You know, part of me feels like a good round of golf right about now. It might be approaching 10.00am on a rather chilly Wednesday morning and I might have no natural skill at the game whatsoever, but there’s something about a rather relaxing countryside walk interspersed with a selection of club and ball interaction moments that really appeals to me. I suppose you could argue that it would be a way of maximising my time out of the office as I searched for countless lost golf balls in forests, bunkers and the like, but that would be horribly cynical, wouldn’t it?

For now I’ll have to make do with the latest version of Sony’s Everybody’s Golf series. Appearing as a launch title for the PSP, the game knocks all golf sensibilities into the nearest water hazard and instead focuses itself on providing a selection of weird and wacky characters and courses for you to pitch and putt your way around. In doing so, it has made the transference from the big screen to the small-yet-still-really-nice screen very well and has quite possibly lined itself up as the best game available on launch.

Not that we should be terribly surprised, of course. Previous Everybody’s Golf titles - Hot Shots Golf to you folks Stateside – have consistently proven themselves to be as good a round of the sport as anything released elsewhere, with their cartoon nature belying their tricky, challenging gameplay. Comparisons with Mario Golf are well founded in that respect, and it’s no surprise to be reminded that Mario Golf developers Camelot were responsible for developing the first ever Everybody’s Golf title back in 1997. The similarity in the framework of both is unmistakeable.

So, what’s in for this latest edition? A selection of new courses to add to some of the older ones we all missed out on whilst Sony dilly-dallied about releasing the series in Europe (darn them), ten characters to unlock, modify and select and a couple of different game modes. The primary choice amongst these is certainly Challenge Mode, which sees you taking on challenges across a number of difficulty levels in order to unlock hairstyles, clothing and equipment to alter that stats of your chosen golfer.

It works beautifully well too, with a finely judged learning curve. The golf itself is still a traditional matter of tapping a button to start a power bar, tapping it again at as close to the top as you need and then tapping it one more final time to make the shot as accurate as possible when the bar reaches the bottom. Each level gives you a selection of tasks, be it completing a solo 9-hole round under a certain score or defeating a golfer in match play. Each level culminates with a full 18-hole match play round against a new, previously unavailable golfer, with victory seeing you upgraded to the next level. There’s no need to worry if you didn’t clear the previous level either; you are able to go back to each after progressing in order to complete any remaining challenges so you can get those last few unlockables.

These unlockables themselves are quite a compulsive incentive, giving you the chance to completely alter the look of your golfer. Fancy making him or her look like they are on a break from the office with a slick suit and some natty sunglasses, or perhaps like they’ve fallen out of a mid 1980s Van Halen concert and not adjusted to the times? The choice is yours. Everything you add will alter a number of stats such as hitting power and accuracy, and you’re even offered the decidedly silly option of using items such as road traffic signs as clubs. I suppose life is all about choice, after all.

Progression through remains challenging throughout, although one could level that perhaps the earlier challenges are a little on the easy side. Each new golfer you unlock will prove themselves to be capable rather than amazingly good at the next level you undertake, whilst sticking with a single character also brings benefits in the form of upgraded accuracy and power stats. The way in which you progress is up to you entirely, giving the game a pleasingly personal element.

Other than Challenge Mode, you’re left with Stroke Play mode, which chance of heading for a round at any unlocked course, Putt Mode, which plops you straight onto the green and a multiplayer mode that requires another PSP and Everybody’s Golf owner for wireless larks. It’ll certainly keep you going, and is absolutely ideal for having a quick 9-hole round whilst on the local bus or in the back of a taxi on the way back from the pub.

The whole package is rounded off nicely by the fact that the visuals are crisp, clear and beautifully colourful. Each golfer and course display a pleasing amount of detail, be it the pinstripe on the tacky business suit or the different shades of green as you wander off the fairway towards the rough. As a demonstration for what the PSP is capable of producing it is pretty exciting stuff, and the lack of noticeably long loading times is another bonus to chuck into the mix as well.

Everybody’s Golf was never going to be a system-seller given the nature of the sport. Ironically, though, it is very much a reason to be glad that you picked up a PSP on day one, with some accomplished visuals and a heck of a lot of addictive gameplay piled into one UMD disc. If this kind of quality is what we can expect then the future for the PSP is a bright one indeed, but for now anyone fancying a bit of the sport of gentlemen on their new console need look for no excuse.