Hot Shots Golf / YMMV

Even Better Sequel: The first Hot Shots Golf game was a respectable - if not a bit bland - golf simulation. With the first two sequels during the PS1 and PS2 era, the games kept getting better and better - Hot Shots Golf 2 injected some personality into the character roster, had better graphics and smoothed out the gameplay. Hot Shots Golf 3, in particular, is far and away the most critically-acclaimed game in the franchise, due to its complete visual overhaul into full-on 3D graphics, characters that are fully-voiced and have much more personality, a selection of caddies to choose from that actually appear on the course, a nice selection of unique and varied courses, and the introduction of flashy special shots. Most of the latter titles after this, while generally still seen positively by critics and players, are somewhat victims of Capcom Sequel Stagnation, with only a few major changes to the formula.
Hilarious in Hindsight: After Everybody's Golf, Cameloft Software went on to work with Nintendo, one of Sony's most direct competitor in gaming, to produce Mario Golf in 1999, but also it's sister series a year later, Mario Tennis with Clap Hanz handling the series ever since. Come 2007 and things went full circle with Everybody's Tennis for the PlayStation 2, birthed from Everybody's Golf , the very same games that Mario Golf spawned from.
Quirky Work: The US version of FORE! is by far the wackiest game in the series, with a good majority of the characters, even those from the comparatively-tame third title, being incredibly Large Hams with seemingly-random dialogue that makes little to no sense. The series toned its wackiness down considerably with the next outing, Out of Bounds, and beyond.
That One Disadvantage: 'Rough +2'. Some of the games feature tournaments with extra rules, including ones where you receive penalty strokes if the ball lands on specific terrain types. 'Rough +2' is easily the worst of these - rough terrain is everywhere compared to other terrain types, and even barely skirting onto the semi-rough is grounds to be penalized, making slicing or hooking the ball much more damaging to your score. Bunker +2 can also be a very frustrating stipulation on the latter courses, or courses taking place in arid climates and deserts such as Al Arabian Golf Club from World Invitational.
That One Level:
- FORE!:
  - Silk Road Classic is where the course difficulty really starts to ramp up. If the fairways aren't oddly-shaped or don't have obstacles and bunkers scattered about, they're likely on very small cliffs with steep drop offs, increasing the odds you'll hit the ball out-of-bounds and have to take a penalty stroke. Also, all the par 5 holes have very roundabout and specific setups you need to take if you want to reach the green under regulation, as opposed to other courses where simply driving the ball far enough usually gets you within a reasonable distance to the green on your second shot.
  - Wild Green C.C. takes place in a tropical rainforest, and as you might expect, it has very dense vegetation scattered about, very lopsided, uneven greens and rivers and bodies of water scattered about several holes, making it difficult to avoid taking penalties if you haven't mastered the Super Backspin mechanic.
  - Day Dream C.C. has some of the longest par 3 holes in the game even when shooting from the normal tees, often necessitating using a wood and risking overshooting the green lest you've mastered Super Backspin. Some of the holes also really go overboard with the wacky Fantasy Kitchen Sink course obstacles, especially the level with the castle towards the end.
- World Invitational:
  - Al Arabian Golf Club is a Shifting Sand Land level from hell and it manages to outdo even the final course, Legacy of Golf Links, in sheer cheapness. Bunkers naturally pepper the course all around, even in the middle of some of the greens, there are quite a few inconvenient rock outcroppings and other hazards on almost every other hole, and the greens are often minuscule and/or have very uneven elevation to them making putting a nightmare. All of these complaints directly contribute towards the 18-hole tournament variation of this level having That One Sidequest for its crown challenge in Challenge mode, which involves landing on the green in-regulation on every hole. You'd be lucky to make par on every hole, much less that.
- Everybody's Golf (2017):
  - Akigase Keikoku C.C. is a scenic valley with huge elevation changes, giant gaps, and hilly fairways and greens. It's a regular feature of the course to have a 20+ yard change in elevation to the green surrounded by out-of-bounds or water hazard areas. The terrain is so difficult that it's not uncommon for the Vs. computer players to have issues landing shots! Thankfully (if you can call it that), it's DLC-exclusive and thus optional.
That One Sidequest: Any tournament in Out of Bounds and World Invitational that forces you into using a different shot type can really cause problems for players used to the traditional layouts, especially in the latter, where there are five different shot types available, and all of them have their own dedicated tournament in Platinum Rank.
- The 'Hidden Treasures' and characters hiding in the backgrounds of each course in Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2. Some course holes have hidden objects that your caddy will point out, and aiming your game camera towards them usually unlocks them. However, many of these hidden treasures require specific criteria be met when you find them that the game barely hints about, such as playing as certain characters, using certain club sets, getting certain scores and shots on specific holes, and even equipping certain clothes on specific characters. Unlocking Patricia is probably the most infamous example - you need to play as a male character wearing the Swimsuit. Not a swimsuit, like a wetsuit or a bikini, but the one specifically referred to as the Swimsuit, which you can only get as a random rare reward from completing tournaments.
Waggle: World Invitational's Extra Power Shot was a special technique that caused shots to travel even further than a normal power shot, but it required the use of the finicky SIAXIS motion controls on the Playstation 3 controller, leaving it largely unused.

YMMV / Hot Shots Golf

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