One wonders if the people at Clap Hanz ever get tired of making sports games featuring the same crew of large headed, cutesy characters. Maybe the company burns to create a gripping, story based shooter set in a grim, dystopian future? Or does the developer know that all attempts to do so will inevitably end up with a boss battle that culminates in winning a panda suit? Whatever the case may be, Clap Hanz is up to its old tricks again with Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2, an entertaining golf title for the PSP marred only by the fact that you played it three years ago when the PSP launched.

If you've never played any of the Hot Shots golf outings then by all means, run right out and pick up this game. It uses the traditional three click swing mechanism but further refines it with the ability to add topspin, backspin or select draws and fades by pressing buttons on the d-pad. Additionally, depending on which button you press for your third click, you can further augment the shot. Finally, as you progress through the courses with your character you'll unlock the ability to hit an ever increasing number of mega-powerful shots.

The game's 12 courses are all well rendered and visually interesting with plenty of traps and water hazards to catch your errant shots. Players can choose to simply play a course for the chance to improve on previous outings or instead play special tournaments or one-on-one matches. These matches may have special conditions like a two stroke penalty for landing in the rough, or no backspin, and winning these matches allows you to pick which of the game's many, many outfits, hairstyles or accessories you want to unlock. Along with playing matches for items, you can unlock items simply by finding them on the course or by hitting certain shots or using certain items on certain holes. In terms of collectibles, there is a tremendous amount of stuff to find and unlock in this game, and it will take a good long while before you find it all.

Which leads us to the biggest problem in the game—namely that the majority of the courses are taken wholesale from the original Open Tee as are many of the game's characters and items. If you've played the previous game, you wind up playing the same course with the same character to unlock the same hairstyle that you did three years ago, you've only paid more money for the privilege. That's not to say that everything is the same, however you need to spend an appreciable amount of time doing the same old, same old until you get to the newer items.

There are some new gameplay modes to try out from the beginning, namely the hole in one minigame and multiplayer; however neither are realized enough to match what you'll find in the single player mode. The hole in one minigame places you on a shortened course, think pitch and putt or mini-golf, and gives you one shot to get your ball in the course's various differently scored holes. Scoring enough points in the game nets you an unlockable of some sort or another, as well as additional, higher scored targets on the course. It's a fun diversion, but the course doesn't change from outing to outing, so it's not varied enough to hold your interest for long periods of time.