Customer Reviews

EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I have a feeling that many people will pick up this game and be initially frustrated. They may feel the game is not completely tracking their movements. Or that when they try to swing in a particular way it is not reflected in the game. Now, this game is by no means perfect, and some of these frustrations are real.

But I strongly urge you to keep with it and not give up. If you spend some time with the game you will quickly realize how brilliant and addicting it is. The point where you come to this realization will likely be when you are able to achieve a degree of consistency in your swing and direct the ball where you want it to go, and I provide tips for this at the end of this review.

I will say this - above all else this game is very, very fun. Some of the rallies you will have with your friends or while playing online will stick in your mind long after the match has been won or lost. You will agonize over missed shots. You will cherish your winners. In that sense this game captures the essence of what is great about playing tennis.

It is an addictive game that will keep bringing you back to play it until your arm hurts (and trust me, if you are not used to the exercise your arm will hurt).

As I said, this game is not perfect. The career mode should be more elaborate. Online play, great in itself and usually lag free, lacks tournament modes. And even when you have mastered the controls you will at times be frustrated. But that's tennis.

Here are some hints for achieving good control in Grand Slam Tennis using Wii Motion Plus. If you are waiting for the game to arrive at your door I recommend you keep these handy for your reference, since they will very likely be of help when you start playing:

-Be aware that the (imaginary) face of the racket is the side of the wiimote. That would mean that for the most part you want the wiimote to be parallel to the ground while you are swinging (i.e. the buttons are facing the ceiling). The index finger should be over the `b' button and the thumb should be over the `a' button.

-use defined swings (this is not wii sports tennis were you can just waggle, you really need to bring you arm back). This may sound like a given but it is actually one of the hardest things to realize if you have gotten used to wii sports tennis.

-start your swing as early as possible (just when the ball has been hit by your opponent, and you have determined what direction it is going to go), and follow through when the ball has reached you. Mastering this ability will markedly improve your game, and you will also have less instances where the WM+ is confused about if you are trying a backhand or a forehand.

-if you seem to only be able to backspin/topspin the issue is likely with your wrist on the follow through - you are twisting it. Go to the practice court and work on that.

-if you seem to only be able to slice you need to work on keeping your swing level. Trust me, its possible to hit straight - go to the practice court and work on that.

-when you are waiting for the other guy to serve, hold the wiimote still and parallel to the ground, don't worry about what your on screen character is doing.

-serving in GST is not 1:1 - it is the same as wii sports tennis. You swing the wiimote when the ball is at its apex. You can control the direction of the serve (while the ball is in the air) using the d-pad.

- you can only do lobs and drops using the `a' and `b' buttons.

I've had Grand Slam Tennis and Virtua Tennis for one day and played them about 3 hours each. I've played tennis for years. I'm using Motion Plus.

Here's a comparison.

Tournament mode: Grand Slam wins by a kilometer --- In Grand Slam Tennis you play the Grand Slam tour and do some exhibitions. No stupid "shopping races" like in Virtua Tennis. This part of Virtua Tennis is highly annoying. I don't want to run around a court on a shopping spree and jump through arbitrary hoops in order to play in a tournament. This part of Virtua was so annoying it took Virtua from 5 stars to 4 stars for me. Grand Slam exhibitions / mini games are fun while Virtua is annoying. On the other hand, you can just press "play" and choose tournament in Virtua but the experience is not as full as Grand Slam.

Graphics: Virtua Tennis wins by a meter. The crowd is better and players movement's are much more realistic to the player's style. Grand Slam's graphics are more cartoonish but with the announcers and the angles and replays it is more like participating in a match while you watch it on television... the presentation is better but does not make up for the better Virtua movement and detail.

Speed of play: Virtua Tennis by a kilometer. Your character moves at a more realistic pace and the match is just a more entertaining, fast action pace.

Controls: Grand Slam by a centimeter: Grand Slam's controls are easier to master. Virtua's controls have less tolerance for error. You MUST complete the training coach with Virtua to master any advanced shots, even then the drop shot leaves me wanting to smash the controller! Grand Slam's topspin, backspin, and fade are more true to real tennis, while Virtua's serve, lob, and dropshot are much more true. Grand Slam allows you to "cheat" somewhat by using the nunchuck to help with your crosscourt winner, while Virtua requires you to nail it perfectly. While I appreciate Virtua's effort, sometimes my intentions do not translate, but I suppose that's true in real tennis too.

Overall experience: A tie. Really. I appreciate Virtua's pace and effort at control realism, but Grand Slam gets the top spin and back spin nearly perfect... and that's a huge part of a real tennis player's game. Grand slam lets you cheat using the A button for a lob and B for a drop shot, and the nunchuck for crosscourt slams. Virtua has great realistic smash and lob controls, but the drop shot is just too hard and overambitious. The tennis stars in Virtua are more current and broader. Grand Slam gives you classic stars and current stars. Virtua's graphics are killer but the career mode is like throwing Jar Jar Binks into Star Wars... annoying and distracting. I want to play tennis, not the Sims! They both have room for improvement, but for a quality virtual tennis experience both beat the "plug and play" Wii Sports. Both require a bit of patience to learn. I'll come back to both for different reasons. 4/5 stars for both!

4/5 for Grand Slam. Note: I originally gave Virtua 4/5 stars. After playing it more see my warning below! And I now have to say if you are just going to by one, buy Grand Slam.

Edit after playing both for about 1 week: I can't win one game playing Virtua with a nunchuck. It is meant to only be played with the Remote. If you want to play a souped up, fast paced version of Wii Sports Tennis, Virtua is for you. If you want to play a game with the nunchuck that requires thought, anticipation, and Strategy, play Grand Slam Tennis. If I could re-rate Virtua tennis after one week. I'd give it a 2.5 or 3 stars. If I could re-rate Grand Slam after one week, it would get a 5 star rating.

I bought Tiger 10 w/ Motion Plus and Grand Slam the same day (yesterday). This is a review for advanced players. If you play w/ Motion Plus and the nunchuck...and you put in a couple of hours...it will click for you. Many of these reviews are clearly from people that are expecting an improved Wii Sports Tennis experience. It's not that...and that takes some getting used to. And many people (in the other reviews) seem to think Motion Plus will translate 1x1 in every scenario...when you are not controlling the player movement...that won't happen and it makes sense that it won't happen. Before using the nunchuck, I found myself complaining about the same thing...I go forehand and the game goes backhand...then I began to realize that the position of the player in relation to the ball directly affects what swinging options are available, makes sense right? Once I got used to controlling the player with the nunchuck I was responsible for everything and was having a blast. It took me a couple of hours to win my first match on easy mode. Found myself at 6 to 6 against one of the pros and sweating my butt off...but smiling the entire time. Played online, flawless framerate. The game has a great rewards system and great career mode to keep you going as a single player. As far as multi goes...I haven't played the party modes yet. But overall, this is a very deep and rewarding game if you put the time in...it's not Wii Sports and it's not casual (if you want real control). Enjoy.

A little about myself, I had never played real tennis before and I'm not that good at Wii Sports Tennis either.

I had spent over 8 hours playing Grand Slam Tennis. Here is my experience so far.

For the first few hours, I felt like the game was broken, that wii motion plus doesn't work. There were so many times I felt like throwing the control into my TV because I lost so many matches due to the fact that my player was either out of position or did not swing at all.

But as I played more and more, things just starting to click. I realized that unlike Wii Sports Tennis, when you play Grand Slam Tennis with Motion Plus, little things matter, you have to pay attention to the way you hold the control "all the time", your form, your arm motions ... You have to actually swing correctly, you can't just flick your wrist back and forth and expect to hit winners.

While I was playing, if I concentrated and paid attention to my form, my swing, then more often than not, my player did exactly what I wanted it to do. But sometimes, when my arm was tired and I reversed back to "Wii Sports wrist flick mode" I started to hit the ball out of bound or not hitting the ball at all.

So in summary, if you want an experience like Wii Sports Tennis, just play without the Motion Plus. However, if you are willing to learn a newer, more accurate form of tennis game, then you will be greatly rewarded for your time. After the initial frustration, it's really fun.

Update:
Played for another 4 hours tonight. All I can say is the level of control is just simply amazing with Motion Plus. I feel like I'm in total control now. This game should be rated 10 stars not 5.
Also, I forgot to mention, I had been playing without the nunchuck.

Despite the popularity of the simple, yet addicting, tennis feature in Wii Sports, Nintendo is finally attempting to capitalize with a polished tennis product.

EA's first venture into the sport, Grand Slam Tennis, is very solid. In fact, it's the most fun I've ever had playing a sports game on the Wii.

Make sure you pick up the Wii Motion Plus for this one; it's how the game was meant to be played. With the WMP attached, the game is able to measure the amount of top spin and the direction of the ball based on your wrist movement/follow through. The 1:1 motion isn't quite as fluid as EA marketing will have you believe, but when you look at the game play compared to Wii Sports Tennis, you'll quickly forgive the jitters.

But is it isn't quite so simple to pick up and play. Like the real sport, there is a steep learning curve. Be patient if your intended top spin shots turn into slices. Unfortunately, EA doesn't guide or instruct you nearly well enough. They offer very few pointers, no swing tutorial, and a less than detailed control guide. For example, I had to learn from a load screen that the side of the Wii remote represents the face of your racquet. A critical piece of information you'd expect to learn in the control guide or in the instruction manual.

The game takes you straight to a practice court when you start the game for the first time, and sadly, it's a pretty poor first impression. The machine only feeds balls to the middle of the court, which if you know tennis, makes it difficult to hit good angles. Moreover, it took me 30 minutes to an hour to figure out that Wii motion plus wants you to really turn over your wrist at contact to apply desired top spin. A simple low to high motion of your arm is not always enough.

Here's the important thing to take away: Once learned, the game is smooth, natural, and the best virtual tennis simulation I've played.*

The points flow well, at a fast pace, and with marginal technical error. When you miss a shot in Grand Slam tennis, it's typically because of dumb shot choice or user error - the way any tennis sim should be. There is the occasional calibration error or motion control glitch, but certainly not enough to tarnish the overall experience or the outcome of a match. The nunchuck control should be used for the best game play experience. I found the automated player movement to be clumsy and not as intuitive as you'd like.

And by-the-way, if you take it seriously, you'll burn far more calories in this game than with EA active or Wii Fit. I found myself actually sitting down during the changeovers for a water break and a mental refocus. Never expected to experience that from a video game!

Other nice elements include official licensing of the four Grand Slams and their show courts, a fairly decent roster of players past and present, and a seamless online mode that pits you against players from around the world.

The downsides of the game lie within the presentation and depth. EA developers typically read Amazon reviews, so hopefully they take note for any future iterations:

*The career mode only features the four Grand Slams. Forget about warm-up tournaments or other ATP events. Compared to the Virtual Tennis series, EA has come up way short here.
*The in-game commentary is virtually non-existent.
*Good luck getting your Created players to look anything like yourself. I love the stylized cartoonish look to the characters, but EA has shown complete lack of effort in the number and diversity of body features. This is 1/100th of Tiger Woods create-a-player.
*The 1:1 is far from perfect. While practice helps, I still frequently give a top spin swing and end up with an odd slice.

Overall, this a solid first edition of a what I hope becomes a staple of the EA Sports franchise. It's an insanely fun experience. Expect to be a little frustrated at first. When you start ripping topspin winners down the line, however, all frustration will be a distant memory.

UPDATE 2 - after about 20 hrs of play, I will flat out say this is the best, by far, tennis/gaming experience i've ever been able to play. The depth of control with Wii Motion is unreal. Invest the time, and you will be SMILING ear to ear playing this, and then probably wanting to go take some tennis lessons too. EA gets a knod, I have not been a fan of them for quite some time, but everything in this game is done right to MAKE THE GAME FUN...awesome, awesome. You feel the adreneline flow before tryingto return a HUGE Sampras serve, knowing hes coming into net - the look and feel of EACH pro is just like real life (even given the graphics of this game) you feel the mounting pressure of a cross court rally, the crowd erupts, your playe reacts - what a game.

Well...the wiimotion plus is out, and so are 2 tennis games.

Ive been playing tennis my entire life, and can tell you that if you are a waggle-er from wii sports, you may just want to stick to it. GST is no joke, requires real, fluid,controlled swings, competent play, and constant attention to the wii mote/your hand. This is not demanding, its real - you would not be able to hit a tennis ball if you kept the racket hanging by your side until it was time to swing - getting the racket back before the ball needs to be hit, preparation for your swing, all the things needed for real tennis are in this game. You will have to prepare your shots, be set up, and take a real back swing - or else, you will wind up like other gamers out there complaining that controls are off, what you (think) you are doing is not coming out on screen.

Get ready to invest serios time into learning this game, but the benefits are great, and the rallies are awesome. Dont be swayed by the cartoon graphics...this game is the first game I have played that actually captures real tennis, the sounds of the court, the serious voice of the announcers, it has a very very authentic feel, powerful racket contact sounds, and its very real compared to the artificial nature of virtua tennis - virtua tennis 3 was so robotic it was horrendous to play, and if you are a tennis player, virtua tennis is much too arcade ish to really feel a reward if and when you put a ball down the line for a winner.

In virtua tennis - there is not such thing as hitting a ball OUT. in GST, you bet you can hit it out, go for too much - you will be dissapointed when you hit it 1 ft off the sideline. the game rewards you with good play, smart shot selection, and execution whereas in VT - the game wants the ball in play and you can do no wrong.

Being able to slice, lob, DROP, top spin etc, all in real time, and for the most part putting the ball where you want, its just awesome.

spend AT LEAST an hr with the ball machine - u know you have mastered the controls when you say "i want it cross ct" and you put it cross ct, i want a inside out forehand, and you do it, every time. then its time to play - just like real tennis.

UPDATE - MOST IMPORTANT THING - MAKE SURE THAT INBETWEEN POINTS YOU KEEP THE WIIMOTE LEVEL AND POINTED AT THE SCREEN AND STEADY - EVERY POINT YOU WILL HAVE A PERFECT CALIBRATED DEAD CENTER RACKET - THIS MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD.

Well I think that many reviews given already talk about the learning curve, so I wont get into that much, but I thought that as someone who played/taught tennis for a living I might be able to add to all these reviews.

First, I got my game just yesterday. I decided to go with the Motion and Nunchuck right from the start since I like the idea of having as much control over my player as possible. As stated by others it does take some time to get the movement and timing down(can't say I'm a great at it yet but good enough to win matches).

Things you can and can't do.

Can - hit with topspin/slice/or flat on groundstokes - haven't always felt like I have the time to react and still do that consistently, but when I have time and try it the game executes it nicely.

Can - hit crosscourt down the line or inside-out, I haven't mastered the timing on the down the lines yet but when I do I feel like I will be a force.

Can - aim serve and I assume have some control over the power

Can - volley and drop volley like the best pro's ever (I drop volley alot in this game) and some of the angle volleys are very good

Can - lob and drop shot (haven't lobbed much so I can't tell if it will have much effect for my matches (not like you can throw up a huge defensive lob to get you back in the point or roll a topspin lob of a tight net player)

Can't - move in a little when returning serves to chip and charge, have to stay the same distance until after you hit the ball

Can't - always move immediately after hitting a shot so recoverey isn't always very easy. (maybe it will be better on Hard?)

Can't - as far as I know- hit slice, topspin or flat serves on demand. With the motion control I would have liked to been able to. If I am wrong about this please let me know.

Those are a few of my thoughts on controls adn shot making.

The game seems to only allow you to play tournaments with your created player(if that is true that is too bad). There are some side games at each tournament that add to the overall gaming experience but at least on EASY the matches in the tournaments are only to 3 games (win by two) I would have liked to be able to adjust this like you can when you play just singles (3 out of 5 full sets is nice)

Many have said how hard it is to win at first. The trick is getting to the net (at least on easy) I serve and volley most of the time and the angles and drop shots are working well. (not as easy to break, just like real tennis)

In all I really liked this game (Wii sport tennis doesn't even compare) I like all the Pro's and Legends and the 4 Grand Slam venues. (Not sure how the different surfaces play since there should be a noticable difference in court speed). Having the ability to hit most of the shots you want and move where you want is exactly what I was looking for. It will be interesting to see how my 9/11 yrs old play though without the tennis strategies that I use. With the motion and nunchuck I would say this is a challenging game for a novice but as a former player I like that.

Hope this review helps

By the way this does burn some calories, long matches can be felt a little.

The promise of the Wii's motion controller are finally being made good with the Motion Plus. No longer are Wii games restrained to random spastic "waggling" control schemes.

In "Grand Slam Tennis",the game is NEARLY 1:1 motion (with the exception of serving, which is the canned-type of control Wii owners should be very familiar with) Outside of serving, when you want to hit a backhand with topspin down the baseline, you CAN...IF you know what the motion should be from either playing or watching real Tennis matches AND you put in a couple hours of practice with this game. Imagine that, a Wii game that requires practice and skill, and with the depth to reward a player who puts time into it.

Slicing, topspin, forehands, and backhands. ALL feel great. If you use the Nunchuk to move your character into the correct position for said shots it is as authentic as videogame sports get.(again, with practice)

You can opt for Remote-Only play, with the Computer deciding where you will move (just like Wii Sports Tennis) but this mode will sometimes frustrate you, as easy winners will be missed by the AI overrunning the ball, changing your forehand into a backhand whiff. This will happen about 15% of the time, and only happens in Remote-only mode. I STILL reccomend starting with this remote-only mode for a couple of hours, until you get the swing motion down, before graduating to full precision nunchuk + wiimote control

VERY IMPORTANT: Do not let frustrated gamers opinions let you miss out on this great game, or this great accessory. This game is not broken, the Motion Plus is not flawed. IMO these gamers have grown accustomed to randomly wiggling their remotes, and the games playing themselves at least in part. Grand Slam Tennis demands practice and skill, and might come at a shock for some players.

The graphics are very simple, cartoony renditions of real pro players is probably for the best with the Wii's limited polygon/texture muscle. The best looking WIi games are styled like Mario, and not attempting realism, IMO, so "GST" picked a good graphical style.

Online is very fun, it keeps your ranking, as well as your wins/losses for your nationality Davis-Cup style.

In the end, I would give this game a 9/10, docking the score only for the lame serving controls and the occational glitchiness of the motion-reading. For a motion-plus launch title, these things can be forgiven, and leaves me very excited for the future of motion-controlled games, for the first time EVER.

This game simply is not up to par. The control system doesn't work right. The whole Wii MotionPlus tennis racket notion, is so glitchy and so unresponsive that it's not worth buying this game.

You will see positive reviews at gaming sites and here at Amazon which point out that after a great deal of practice you will actually start to win matches and be able to control the ball. This is true. And I think that after putting up with the several hours of getting used to this game, and the joy you get when your guy actually does something close to what you meant him to do, people have long since forgotten the swing system in this game actually just plain sucks.

It is not in any way a recreation of actual tennis. The game doesn't even match your movements with your controller. Instead they have simply replaced hitting a button to swing with a very stereotypical movement you can make with your Wiimote. You'll be making this same movement over and over again, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left, sometimes you will swing slightly up, sometimes slightly down, but never will it be anything more than a glorified manner to do what you could simply do by pressing a button.

And no matter how good you get, no matter how well you play by the MotionPlus' rules, it's still going to screw up a lot. Pull back to make a shot too fast, your guy will do a little fall over his own foot dance and miss even swinging at the ball. Fail to pull the Wiimote back far enough before you make a swing because you can't move fast, your guy will swat his racket straight up in the air as if trying to kill a bee (and forget about that ball). Anticipate your opponent's shot before he makes it and get yourself into place early, a quarter of the time your guy will inexplicably overrun the shot and probably not even bother trying to swing.

Opponents in Grand Slam are actually not that difficult to beat, if not for the handicap of the crappy control system. Even the greenest video tennis player could probably kick the crap out of the whole Wimbledon circuit by day 2 if not for this nonsense holding them back. In this game it's the accursed little device in your hand, and not the guy staring back at you across the net, that always remains your true enemy.

Again to wrap up, the only way you can ever grow to love this game is through over-investment and severe loss of expectation. It's like if you spent a million dollars to buy an acre of swamp in Florida. You may quickly grow to appreciate the beauty and ecological wonder of a swampland. But you wouldn't if you had a choice. Buy at your own risk.

I bought this game despite it having lower reviews (7's) by many of the gaming sites and thank goodness I didn't listen to them. This is the most fun I've had with my wii!

First off I started using the nunchuck from the start, despite the warnings that it was "advanced." It's easy to run and swing and I can run around shots to create the one I want with it. It is a steep learning curve but I like that, who wants a game that you master inside of an hour?

I find the cartoon graphics fun and you get a decent amount of options for creating yourself. This is a huge improvement over the original tennis game we all got with our wiis.

I went online to play a match and it put me up against the 13th ranked player on the game. Needless to say I got smoked, not winning a single point. So I would say the online portion needs tweaked so I can play against people at my level. Note: don't use your created player if you play online, others will be using the big name people and you won't stand a chance.

The online game flowed just as well as when I played the computer so I was impressed with the lack of lag. I look forward to playing with my brother and his family from afar.

Pros: You get to play both current stars and legends
The gameplay is VERY fun
A tennis game where you can finally move yourself around the court
You work up a little sweat while you play
Online gameplay works well

Cons: Steep learning curve
Swings can get frustrating at first until you learn how to swing
consistently (a few times where you think you swing but your
character doesn't swing)
Only has the 4 major tournaments