Hot Shots Golf FORE! is up to par

I'm not an experienced golfer, if you don't count a million or so games of miniature golf, but I love a video game that can keep you entertained for long stretches. Throw in some interesting characters and pretty good graphics, and I'm a happy gamer.

That's precisely what Hot Shots Golf FORE! for PlayStation 2, developed by Clap Hanz in cooperation with Sony Computer Entertainment America's Santa Monica Studios, provides in this fourth of the Hot Shots series.

It's a cartoony-looking arcade game, rather than one with motion-capture-driven, more-realistic-Madame-Tussaud-wax-museum-looking figures. There are more than 30 characters available, including such popular PlayStation2 critters as Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter, once you manage to unlock them. Each has his or her own catch phrases and personality; some can be quite annoying. But you're not here for the scintillating conversation. It's all about golf. And that's here in a very satisfying way.

The game takes places on 15 different courses, all packed with interesting geographic features that can greatly impact how you take that shot. Wanna talk sand traps? Trees? Water? Fortunately, the camera angle's changeable, and you can get a very good overview of what comes between you and the cup.

Which is, of course, what matters when you're golfing, even if you're doing it with your thumbs.

The characters may be cartoony, but the technique needed to make the shot is no joke. You have to know what you're trying to do, then practice and practice and practice. Physics matters a lot in this game. You have to pay attention to the wind gauge, because variables like that and the course itself will change what happens when you take your shot.

It's amazingly satisfying when you put all that practice you did to work and watch that ball go where you aimed it.

Controlling the swing depends on how you press the X. The first touch kicks off the power meter, then you hit it again and hope you've given it just enough to stop it on the perfect spot. Finally, you touch it again to select your shot accuracy.

The first 50 or so times, I lived with my miscalculations. Then I discovered that you can actually use that third touch to dial up the power or tamp it down a little. Whew.

Golf FORE! also includes miniature golf "with a twist," as SCEA's promotional materials put it.

As you go, you earn points that unlock better equipment, new golf courses and characters and more.