>>715857673I liked it for what it was, but I definitely prefer the proper Hot Shots games. Something I enjoyed about ECEG was the 9-hole baseball-style roster system where each hole has a character you pick for it rather than using the same one for all 9 holes, so characters with different niches like low-drive high-accuracy shine a lot more in this game than in HSG, where raw drive trumps all else. However, I feel like a lot of subtle nuances are gone, too, like how every character shoots their shots straight by default, the strange "curve" (it's not a proper draw/fade, but rather, the shot makes a sharp angle halfway in) for higher drive distance mechanic, much grindier progression method, every course being a 9-hole instead of a true 18 (an "18-hole round" has the in-holes be mirrors of the normal variants) and obvious lack of budget since only caddies are voiced (and even then, you only get 3 of them) and no background music exists for the game. You can probably emulate it to get a feel for what the game's like, and if you like what you see, give it a go, and while the game has a lot of charm, you can tell Clap Hanz is hurting from the lack of Sony funding to budget their games.
For a $20 budget release, I liked it far more than the $60 Mario Golf Super Rush, at least, but that's a low bar.