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By Steven Hopkins on December 18th, 2001
Introduction Ok, I realize most gamers will be imediately turned off by the title. Or at least one word, "tennis". Your thinking "tennis? Ya right, just a glorified version of Pong.". Well in the past that’s been true. Well this game and Mario Tennis were the first to break that streotype. This is hands down the most realistic tennis you’ll play in graphics and gameplay. Playing this game in Best Buy convinced me to give in and buy a Dreamcast. (ironicly I ended up buying the system and game elsewhere)Presentation There’s not a lot here as the menus go. Standard for the most part. There’s Exhibition, Tournament, World Tour, and Optinons. The main mode is obviously World Tour. The game was definatly made to fit the controller. It has an incredible "pick-up-and-play" fell at the start. Once you get better you’ll notice the detail and complexity it has the potenial for. Graphics & Sound This is what will attract even the most anti-tennis gamer. This games graphics are absolutly stunning. The players are well designed and look like thier human counterparts. The movment is fluid and smooth. The Phisics are fairly close to real (eg. dives, running speed). The Sound is right on as well. The sound of the raquet hitting the ball is perfect along with the crowd noise. Still this isn’t where the game truly exedes all others of it’s gerene.Gameplay True perfection in a tennis game. I could rant for hours about this but I’ll try to keep it somewhat brief. When you first pick it up and play,you’ll imediatly the the differnse from other tennis games. You have complete control. Not only that but it’s more than just press a button, hit the ball, if you use the analog stick right you can hit damn near any spot on the court. That’s just the beging, You have tons of spin and speed options. Do I hit a drop shot, have them come to the net then lob it, or should i try a passing shot at the net instead? In other tennis games it’s "oh if i try to hit it different directions it’ll still go the same way, how fun". Next, the difficulty. The games seems easy to dominate at first. But then it’s get to near impposible towards the end. A great range for all skill levels. I still play this game a lot for the Mini-games. especialy Pin-bowling. theres every thing in the minigames from serving to footwork and they’re all a blast.Lasting Appeal This is another stand out catogory. I still play this game despite the fact i got it around two years ago. The difficulty is one thing, it’ll take even the most seasoned games more than a few days to beat every thing. On top of that it’s great for Multi-player AFTER you and your friend have dominated every aspect of the game.Conclusion All in all, a first rate game by any standards. Trully revolutionary. As a state-class tennis player myself I loved it. As a couch potato who thinks tennis is a sissy sport,my brother loved it. As someone who could care less about tennis, my friend loved it. This game is a real smash!(and that was a real bad pun followed by another one) | 
