| Author | Review |
|---|
Tasty Pastry
144,354
TA Score for this game: 480
Posted on 08 January 10 at 02:57 |
This review has 39 positive votes and 3 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Sega Superstars Tennis Review
Forward Notes:
Hello, today I will be reviewing Sega Superstars Tennis. Unlike most people who got this game with the purchase of their Xbox 360, I got mine at my local game store, used, for a cool $7 spot. I thought to myself, it’s cheap, it’s made by Sega, and it’s probably easy to pick up and play. It definitely is a relatively fun game, but it isn’t without its faults.
Single Player:
Like the name would suggest, this game is a tennis game where you are able to play as many of the Sega Superstars. You’ll recognize characters like (forgive my spelling) Ooh La La, Sonic, Tails, Dr. Eggman, The monkeys from Super Monkey Ball, and the guys from (Insert name here), as well as others. The controls are relatively simplistic – some hold the A button for a smash, you can lob shots, you can straight returns. You aim with one of the control sticks and run with the other. You can play both singles and doubles, but the game is more than that.
The actual storyline of the game is not really there, but that works for a tennis game. Instead you play a sequence of mini-games, each separated into different areas with a general category title, and try to at least do the minimum required to pass. Doing more will get you a higher score, which is signified by a rank, with the highest being AAA.
Although most of the mini-games are manageable, there are quite a few of them later in the game, specifically the graffiti ones, that can become quite frustrating. The game isn’t perfect in recognizing exactly where your ball will land sometimes, and sometimes you’ll feel that the camera doesn’t always do justice to the mini-game at stake. Despite this, in general, the game is very good in its simplicity, and there are no glaring faults.
There are about eight mini-game categories, and about ten mini-games per category, for an estimated eighty mini-games in totality. With the possibility of always improving your score, the game has some serious longevity, and with over ten hours invested into the game I’m nowhere near done with AAA ranks.
Single Player Score: 9/10
Multiplayer:
The multiplayer is exactly what you would expect from a tennis game. You can play locally, or you can go online and take it up against a friend. There is player and ranked matches, and last time I played, about a month ago, the online community was very much alive. This is probably related to the popularity of the game due to it being packaged, at one point, with the xbox 360 sales. Once you play a match your match will be documented and shown on a replay center, where other players are capable of watching it. A solid multiplayer experience, and I had almost no lag.
Multiplayer Score: 9/10
DLC/Sound/Graphics/Intangibles:
The graphics of this game are relatively what you would expect. You’ll be able to realize who the characters are from their previous game releases, but with some new 3D updates. Sonic will look relatively the same as he does in his later games, and all the characters that come with him, and the characters from the older games have seen a bit of an upgrade. The courts are interesting, and it is actually kind of interesting to watch – there are spectators that you can usually hit with your tennis ball if you really want to. Each court relates, usually, in some form, to one of the Sega games that are represented by the characters. The game has very much the feel of Sega type graphics.
The sound is all right – some of the characters will say catch phrases at the end, dependent on if they fail or win. Sonic’s is “too easy”, which gets a little redundant. Beyond that you’ll hear the sound of the ball bouncing on the court, some crowd noises, and, if the mini-game incorporates some odder thing (robots attacking you), you’ll hear them as well.
The game itself doesn’t have a difficulty level, but that works perfectly fine with the rating system that they put into place. You can have subtitles on if you’d like as well. The game is simplistic and fun and will cause a bit of nostalgia to run over you. Although it starts out relatively easy, the game can become increasingly challenging and create some replay value with the ranking system.
DLC/Sound/Graphics/Intangibles Score: 8.5/10
Achievements:
The achievements in this game make a lot of logical sense. You get an achievement for clearing each mini-game category set, and you get random achievements for odd little things (Hitting a guy in the crowd). The game does have online achievements, so if you’re not interested in those, you might want to shy away. A boosting partner significantly helps, but it is not required, since I said previously that the community is not dead. 100%ing the game is a little more difficult than you would imagine, considering you must get AAA ranks on all mini-games, which can become exceptionally hard and discouraging. The achievements do what they are supposed to do – make you play all facets of the game, become good at the game, and increase the replay value, while still throwing you a bone with some easier ones.
Achievement Score: 10/10
Final Score: 36.5/40 = 9.25/10 = 4.75/5
Final Thoughts:
I think this an excellent game for the price. Sure, it’s no blockbuster in terms of gameplay, graphics, or sound, but the game is solid for what it intends to be. What is that? A nostalgic return to the past, similar to the N64’s Mario Tennis. Fun? Yes. Star of your game collection? No.
If you disagree with my opinion, or feel I misrepresented something, I ask of you to please leave a comment instead of negative feedback. I’m interested in improving my reviews at all time, and I take a significant amount of time on each one. If you feel I didn’t improve it within a day, then your negative feedback is deserved.
Thanks!
 |
DaBlackAlbino
173,424
TA Score for this game: 2,271
Posted on 15 August 10 at 15:24, Edited on 25 March 13 at 16:02 |
This review has 17 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Synopsis:
For those who are old enough to remember Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64 you may initially receive a brief feeling of nostalgia when you first boot up the game and play a few matches. Agreed, this title can be very enjoyable to just casually pick up and play. However after the nostalgia wears off, in reference to Mario Tennis, you may start to agree with the sentiment “Nintendo did this so much better”. There is a reason Nintendo continues to make consoles whilst Sega doesn’t, and the comparison between these two titles serves as one mere example of that. In short, this game is the Sega clone of Mario Tennis mixed with a bit of Mario Party for good measure, except Mario Tennis and Mario Party were much more addictive in their hay-day, and arguably; better planned and thought out. Notably touching upon how badly thought out the game is, it is important to discuss the implementation of some of the most shoddy programming into angles and target hit detection I’ve yet seen in a current gen title. To see what I mean, try playing ChuChu Rocket, Puyo Pop Fever and the Jet Set Radio Challenges. You can safely blame any “lack of skill” you think you might have on the poor controls which are prone to infuriate.
Run-down:
Visuals: 7/10
The graphics are vibrant, colourful and live up to exactly what you’d expect from a family orientated title on the 360. They aren’t anywhere close to breathtaking in terms of visuals, there are no high definition textures, intense lighting effects or distinguishable blacks, but for what this game is and what it’s designed to do the graphics most certainly surpassed expectation through their vibrancy, helping to lend that magical childish character to a game which is in essence, just tennis.
Sound: 4/10
The sound is nothing special and rather generic. There is a large selection of music tracks available to listen from while you play once you manage to unlock them, but you’ll find the tracks get repetitive and monotonous rather quickly and the tracks you can in fact listen to are limited to the in-game world which you are currently playing in. The music on the main menu is high pitched and thus gets irritating very quickly, and to make it worse; continuously loops if you are to leave your game sitting there, so you generally do not want to be browsing menus for too long if you respect your own sanity.
Gameplay: 7/10
Scoring this was tough and I was forced to rethink and rescore this category a few times as the gameplay throughout this game varies greatly depending on which area you’re at within Superstars mode. Generally the game is quite fun and easy to pick up in most areas although there are a few areas (Chu Chu Rocket, Super Monkey Ball, Jet Set Radio and Puyo Pop Fever) that may prove to be slightly frustrating at first for the casual player. The “match” option from the main menu is in essence a “quick game” mode and is very nice if you just want to mess around for a minute or two. The option to play mini-games individually at your own leisure from the “games” option on the main menu was a nice little touch too.
Originality: 3/10
This isn’t at all original. It’s a sports-based formula mixed with challenges in the form of mini-games. Nothing new has been done here and the game is very linear in nature, offering only cosmetic unlockables, but nothing which truly adds freshness to the game. The game also fails at being a party title because it gets boring very quickly and lacks a number of both diverse and enjoyable game modes to keep a large group of people entertained for anything than longer than 30 minutes.
Overall Score: 21/40 - Extremely Average
If you enjoyed reading this then please do check out my other reviews and articles at my .com publication befittingly and rather imaginatively entitled "DaBlackAlbino" or check out my blog here on TrueAchievements if you're looking for an interesting games related read. I am an independent writer from England that works for no corporate developer or magazine and thus I offer independent and honest gaming related reviews and articles which are based upon my own experiences as a gamer, rather than those of a paid journalist/writer.
 |
xkikicakesx
61,449
TA Score for this game: 526
Posted on 27 December 09 at 07:36, Edited on 03 January 12 at 03:23 |
This review has 14 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
I received this game as a birthday gift from a friend, and I was not quite sure how it would play out.
This is a game that I would have peed myself over when I was younger. Sonic is (obviously) one of the playable characters, which alone would have appealed to me. There are a lot of Sega characters to play as, most which have to be unlocked through gameplay.
Sega Superstars Tennis is the equivalent to Mario Tennis, with better graphics and challenges. Since I loved Mario Tennis when I was younger, I found myself entertained by the Sega version. There are fun challenges to play, such as hitting zombies with tennis balls, clearing Puyo Pop walls, and avoiding police while running around the court. Normal tennis matches are available to play, either in single player or multi-player. These are not boring, since Superstar mode is an option, which gives you a special move to hit the tennis ball with special effects going with it. For example, Dr. Eggman throws bombs with his tennis ball, which causes the other players to freeze for a few seconds, allowing you to hit the ball past them.
The computer players difficulty levels differ on every round. Sometimes they will be impossible to get the ball past, and other times they will stand by and watch the ball fly past them. As with the computer partners, they will either help immensely or not hit the ball and wait for you to hit it. Their tactics are not something to get frustrated at though, since it's not repetitive enough.
Each court is themed by one of Sega's games and comes complete with it's own set of music. Different music tracks from the games can be unlocked as with the characters.
In the end, the game is fun and doesn't have too many flaws. It is a treat for Sega lovers and Mario Tennis fans.
 |