this was an awesome, thoroughly rewarding mechanic. Instead, in 2025, your characters level up as you go and unlock new skills/perks in tiers, many of which are not explained at all, so I don’t even really know what they do still.

What we’ve been given in 2025 feels bare bones, and simply plays decidedly worse than the game we got back when fidget spinners were all the rage and Get Out was the movie of the year. I truly hate being this down on a game for review, but I’m clearly just sorely disappointed with Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots, and worried about the franchise if this is the direction we’re going in with a new team.

I hope the work is done to salvage this one, make it feel like less of a grind, and bring the performance to a point where the game doesn’t feel so unsatisfying and frustrating.

Until then, I am grateful that this experience inspired me to jump back into the 2017 game. I’ll be spending some more time there once again, and I’d recommend you do the same if you’re itching for an arcade golf experience. As it stands, Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots can be left at the tee box.

Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots is a really disappointing swing and a miss. Poor performance that directly impacts your shot on a consistent basis totally kills the experience, and the gameplay in general is wildly and randomly imprecise. The presented modes feel bare bones, the lack of custom player creation is a bummer, and the stock characters are largely annoying. Fans of the franchise should stick to the classics, or 2017’s Everybody’s Golf, which is clearly superior in nearly every facet.