Everybody's Golf

Written by Tom Clare in PSOne Game Reviews, Thursday 7 February, 2008

Though Everybody's Golf has never quite caught on in the west to the degree it has in Japan, it is heartening to see that the franchise is still going strong. Having now made appearances on three generations of gaming systems, the series fifth iteration (the first for the PS3) recently topped the sales charts in its home land; ten years after the original shined on the PSOne.

As a sport, golf has all the ingredients required to make a great gaming experience - requirements of timing, skill and judgement are all par for the course (sorry for the pun) as well as a healthy dollop of competition and game variants. Yet many efforts of the nineties proved to be rather drab, uniform affairs, lacking the necessary sparkle to capture the imagination. In 1997, Sony released a quirky golfing sim that was to change all that.

Everybody's Golf is adorned with bright visuals, a colourful front-end and a wacky bunch of characters that seem a million miles from the stereotypical portrait we have of the sports stars. The game is instantly appealing because on the surface, it is golf made easy with just the right amount of stats, guidelines and options at your disposal; yet if you investigate a little closer, you'll discover that Everybody's Golf has comfortably as much depth and versatility as even the most heavyweight of simulations.

Is it truly a game for 'Everybody' though? Well, perhaps not. The early courses make for a sound introduction, but progression to the later tournaments and challenges reveals a game that, at least in a competitive sense, can be mercilessly difficult to succeed at. In most other games of this type (most notably its own sequel) you can generally get away with the odd slightly mistimed shot, but in EG, even a fraction of a second outside of the slim yellow target line is likely to see you in the rough or even a bunker. Putting similarly requires near-Herculean levels of foresight and concentration in the latter stages as some courses are littered with steep gradients and rain can also affect the speed of your shots - it can be a heartbreaking experience dropping shots after long periods of hard work grafting out a good score, and it doesn't help that the targets you are set to win tournaments are usually incredibly good.

There's no doubt that these elements can prove infuriatingly unfair at times, but in a sense, they are also the reason EG is so deliciously absorbing and addictive - and ultimately, the good far outweighs the bad. It is simple enough to pick up, but takes forever to master. The controls in the immediate are nothing more complex than the D-Pad adjusting aim (often needed to compensate for wind) and the X button to time both power and swing. Beyond that, you can chance at your hand at more powerful but less accurate clubs; impart curve as a way of avoiding trees and you even have a limited number of power shots at your disposal that add 10-15 yards of range to your selected club. Of particular use is the overhead map; this allows you a fully adjustable birds-eye view of the course and gives you a much-needed view of potential hazards.

Though the line between success and failure is very narrow, the rewards for practice are immense. Nothing beats the feeling of belting a drive 220 yards, see it whistle over a bunker and pull up just feet from the hole, leaving you a sitter for birdie or eagle. The five courses on offer are superbly designed and the increase in difficulty between each of them is well-gauged. It's got that oh-so-rare quality that sports games often struggle to find - no two games are ever alike, with so many little elements affecting the environment in which you play, there's the potential for near-endless entertainment.

Of the five tournaments you can compete in, two are available from the outset, with the rest being acquired (rather oddly) through 'levelling-up' - gaining points for hitting birdies and finishing high up the leaderboard in competitions are two ways of going about it. The other mode of significance is 'Vs.', which sees you tackling a computer opponent in Match Play, the twist being that if you beat them (by winning more holes than they do) you unlock their character to play as. A great idea, though this too can make for a gruelling and at times unfair setup, as the A.I.'s method of play can be very off-putting to say the least. It's tough to find the rhythm required to play effectively as you always have to watch your opponent take their shots. They regularly miss-hit the ball and yet miraculously seem to plan for it as the ball quite often lands on the fairway - even after an apparently glaring shank. And because you are always up against someone with more power than you, it can be a real strain to stay with them over 18 holes when they are blasting their way to the flag with a clinical efficiency - there's no doubt the bar is set very high.

Everybody's Golf is cheerfully presented with bubbly menus and a distinctive, chunky set of characters. The courses are functionally efficient though a shade on the bland side and suffer from the odd technical shortcoming - chiefly the lie of the ball, which can be deemed as being on the fairway when, to the naked eye at least, it is several feet in the rough. Aside from the nasty, flat-looking trees however, there are no other visual elements that seem out of place or absent. EG doesn't fair too well in terms of sound though as the in-game music is too racy for the subject matter - something more sedate is preferable in a game that demands such levels of concentration, and the hyperactive ditties that dominate here prove quickly distracting.

However, it isn't enough to spoil a game that will offer weeks of play to anyone willing to be sucked in. As well as unlocking the extra courses and golfers, there is a nifty gallery that saves a load of your best shots in the form of replays (of sorts - they are quite likely statistic based) and there is a Five-Course mode that allows you to tackle all 90 holes back-to-back (with the odd mercifully-placed save point after every nine). Best of the lot though is the ingenious crazy golf course - basically a jazzed up training mode that allows the player to practice their putting, though it turns out to be an enjoyable challenge all in itself. The multiplayer proves to be the icing on the cake as in terms of pass-the-pad fun, it isn't far short of Worms' brilliance.

These days, a few games have since surpassed it thanks to more favourable technologies; but Everybody's Golf shows that true class is permanent. Beginners will struggle with its unforgiving tendencies, but even if it's just for the unique set of courses and rock-solid design blueprint, this is a game that anyone with even a passing interest in the sport should look into.

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