Like most tennis games the gameplay is simple with lots of little nuances to add
depth. Serving and hitting both just require selecting the type of shot you want
and aiming it. When serving you can pick from 4 different serves: flat, slice,
kick and kick-slice. Part of the strategy is deciding when to use a certain type
of serve and know what serves work best for the different surfaces. The game
claims that you have to mix up your serves so your opponent doesn’t learn your
tendencies and use that against you. I never saw this in action as I used a
slice serve exclusively in my first tournament and no one ever seemed to catch
on. Once I got the hang of the controls and the hand-eye thing down I never was
broken on a serve despite being extremely predicable. Actually my biggest moment
of improvement was switching from the default view. This view kept messing me up
and everyone in the qualifying rounds was abusing me. Once I switched to a
slightly more overhead view I became a tennis god.
 |
| A hot return. |
The different locations each had it’s own personality and it did take a little
different strategy and adjustment going from the clay courts to an indoor carpet
and then to a hard court. Shots that were a given on clay became bad decisions
on a hard court. One nice touch on the clay courts were the footprints left
behind as you ran around. However, these prints would just vanish sometimes
between points. Not sure if I’ve ever seen that happen in a real match but I’m
pretty sure they don’t clean the courts in between serves. Another
disappointment is the control. Granted it’s a little more complicated than Pong
but at times it’s frustrating. For example, your opponent hits a lob that you
were anticipating and were already running back to return. Sometimes instead
of hitting the shot you were very prepared for your player will spin in a funky
circle before actually deciding to take a swing. Of course by this time the ball
is way past you. This is more of a consistency issue than anything. Sometimes
it works and you get the return you planned, other times you look and act like a
moron. I also wish the game were a little more smooth. Your player will often
make leaps across the court instead of smoothly running. This leads to having
your player positioned in places you did not intend. Finally I have to count
against any Xbox game that doesn’t use Dolby Digital. But more a problem,
because sound isn’t very important in tennis, I have to slap the developers on
the wrists for not having Xbox Live capability in a game that just screams to be
played online. Shame….
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
71%. Tennis Masters Series 2003
tries to bring realism to a game that really should have more of a fun arcadey-fun
feel to it. So if you’re into tennis in a big way and can overlook some of the
funkiness of this game you may have found your match. However, I’ll stick to
Mario Tennis on the GBA.
« Page 1 of 2
