Some of the worlds leave you with a mediocre feel or the world is just plain
forgettable. The Space Harrier stage tries to mimic the game with its constant
enemies that fly at you, but the Space Harrier mini games just aren't that fun.
Enemies and objects move toward your character while you try to hit them with
tennis balls but the stages get repetitive very quickly. Worlds such as Golden
Axe give you a House of the Dead background and force you to fight in a tennis
tournament. There is no implication that this is even a Golden Axe world besides
the fact that this is where you unlock Gilian.
Characters are full of life as they run about on the tennis court. Each one
will jump to the side to hit the ball when they barely make it and they all have
different winning animations. Tails flaps his two tails while he moves and Beat
skates while moving. Animations for some of the super moves look eye-pleasing
also. They all look like a shortened version of a Final Fantasy summon spell.
Some of the stages that represent classic Sega games could look a bit better
than what they showcase. The Space Harrier stage is rather dull and the Golden
Axe and Alex Kidd stages borrow backgrounds from other prior stages.
A good bit of the soundtrack is composed of tracks from the actual games that
many of the stages are taken from. There are quite a few memorable tracks on
this game. Jet Set Radio has some real nice urban tracks taken directly from the
game. The tracks from Samba de Amigo really stay with you as well. The voices in
the game are usually goofy which we have come to expect from many Sega games -
not that it is bad, it actually fits pretty well. All characters have their own
unique winning phrases.
The controls are fairly solid except for when it comes to hitting the ball
very quickly. There were tons of times when my character moved to the side in
order to hit the ball, but the ball simply went past my character because the
button press didn't respond. This caused me to lose quite a few matches. It’s
strange because your character does not always have to be right next to the ball
in order to perform a hit yet sometimes the controls simply will not respond
when your character is close to the ball.
Overall, the game is fun but its amusement wears off rather quickly. The mini
games are the best touch in the game since the actual tennis game portion is
pretty basic. The super moves spice up the tennis bouts a bit but they are
really nothing more than just eye candy during a 1- player game since the
computer will usually not even react differently to the majority of them. For a
Sega fan, Superstars Tennis is definitely worth a look since it puts together a
bunch of classic Sega franchises and allows you to relive some moments from
those games. Sega should really try to explore other types of genres while using
their characters - I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like another
Fighters Megamix or possibly some other type of Sega character collection game.
For a gamer wanting a good tennis game, Sega Superstars will likely not keep you
amused for that long since the tennis games contained is fairly standard as far
as tennis games go - much of the focus went on the mini games rather than the
actual tennis matches.
The Good:
+ Good variety of characters
+ Plenty of mini games
The Bad:
- Some stages don't have the feel of the game that they are supposed to
represent
- A bit of slowdown on some stages
- Controls for hitting the ball sometimes don't respond
- Too many Sonic characters. Come on, Sega, give us Hotsuma from Shinobi or a
Virtua Fighter!
Graphics: 7.5
Controls: 7.5
Sound: 8.5
Gameplay: 7.5
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
75%. With some enjoyable mini games that give you
the feel of each classic Sega franchise, Sega Superstars Tennis is a good pickup
for old school Sega fans but there is only a very basic tennis game contained
therein.
« Page 1