★★★★★ I love the game, but it needs more polish
Sun Jun 05 2022 PaleGoatI have played many of the old Hot Shots Golf games on PS2 - PS3 and Everybody’s Golf on PS4. They are by far my favorite golf games. Clap Hanz Golf feels like a close cousin to the Hot Shots games, but not quitef as polished as Everybody’s Golf. I get that this is on a new platform and maybe not 100% the same team, but there are odd missing elements, like the lack of an impact sound effect when you putt the ball, that just makes the putting feel floaty. Not sure if rights issues prevent the inclusion of the Hot Shots courses, but would love to see some of those in this game. The touch controls are pretty good, but can be tough to master precision. I almost wish we could use the old 3-tap meter from Hot Shots / Everybody’s Golf. Please consider adding the old meter as a control option in a future update. Honestly, if you made this game for other platforms, I would buy it full price. The characters are great and game mechanics are super solid. Keep up the great work!
★★★★★ Pretty Good
Tue Mar 01 2022 RedRocket131It’s fun to play and has kept me engaged. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is b/c I don’t know what 25% of the crap means and I’m not talking about the info/? button that explains the courses & the symbols next to the characters stats, I get all that. What I don’t know is for example, what is the little kb box (1st try & 2nd try) in upper right hand when you’re playing a course? And when you choose to play a course that has rules (example, the rough is OB), what in the world does it mean when the course has a “Fixed lie” rule? I have googled it and can’t find the answer anywhere.
Also, the training course should actually train you on how to make different shots, instead it’s just all the courses, players, holes etc where you just hit the ball around. Sure, a great way to practice but if you can’t seem to figure out how to apply back spin then it’s hard to practice it. In my mind, training mode is a teaching mode and practice mode is where you just go on the course and mindlessly hit the ball. If they’d provide more descriptions on what all the little things mean and a mode that teaches you how to make different shots and so forth, it would be easily a 5 star game.
★★★★★ Golf-ish: Needs Competition
Mon Jul 05 2021 Neodrew42UPDATE VERSION 1.1.2 - problems in previous version have cleared up. Glad to have a couple new players and levels, as well as the new game mode “World Tournament”. The Tournament is fun for seeing where you rank against other players, but that’s it - there are no rewards or experience points given for one’s final ranking. So, what’s the point of having the tournament if you can’t earn any reward for skill-based play? Also - there are still no new courses to discover - it’s a crime that there are, as yet, no links style courses available on the map, especially in Scotland, the home of golf. ================================ Clap Hanz Golf is - fine. It’s fun, for the short time you can play it on your own. It’s fine, for it’s decent, though not amazing physics. And - it’s finished, as I’ve already gone through all twelve levels and there is nothing left to do but wait for the Advanced golfers and courses I assume are on the way. In the absence of others to play here locally (local multiplayer is available), I’d love to be able to take on other players around the world. So - it’s golf. Sort of. It’s fun. It’s fine. It’s finished?
★★★★★ Need more caddies, especially Zhang Lu
Sun May 09 2021 WordsWurdzBurgI’ve played this game for 30 days now and I love it but it is also frustrating. It is so hard to make precise shots. I try to swipe straight up and the game says I went right (not all the time of course). When putting on the green, I can barely tell how much the ball will turn and steer because the dots don’t line up to form a path. Not to mention the flick controls adding to the difficulty. Don’t get me wrong though, I’ve had plenty of successes in this game but I can’t calculate my shots most of the time. It also feels like the wind is lying sometimes. But I have gotten a Hole-in-one and an Albatross so it’s not like the game is impossible.
Other than that, the game has that Clap Hanz charm. Decent graphics, fun presentation, and nice character designs. The golfers themselves show lots of personality despite having no voices. There’s also plenty of unlockables to keep you playing when the game is already addictive. I wish I could just buy this game and I wish there were more caddies. Samantha and Thomas are great but I want more, especially Zhang Lu.
★★★★★ Swing and a Miss
Mon Apr 19 2021 PhantomPlanetI’ve played every “hot shots” game from clap hanz and this one suffers from the same issues as everybody’s golf ps4. Like the ps4 version even if you hit a perfect shot you have randomness determined by your control level. They also removed the 3 shot system which is the biggest mistake. Putting in the touch controls makes perfect shots even harder to hit and I’m not sure why you would want to control the left and right of your putt after you’ve already set it. A lot of confusing design choices. Another big fault of clap hanz is not taking any risks designing maps, they’ll all boring add in some crazy levels for fun. This is one of my favorite video game series please take these as critics and make a better game and release a sequel for ps5/series x.
Edit: after playing a ton more I’m changing my review to a 1 star. The control scheme and terrible physics are honestly unacceptable for a developer who have been making the same game for over 20 years. There also isn’t anything to tell you what the touch controls are or tutorials in the menus. They also took away the trick shots or “hot shots” when you would do a backspin and hit the flag pole. This game needs a huge update and needs to be made more like hot shots golf 3/4.
★★★★★ Fun and challenging golf game
Mon Sep 27 2021 Mr. TacticalUpdate: there is an issue with latency when using the shot power gauge that’s emerged after upgrading to iPhone 13 mini that occurs when using a controller. The hardware has only been available since 9/24 so a fix may require a software patch.
This game is a splendid looking, difficult but fair simulation of golf. Putting is extremely hard in this game as it should be, real golf is hard so a realistic golf game can’t be easy. The only suggestion I have for the developers is to possibly add novice, intermediate, and pro leaderboards in world tournament mode. If your playing with fully leveled up pro characters your distance off the tee makes putting/chipping irrelevant on the world tournament courses whereas novice characters have to chip/put because they don’t have the distance to hole out from the fairway. Essentially novices and pros are playing too completely different games so it doesn’t make sense to group them on the same leaderboard.
★★★★★ Well Done!
Mon Feb 07 2022 Rob9kNo other golf game has ever matched the fun factor and excellent physics of the Clap Hanz games. I’ve been a fan since Hot Shots Golf on the PS3. This is a great adaptation for touch screens and I’ll be playing obsessively until the cows come home.
Please add one missing feature from past games - the ability to play friends and family remotely. This game would be a great way to spend time with quarantined loved ones during the pandemic. Apple, please work with this developer to make it happen.
Clap Hanz Golf is the “killer app” that can make Apple Arcade a must have for most gamers. Definitely advertise that it’s available! I only came back to the Arcade because I stumbled across a review for Clap Hanz on iOS and will probably keep my monthly subscription because of it. A 30 second ad featuring this game will bring in a lot of new subscribers.
★★★★★ Not bad.. one major irritating factor
Thu Sep 16 2021 CiriJaskolkaI haven’t been playing very long, so far I have 8 characters, somewhat leveled up. A good time killer, follows physics of golf approximately well, has nice graphics, overall a fun game. What absolutely destroys my enjoyment is when I switch to another window, even for just a moment, and switch back, on a random basis the game restarts. At tournaments this isn’t such a big deal, a lot of times the progress is saved and can be resumed relatively accurately from the place I was before switching. However, if in the survival mode, the progress is completely erased, and that’s very irritating. Honestly, it made me stop playing for a couple of days every time. Every time I pick up the game again after a few days, and get to the same situation where my progress is erased because the game restarts upon switching to another window, frustration mounts and I stop playing yet again. Chances are one of these days the frustration will surpass the enjoyment from the game and I’ll just end up erasing it altogether. 🤷🏼♀️
★★★★★ Hot Shots!
Mon Sep 20 2021 Dame DThis game reminds me, in almost every respect, of Hot Shots Golf, which I had on my PS3 probably 10 years ago. If you’ve ever played that, there are only a few minor changes in this game to anticipate.
Controls on iPad are ok — but I still feel like there’s a trick I’m not getting for those perfect shots. (And, why *does* a curved shot go farther than a straight shot? This just doesn’t make sense.) Graphics are pretty much what I saw on the PS3. Gameplay modes are a bit different, and I’m not sure I like them. There are too many competitions where the prize is just a new outfit color, for example, and nothing more substantial to increase character strengths. Same goes for the world tournament, which is kind of a waste: the same person seems to win every week, and you get nothing for competing except your screen name on the board. If there were prizes (such as in the original Hot Shots game, like new clubs and balls), competing would be much more satisfying.
★★★★★ Norman-esque meltdown
Sun Oct 29 2023 adopt thisGameplay ceased during the last week of October. My Apple TV app was loaded, offloaded, deleted, and reloaded. The game will not function. The tv goes gray, and the startup screen will not appear. I downloaded the app to my iPad so that my data would be retained. The game tries to function on that platform, but when navigating from feature to feature, the screen again turns gray and the app times out.
The app has not received an update in over a month. The promise of online head-to-head matchups has never paired me with a competitor. The last review (prior to mine) was early September.
ClapHanz has always been a class act, as far back as the early Hot Shots franchise. I get that there are only so many things you can update within one game, especially a cloud game where download capacity could be limited. But to find the game totally non-functioning and zero data within the review or developer notes is disappointing, and using a one-star review as my only means of reporting an issue feels outright unprofessional.
