Platform	PlayStation 2
Available	June 12 (Japan)
Price	4,800 yen
Genre	Sports
Developer	Clap Hanz
Publisher	SCEI

If you're a long-time Tokyopia reader, you may have noticed that, despite being one of the site's founders, I don't often post impressions here. No excuses or anything; I'm usually just too busy with work. However, every now and then a game comes along that grabs me so much that I can't help but share my excitement with others. Minna no Golf Online is one such game. I'm supposed to be working right now, so I'm gonna skip the formalities and just get right into it with a section-by-section breakdown.

About PSBB

June 12 marked the start of Sony's big PSBB (PlayStation Broadband) push in Japan with the release of three major online-only titles: Nobunaga's Ambition Online, Final Fantasy XI (a relaunch, if you will) and Minna no Golf Online. At the same time, the Hard Disk Drive and BB Unit (Network Adapter) were finally released in retail stores, after over a year of being available only via rental through broadband ISPs. Sony also released the new PS2 BB Pack, which includes everything you need to get online and more: a PS2, the HDD, a BB Unit, the BB Navigator software, a Memory Card and a DVD remote.

A few of us have been heavily engrossed in FFXI for months now, and Nobunaga's got enough kanji to make even native Japanese players cringe, so of course, that made it easy for me to focus on the one I've been looking forward to the most: Minna no Golf Online.

The Basics

Mingol Online is essentially Minna no Golf 3 (Hot Shots Golf 3) with online play. Most of the courses, characters and options are the same as MNG3, as are the controls and the core gameplay. You can play offline if you want, but you first have to sign on with an online account, so there's really no point in purchasing this unless you plan to go online. And of course, as you've no doubt heard, the game requires the HDD unit. You can't play without it. This of course means there's no chance of Hot Shots Golf Online hitting the States anytime before Spring 2004, which is when the hard drive is scheduled to finally be released there. As far as pricing goes, MNGO is free until the end of June; after that, it'll cost 500 yen a month for online play. Not exactly cheap, but not high enough to keep us from playing, that's for sure...

Getting Started

Before you can install MNGO, you need to have the BB Navigator software (basically SCE's version of PlayOnline, only far less intrusive and annoying) installed on your PS2. Once that's accomplished (takes about 20 minutes or so), you can start the Mingol install, which takes another 30-40 minutes. Then, finally, you need to register with FEEGA, Sony's online billing service. All in all it took me a little over an hour to get things fully set up. It's nothing at all compared to Final Fantasy XI's multi-hour installation marathon, at least.

Going Online

The first order of business is to create a character for the lobbies. At the start, you're only given a few different hairstyles, faces, clothes, etc. to choose from, but as you progress in the game, new stuff becomes available. I've seen people walking around the lobbies with dogs or riding bicycles, so it seems like there's a good bit of variety. Once you're online, the two main areas you can hit are the Clubhouse and the Shop. The Shop sells new characters, outfits, wallpapers, options and so on, just like in Mingol 3. You earn points to spend in the Shop by playing online games. (Sadly, offline games don't earn you squat this time, giving very little incentive to play offline unless you just want to practice.) The Clubhouse, on the other hand, is where you'll spend most of your time when you're not on the actual courses. There are three groups of lobbies in the Clubhouse, which correspond with the three main modes of play. They are as follows:

1) Free Battle

Here you can look for one-on-one matches or multiplayer matches, or play against people in your own age group (a pretty cool feature -- there are lobbies for players under 20, 20-29, 30-39 and 40 and over, and only people of those ages are allowed in). Up to four players can play in any one game.

2) Real Tournament

This mode rocks. Here, you can sign up for 100-player real-time tournaments that take place every 20-30 minutes (during peak hours -- after 1am, they run about one an hour until the morning). Each tournament has its own special conditions; some are pretty straightforward, while others have special rules like only being able to choose female characters, or not being able to hit any bunker shots. What you do is, you register for whatever tournament you want to get in (as long as there's still room, of course), and then you go off and do whatever you want until it's time to start. If you're not in the lobby at the start time, the game will actually pop up a little note telling you it's time to head to the course. Once you begin, you play a full 18 holes against 99 other players, trying to get the best score possible. Each hole is timed, so that you're always playing in sync with the rest of the group -- if you don't finish your hole before the timer runs out, you're forced to retire from the tournament. After each hole, the leaderboard pops up and you can check your status, leave a comment (i.e. "great shot!" or as is often the case with me, "damn!") and prepare for the next hole. Often, when someone makes a really good shot, a message will show up across the top of the screen to tell everyone else (i.e. "john tv just made a chip-in eagle from 142 yards!!"). Japanese players are known for being especially courteous and friendly in online games, so usually when a message like this pops up, they'll change their comment to something like "congrats!" or "nice work!". It adds a lot to the whole 'community' feel the developers were obviously trying hard to create.

3) New National Tournament

This is basically an updated version of the National Tournament mode in MNG3. where you can compete for your best score in whatever tournaments are currently being held. In MNG3, scores were handled with a special password that you could input at the official mingol site (http://www.mingol.net), but now it's just updated automatically. The only tournament available right now is the Mingol Opening Cup, which takes place from June 11 to June 30. (Personal best so far: -5; I really think I can reach -10 or thereabouts with just a little bit of luck.) Apparently you can only participate in these up to 20 times each.

Random Stuff

A few other notes that really didn't fit anywhere else:

- Each lobby can hold up to 30 players. There's an awful lot of lobbies, so it doesn't look like they'll have to worry about capacity issues anytime soon.

- Chatting in the lobbies and during games is pretty easy, provided you have a USB keyboard. Two minor gripes, though: 1) You can only type one line at a time (kind of like PSO, I guess), and 2) if you're chatting during a match and the camera changes, there's a brief pause where your text won't go through, which usually screws up what you're trying to type. Minor, but annoying. Hopefully they'll fix it with a future update.

- Currently, voice chat is not supported. Not sure if it's something they could add to a future update or not. Would be nice, though...

- There's a friends list that allows you to find and meet your buddies online, or send them mail messages to tell them when/where to meet up. The one problem with this feature is that currently, you have to be in the same room as someone to add them to your list, which is a little impractical, especially if you're trying to meet up with somebody for the first time.

- Gameplay-wise, again, this is is pretty much the same as Minna no Golf 3. What does that mean? In short, it's the most polished, fun console golf game out there. The graphics are fantastic, the controls are perfect, the physics are superb, the course designs are excellent, and the whole package is extremely accessible, making it a perfect fit for both experienced golfers and newbies alike. That's always been the beauty of Mingol, and the tradition definitely continues with MNGO.

Alright, "20 minutes" turned into an hour and a half, so it's time for me to roll. In closing, let me just say that this is one of the best games I've played in a long while, and easily one of the best online console games yet. It would be a real shame if Sony didn't bring this over to the U.S. and Europe ASAP.

I hope these impressions were helpful -- if you have any questions or comments, be sure to bring them up on the forums!

- John Ricciardi
[ Email John ]