Tiger Woods PGA Tour Review - PSP

Take Tiger Woods 2004 and shrink it down to portable size. That's basically Tiger Woods PGA Tour for the PSP. EA's translated everything from the game face system to the revolutionary swing setup to Sony's portable game machine, with mixed results.

Come Out Swinging

The biggest issue most will have with Tiger Woods is that the swing system that offers so much precision and control on the home consoles is a real hassle to work with on the PSP's analog slider. Here's how it works: Pull back on the slider to begin your backswing, and then push forward to follow through and hit the ball. Simple, right?

Here's the snag: should the slider go a little bit left or right, your shot is going to cut that way. This is fine on home consoles, where the big analog sticks actually tilt and you have some feeling as to how your swing is going. With the PSP's slider, which doesn't tilt at all when it goes left or right, this excellent control system is reduced to a crapshoot, with every shot requiring a combination of mastery and luck that most gamers will never, ever attain.

Now Loading

From the moment you turn on the PSP to the first time you can actually do something in Tiger Woods--like press the start button with any sort of result--you'll have about a minute-and-a-half to go do something else. Heck, you've got over 30 seconds of wait time between holes.

This is ridiculous, and really goes against the whole idea of portable gaming, where the point is for quick, bite-sized chunks of gaming while you ride the bus/sit on the train/heed the call of nature. Tiger Woods is the first portable game where you'll have time to break out another PSP or DS game while you wait for the next hole to load.

Just Rewards

However, if you can get past the long loading times and come to grips with the busted controls, Tiger Woods offers so much. The single-player mode alone is very deep, with 12 different courses to choose from, the ability to pretty much create a virtual version of yourself with the game face system, and the role-playing aspect of buying new equipment and abilities for your golfer as you work through different tournaments.

What's better is the single-system multiplayer mode. While the lack of Internet play is disappointing, it's great to be able to pass around one PSP and have a round of golf with three friends on a long road trip/plane ride/in the bathro…er, you get the idea.

So, if you scoff at long load times and frustrating controls, grab Tiger. Otherwise, Sony's Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee offers a more enjoyable golf experience on the PSP.