Review – Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots

Author’s note: As of September 12th, 2025, the Nintendo Switch version of the game has received a significant performance patch that boosted the performance from a locked 30 fps to an unlocked 60 fps. On Nintendo Switch 2, this change improves the game considerably and the timing window for nailing Perfect Impacts is now much more accurate. On Nintendo Switch, the unlocked frame rate has made performance worse across the board. 

 

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I tend to drop everything when a new arcadey golf game releases, even Hollow Knight: Silksong. You’re probably thinking, “That must mean Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots is an especially good golf game, right?” The answer to that involves driving down some smooth fairways but hitting more bunkers than I’d have hoped for in the process. Fore!

Nintendo Switch has really seen itself become quite the golf machine. When most AAA companies wouldn’t take a chance on releasing their yearly sports titles on it, 2K released a shockingly competent port of PGA Tour 2K21. But it didn’t satisfy those craving for a more arcade-leaning experience. Golf Story still stands as the Switch’s best golf game in that realm and Mario Golf: Super Rush is goofy fun, if not more sterilized than the series is usually known for. ClapHanz brought over the mobile Everybody’s Golf entry Easy Come, Easy Golf but it maintains its grind-heavy progression and simplified gameplay. So here comes… Sony? 

Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots is the first ‘Everybody’s Golf’ title to make it onto a Nintendo system. As crazy as that may seem, keep in mind that this series (also known as Hot Shots Golf) and Mario Golf share origins, although neither Camelot nor ClapHanz have anything to do with this title. Instead, Sony has licensed this Everybody’s Golf entry with Hyde handling development and Bandai Namco publishing. If you’ve played this series or Mario Golf, you’ll be familiar with its meter-based system for distance and accuracy, the “triple tap” system as it’s become known. The anime-esque personalities you play will also be familiar to series veterans. So what does this Everybody’s Golf do differently?

 

 

Frankly, ‘Hot Shots’ doesn’t do much differently and that’s great. It’s simply a new Everybody’s Golf game and that’s what “everybody” wanted from the series. A World Tour mode features storylines between the series’ characters and acts as a way of unlocking new characters for play in all modes. I can’t say I was invested in the lore, but it was a cute inclusion even with what seemed like five different Aya’s. Challenge Mode is where you’ll spend most of your time, with its RPG-lite mechanics of choosing which stats to increase for you and your caddie with different food items in addition to unlocking your chosen character’s special abilities such as Super Spin or Vortex and support abilities for your caddie. This is all done via a Loyalty system where using the same character frequently opens up new abilities for your chosen character. Playing through tournaments in an effort to become a Professional starting as a newbie and filling a VS meter up by winning is how you’ll spend your time in Challenge Mode. By filling the VS meter, you’ll face a rival golfer one-on-one. Most of these tournaments only take place across nine holes but a few are a full 18 holes. You’ll gain currency to purchase new unlockable equipment and the equipment you can purchase makes a world of difference. Different golf balls can be the reason you hit a shot straight down the middle or with more of a hook or slice. Elsewhere, you can initiate Match Play against one of 30 CPU opponents or Stroke Play by yourself. How about multiplayer modes?

Personally, golf shines as a multiplayer game because it’s just as much about observing your opponent(s) strategy as it is developing your own. ‘Hot Shots’ truly might be one of the best multiplayer golf games ever created thanks to its Wacky Golf mode. This mode houses four separate rulesets. Colorful is a golf-shuffleboard hybrid where each colored block unleashes a surprise that affects you or your opponent. This will be the fan favorite most likely, but if not Survival Golf is where it’s at. Two golfers face off in Match-like play, but at the end of the match one of you loses a randomly selected club. The mode is tense, especially considering even a tied hole will result in one of you losing a club. Scramble Golf’s team play is inspired but could have fit as a standard ruleset and Dokkon Golf’s focus on avoiding exploding mines could have fit in to Colorful. Still, this set of modes alone makes ‘Hot Shots’ a riotous good time if you have some friends over that happen to love golf. This is “Everybody’s” golf after all. 

 

 

Unfortunately, this golf may not be for everybody worldwide. ‘Hot Shots’ is burdened with poor matchmaking and frequent graphical and audio glitches. This series has never been known for a lack of polish. That’s what makes this entry particularly shocking. At any given time, Mizuki spouting something off about how edgy and brooding he is will overlap with crucial tips from your caddie about the lie of your ball or whether you’re hitting uphill or downhill on a putting green. All characters also suffer greatly from repeating a line of dialogue with nearly every shot. Not only are they audibly obstructing, but their animations can get in the way of your line-of-sight while teeing up or putting. These animations could be reserved for idle moments or pre/post-shot cutscenes. Also, the audience clapping sound is bugged with weird distortion and tinny sound echoing long after the sample has played. You’ll hear this sound frequently and it sounds oddly robotic in its current form. However, none of this is game-breaking…

It was already concerning that ‘Hot Shots’ was only announced as having a Nintendo Switch version and not a Switch 2 version. So it pains me to have to write that performance on the Switch is deeply problematic. It’s capped at 30 fps and drops below this limit at-will frequently when teeing up. What’s worse is the visual presentation: Textures flicker and disappear, the courses appear blurry with abysmal lighting, screen juddering causes the already tricky timing of the shot meter to be impossible to nail and, unfortunately, the game is visually bare and bland. The ten courses feature some cool landmarks such as a seaside city, a large bridge and windmills, but next to no crowd presence. A new weather system and the inclusion of nighttime matches provides some life, but mostly serves to drag performance down even lower. Overall, there seems to be a lack of color, imagination and life in this iteration of a typically colorful and lively franchise. I can’t help but believe the Switch’s aging capabilities held back the development of what could have been a stellar Switch 2 launch year golf game. 

 

 

Despite the performance mishaps and empty presentation, the actual golfing in Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots has never been better. Three different shot meters can be switched between in the game’s menus, though it would be nice to switch with a button press in gameplay or on the pause menu. The ‘triple tap’ or ‘three click’ system feels just as satisfying to execute now as it always has and nailing a ‘Perfect Impact’ AKA a perfectly timed shot is one of gaming’s greatest feedback moments. My favorite golf games essentially act as a reward pipeline. I’m given a cool fireball arc if I hit a long drive down the fairway, I get a “Nice shot!” if I land near the flag, making it out of a bunker in one hit with a wedge elicits a declaration of “Good recovery!” and sinking a long birdie putt on the green shoots glitter and sparks out of the hole. Everybody’s Golf is where these familiar feel-good moments were born and no amount of poor performance takes away from that sense of accomplishment. For fun with your friends and long sessions challenging yourself, Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots is one of modern gaming’s best golf experiences. Just expect some performance bogeys in the meantime. 

 

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