SEGA Superstars Tennis – PS3 – Review

It’s been a while, but there’s a little blue
hedgehog that’s proven he too knows how to party hardy. Sega Superstars Tennis
is another gathering that’ll leave the cleaning grew with questions like,
“What’s that smell?” and “Did you use permanent spray paint!?”

The game introduces you to numerous wacky and
unlikely events where Sonic and Dr. Eggman are not exclusively enemies. They
could be partners in a game of doubles where the once-harmless Ulala and that
guy from Jet Set Radio unleash their tenacious tennis skills. Losing to them
is embarrassing until you discover that your other opponents include Tails and
a monkey that used to live in a clear ball. Now losing to Ulala seems
perfectly normal. Losing to Tails – that would be embarrassing.

The court designs of Sega Superstars Tennis are
something every gamer can appreciate, even those who don’t consider themselves
fans of the entire Sega brand. Every part of Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Monkey
Ball, Space Channel 5, Jet Set Radio, Samba De Amigo, The House of the Dead,
and other Sega classics are represented with courts and characters. The courts
are enhanced with familiar sounds and mini-game bonuses while the character
lineup has been given trademark elements (ex: Sonic can take on his golden
transformation from the Sonic Adventure series).

Not Quite Virtua Tennis

Sega Superstars Tennis is divided into two
styles of gameplay: mini-games and actual tennis. The latter is something you
can have anytime you want in single- or multiplayer exhibition games. If
you’ve been craving more Virtua Tennis excitement, this game won’t be overly
fulfilling. Its speed is respectable, and the character animations provide
some visual enjoyment.

But the game is basically complex; simple
enough to pick up and play but annoying in its use of a two-button attack
system. When I say “attack,” I’m referring to topspin and slice shots, which
are assigned to the X and square buttons. To lob, you’d think the circle or
triangle button would come into play. That’s not the case. You’ll have to
first press the X button, making the game think you’re going to swing a
topspin. To properly educate the game, you must quickly follow up with a tap
of the square button. For drop shots, reverse those actions.

These aren’t difficult moves to pull off, but
it leads to some difficult situations. Since the game has to assume an awful
lot before each move is executed, you won’t get a swing out of every button
tap. The ball must be directly in front of you for anything to happen. I know
it might sound crazy to swing when the ball isn’t there yet, but would you
want a baseball game to include this restriction? If not, why should a tennis
game? I want to believe there’s a chance my racquet will connect with the
ball. But if the game won’t even let me try, then I can only believe it’ll
happen when it’s absolutely meant to, leaving no room for experimentation.

And what about those mini-games? They make up
the bulk of the Superstars mode, a quest made specially for single players.

Mini-Lame

Virtua Tennis wasn’t solely the best in tennis
gameplay. It also called upon the gaming wizards and witches to cast spells
and create potions that would lead to an impeccable mini-game collection.
Whether trying to hit specific targets or battle over-sized tennis balls, the
mini-games were positively addicting – and in position to make anyone an
addict.

Sega Superstars Tennis doesn’t recycle bits of
the past, which came as a disappointment but was also intriguing. If the
developers had to start from scratch, what amazing things might they be able
to cook up?

But it seems that was wishful thinking. To the
developers’ credit, these mini-games feature the basics of the games they’re
based on (Sonic, The House of the Dead, etc.). In Green Hill Zone, a classic
Sonic stage re-created as a tennis court for this game, players must collect
rings. Lots of rings. An endless amount of rings that, as soon as they’ve been
collected, leads to another large amount of rings.

When hitting the court of Golden Axe or The
House of the Dead, players must clear the court of zombies by hitting them
with tennis balls. In the colorful world of Jet Set Radio, you’ll collect
spray cans – lots and lots of spray cans.

In theory, these mini-games are inventive. In
graphics, they mirror the magic of the Sega games we’ve been playing and
loving for over 10 years. But in execution they are unforgivably mundane. When
Sonic collects rings in this game, he’s performing a common Sonic task without
any of his common moves, mechanics or environments. His tennis controls are
great during the tennis portions of the game but feel slow when doing anything
else.

Painfully, this is spread across all of the
mini-games. But even with every classic move, Sonic would still be confined to
one half of a tennis court. The game tries to liven the experience by adding
energy ball-shooting robots that knock you out of the game in one hit. That,
unfortunately, only makes the mini-game that much harder to endure. You’re
already bored by its objectives (and the fact that it won’t go away), and now
you’ve got to re-play one of them because of a robot – an addition that was
supposed to increase the challenge but instead increases your distaste for the
entire single-player quest.