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IGN Review of Sega Superstars Tennis
SEGA Superstars Tennis comes to Wii from development studio Sumo Digital, which recently worked on Virtua Tennis 3 for Xbox 360. It's a game filled with classic recognizable SEGA mascots, from Sonic the Hedgehog to Gilius – yeah, the lovable dwarf from the Golden Axe series. It sports a variety of unique tennis courts which are also inspired by or modeled after popular SEGA titles, from Space Channel 5 to NiGHTS. And, of course, there's a host of original gameplay modes and mini-games to keep you busy when you're not engaged in regular matches, which support up to four players. On paper, the project is golden, but unfortunately the concept itself, while highly intriguing – hey, we still pick up Mario Tennis now and again – hasn't been executed as well as it might have been, and the end product suffers. The result is a game of tennis which is passable, but hardly impressive, and also one whose presentation remains sterile despite all of the colorful characters housed within.
SEGA is behind one of the best videogame sports franchises ever in Virtua Tennis – a deep, tightly-controlled take on one of the world's most popular sports. Superstars Tennis is, by comparison, a faster experience complemented by gameplay-changing power-ups. The control mechanics remain highly responsive and therefore you will effortlessly be able to maneuver your selected characters around the courts, smacking tennis balls back over the net. It all works. However, the Virtua Tennis games remain much more satisfying to control, even if they do move at a slower pace, and this is largely because you're able to strategically charge returns, adding power to your shots. For some odd reason, that very fun control component is largely absent from Superstars Tennis, a design choice that has us baffled. While you're able to power up your serves, which feels good, once a ball is in rally, it's all about timing.
The Wii version of SEGA Superstars Tennis arrives stateside with one glaring omission – namely, the online mode destined to extend the replay value of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 builds is sorely absent from this incarnation. SEGA reps recently stated that there wasn't enough time to include the feature. Instead, Wii owners are able to play the title with three different control schemes – the standalone Wii remote held vertically, the standalone Wii remote held horizontally, or the Wii remote and nunchuk combo, which features waggle and seems to be the most intuitive setup, in our experience.
You control your characters on the courts with the nunchuk's analog stick, return balls with a right or left waggle of the Wii remote, and can lob to the rear court by holding the A button when you swipe. The Wii remote control is not one-to-one, as it nearly is in Wii Sports, which is unfortunate. Still, it is responsive and the ball generally goes in the direction you waggle it toward beforehand, so we can't complain. You can also power-up special moves when your on-screen character star fills up by pressing A and B together. This will transform Sonic into Super Sonic, whose shots are more powerful and zigzag around courts. Meanwhile, Gilius will raise his axe mid-bout and call lightning down on his opponents, temporarily stunning them before they can return the ball. Each of the 16 playable characters has a special move like this that they can execute, and these definitely do add some variety, not to mention visual finesse, to rallies.
You unlock characters, courts and music in SEGA Superstars Tennis by exploring the Tournament and Superstars modes, the former of which includes straightforward singles and doubles challenges and the latter of which encapsulates a series of normal tennis bouts in addition to dozens of mini-games. Oddly enough, many of these undertakings require that you unplug your nunchuk and play classic style, holding the Wii remote like a NES controller; when the challenges end, you'll need to re-plug in your nunchuk. It's a clumsy setup and we're not sure why Sumo Digital opted for it. Even with this gripe, though, the configuration of the Superstars mode is well done – you see virtual board with a number of question marks and as you play, you open these worlds up, all of them revealing classic SEGA brands, levels and mascots. Fans will be driven to keep playing just to see what lies in wait. Meanwhile, those only interested in the different gameplay possibilities will find a list of fun challenges. For instance, knocking over zombies in a House of the Dead court. Popping PuyoPuyo balls in a NiGHTS level. Or lobbing tennis balls at the court in order to spray-paint the pavement in a Jet Set Radio environment.
The title runs in both 480p and 16:9 widescreen modes, which is always a plus. As with most SEGA-produced games, Superstars Tennis opens with impeccable FMV, both beautiful in its choreography and rendering. Meanwhile, the cast of characters, which includes the likes of Dr. Eggman, Amigo, AiAi, Ulala, Tails, Amy Rose, NiGHTS, Reala, Beat and Alex the Kid, to name a few, is well-represented on-screen with adequate polygonal recreations and animation. On Wii, the background environments are another story, as they tend to be blurry and sparse. Sure, you can play a game of tennis on an Afterburner court, but you won't see any jets flying by in the background; just a few people standing around in a generic industrial setting. More offensive, though, is the fact that these decidedly sterile environments are still worsened by bouts of framerate slowdown.
©2008-03-18, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
SEGA is behind one of the best videogame sports franchises ever in Virtua Tennis – a deep, tightly-controlled take on one of the world's most popular sports. Superstars Tennis is, by comparison, a faster experience complemented by gameplay-changing power-ups. The control mechanics remain highly responsive and therefore you will effortlessly be able to maneuver your selected characters around the courts, smacking tennis balls back over the net. It all works. However, the Virtua Tennis games remain much more satisfying to control, even if they do move at a slower pace, and this is largely because you're able to strategically charge returns, adding power to your shots. For some odd reason, that very fun control component is largely absent from Superstars Tennis, a design choice that has us baffled. While you're able to power up your serves, which feels good, once a ball is in rally, it's all about timing.
The Wii version of SEGA Superstars Tennis arrives stateside with one glaring omission – namely, the online mode destined to extend the replay value of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 builds is sorely absent from this incarnation. SEGA reps recently stated that there wasn't enough time to include the feature. Instead, Wii owners are able to play the title with three different control schemes – the standalone Wii remote held vertically, the standalone Wii remote held horizontally, or the Wii remote and nunchuk combo, which features waggle and seems to be the most intuitive setup, in our experience.
You control your characters on the courts with the nunchuk's analog stick, return balls with a right or left waggle of the Wii remote, and can lob to the rear court by holding the A button when you swipe. The Wii remote control is not one-to-one, as it nearly is in Wii Sports, which is unfortunate. Still, it is responsive and the ball generally goes in the direction you waggle it toward beforehand, so we can't complain. You can also power-up special moves when your on-screen character star fills up by pressing A and B together. This will transform Sonic into Super Sonic, whose shots are more powerful and zigzag around courts. Meanwhile, Gilius will raise his axe mid-bout and call lightning down on his opponents, temporarily stunning them before they can return the ball. Each of the 16 playable characters has a special move like this that they can execute, and these definitely do add some variety, not to mention visual finesse, to rallies.
You unlock characters, courts and music in SEGA Superstars Tennis by exploring the Tournament and Superstars modes, the former of which includes straightforward singles and doubles challenges and the latter of which encapsulates a series of normal tennis bouts in addition to dozens of mini-games. Oddly enough, many of these undertakings require that you unplug your nunchuk and play classic style, holding the Wii remote like a NES controller; when the challenges end, you'll need to re-plug in your nunchuk. It's a clumsy setup and we're not sure why Sumo Digital opted for it. Even with this gripe, though, the configuration of the Superstars mode is well done – you see virtual board with a number of question marks and as you play, you open these worlds up, all of them revealing classic SEGA brands, levels and mascots. Fans will be driven to keep playing just to see what lies in wait. Meanwhile, those only interested in the different gameplay possibilities will find a list of fun challenges. For instance, knocking over zombies in a House of the Dead court. Popping PuyoPuyo balls in a NiGHTS level. Or lobbing tennis balls at the court in order to spray-paint the pavement in a Jet Set Radio environment.
The title runs in both 480p and 16:9 widescreen modes, which is always a plus. As with most SEGA-produced games, Superstars Tennis opens with impeccable FMV, both beautiful in its choreography and rendering. Meanwhile, the cast of characters, which includes the likes of Dr. Eggman, Amigo, AiAi, Ulala, Tails, Amy Rose, NiGHTS, Reala, Beat and Alex the Kid, to name a few, is well-represented on-screen with adequate polygonal recreations and animation. On Wii, the background environments are another story, as they tend to be blurry and sparse. Sure, you can play a game of tennis on an Afterburner court, but you won't see any jets flying by in the background; just a few people standing around in a generic industrial setting. More offensive, though, is the fact that these decidedly sterile environments are still worsened by bouts of framerate slowdown.
©2008-03-18, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved