Sega Sports Tennis

The gameplay is amazing. There are 3 buttons you use. One is for a lob shot, one is for a smash shot and the other is just a regular old shot. You really only need to use two buttons (the joystick and the A button).

The graphics are way better than 2000's Virtua Tennis (for the Dreamcast) and are even better than most of the other 2K2 games. Each player resembles it's real-life counterpart very well and any tennis fan can pick them out. The graphics are so realistic that their clothes and shoes look exactly like what they do in real-life. The courts are also very realistic and their are more than a dozen more different courts.

There are 3 modes: World Tour, Exhibition and Tournament. In World Tour you pick a player and participate in a variety of singles and doubles matches as well as many fun bonus games like in Virtua Tennis. You earn money when you win or do good in the bonuses to use to buy more equipment or courts. In Exhibition you just pick two players and serve away in just one match. In tournament mode you pick one player and face off against the rest of the men or women and player in a series of games until you either win the championship or lose.

Some more cool things are that you can actually understand the PA announcer and when you hit a ball into the net the ball boys run out and retrieve the balls. Also when you hit a ball out of the court near the wall the people standing there will avoid the balls by moving out of the way instead of standing like statues.

Also the players are every detailed. Monica Seles grunts when she hits the ball and after you win your player has a big smile and after you lose they look very mad and disappointed and are ready to throw their rackets.

The only things missing are some of the players like Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriti.

This game is a must-have for any owner of a PS2 who is a tennis fan.

Gameplay: 5/5
Graphics 5/5
Controls: 4/5
Overall: 5/5

What I liked about the game was its attention to detail. Unlike other tennis title, your character actually developes in skill. At first, your ground strokes and serves are pathetically slow. Fortunately, so is the footwork of your opponents. There are alot of training games you can play (it's more of a mini-game) to improve our skills. Want to have a blazing serve? Then 'train' in either the serve bowling game or the shoot for prize game.

There are 2 training games for each skills, which include: groundstrokes, volleys, footwork, and serve. Those 4 sets of skills are also divided into individual sub-skill sets. For example, on your serve, you have power and control skills sets. And for your ground strokes, you have power, control, and angel, all divided into left and right hand groups.

You gain rank by playing and beating your opponent. At first, there won't be much tournaments you'll be able to attend to due to your low ranking. Soon, however, after much training, you'll be able to attend the top tournaments, such as Wimbeldon and U.S. Open.

Now the dislikes...you don't improve your skill by playing matches. Training in those mini games is mandatory, instead of something to pass time on. I'd also loved to have a realistic partner training to improve your skills. Also, as with every other tennis game I played...the service is a joke. I have nearly maxed out my service yet I have only scored a couple aces. Serve a power service going 120mph, and your opponent not only returns it with ease, they'll return it with such pace and angle, you're left playing catch up the whole point. It also goes the same for your opponents service. The only time they get aces is when I pretty much let them.

Also, due to the lack of skill improvement by playing actual matches, attaining the top 10 rank will take too much time. It took me over 10 years to attain that rank!

Hopefully sega will release a new version in the near future that addresses many of the finer points.

The One player mode in SST provides a great amount of fun. You create your own players (a man and a women) and you train them to go play in tournaments. The players level up like in final fantasy. The training consists of mini-games that train your serve, volley, strokes and footwork. The only problem with this one player mode is that in the beggining your players are awful at hitting the ball (probally like us in real life). But once you level them up it is great fun.

In terms of graphics they are good compared to anything the dreamcast could ever do. But Sega probally didn't use all of the pS2's availbable powere though because after a point the the courts and players look all grainy and it looks like something from a nintendo 64 but the in game graphics are really good

The control in SST must be one of the best ever for a tennis game. It isn't to senstive but not to sluggish, it is very responsive and you can basically place the ball wherever u like. And the people move just like in real life.

The multiplayer is great in this game. It can use a multi- tap adapter and you an play with four players. So u can have a Sega Sports Tennis party if u like. The only problem with it is that I can't seem to find anyone who is a challlenge for me.

When you sum up all of this games aspects up, you get one of the best tennis games ever made, far surpassing any of its competitors such as Mario Tennis and Smash-c Court Tennis

My Ratings out of five:

Fun Factor- 4.5
Graphics - 4.0
Gameplay - 5.0
Control - 5.0

Rock On!
Brian