Court is in Order
SEGA Superstars Tennis remixes classic franchises in ways you have to play believe.
Published: April 15, 2008
Without trying to sound like I'm giving the rest of the dev houses at Foundation 9 the shaft, I have to admit that UK-based SUMO Digital may well have been the best acquisition the Bay Area development collective (which, fittingly, includes The Collective as one of their developers) has ever made. They've consistently been handed some of SEGA's biggest franchises and nearly always do them proud.
The latest is SEGA Superstars Tennis, something of a mascot-driven remix of the familiar pick-up-and-play mechanics of Virtua Tennis (which SUMO has also worked on -- seeing a pattern here?), and while the basic game of tennis plays almost exactly like a re-skinned version of one of SEGA's best franchises, it's what the developer has done with the rest of The Big S's stable of classic arcade and console series that really gives the game legs. Serious legs.
Most of that will likely come from the game's nigh-exhausting collection of mini-games and tournaments wrapped around 14 different themed worlds that make up Planet Superstars Mode. The touted 16-player roster is definitely true (Eggman, Sonic and Tails from the Sonic games, Beat from Jet Set Radio, Aiai from Super Monkey Ball, Ulala from Space Channel 5, Amigo from Samba de Amigo and NiGHTS are all available from the start, with Gilius from Golden Axe, Super Monkey Ball's MeeMee, Space Channel 5 alum Pudding, Reala from NiGHTS, Shadow the Hedgehog, Alex Kidd, Sonic's gal pal Amy and fellow JSR blader Gum can all be unlocked), but the number of stages is a little deceptive.
There are certainly plenty of different treatments of areas from classic games like the cel-shaded Shibuya bus station from Jet Set Radio (thank goodness whatever crazy legalese that prevented SEGA from using the original name is over with), Curien's Mansion from The House of the Dead, the Docks stage from Virtua Squad and so on. Others, though, actually re-use the backdrops of other levels, meaning there's not really a complete Golden Axe stage, nor a ChuChu Rocket one, nor a Space Harrier, nor Alex Kidd... you get the idea. After everything's unlocked, you're actually looking at about half of the promised number of full stages.
Luckily, the actual modes are the focus here. Puyo Pop Fever stages, for instance, recycle the NiGHTS stages, but still play out like the real game where you have to pop like-colored puyos to keep the full "wall" of dropping critters from hitting the top. ChuChu Rocket levels take place amidst the neon-lit backdrops of Space Channel 5, but is still about flipping arrows to guide blind mice to their interstellar escape from ravenous cats. The Virtua Squad challenges are nearly identical to the light gun game, right down to the Justice Shots of hitting the weapon of a pop-up target rather than tagging them in the head or body.
In all, there are well over 100 challenges, though the actual number per level can range from just one to more than a dozen. The downside to the more lengthy ones is that some of the challenges can start to feel worn out well before you've finished them, but the other themed levels (not to mention level music, one-off mini-games that can be played outside of Planet Superstars with friends, and extra characters) can only be unlocked by completing the challenges. Granted, they probably weren't meant to be tackled all in one sitting, and there's plenty of variety and even some tennis mixed in, but the game's are often addictive enough that you don't want to stop.
The latest is SEGA Superstars Tennis, something of a mascot-driven remix of the familiar pick-up-and-play mechanics of Virtua Tennis (which SUMO has also worked on -- seeing a pattern here?), and while the basic game of tennis plays almost exactly like a re-skinned version of one of SEGA's best franchises, it's what the developer has done with the rest of The Big S's stable of classic arcade and console series that really gives the game legs. Serious legs.
Most of that will likely come from the game's nigh-exhausting collection of mini-games and tournaments wrapped around 14 different themed worlds that make up Planet Superstars Mode. The touted 16-player roster is definitely true (Eggman, Sonic and Tails from the Sonic games, Beat from Jet Set Radio, Aiai from Super Monkey Ball, Ulala from Space Channel 5, Amigo from Samba de Amigo and NiGHTS are all available from the start, with Gilius from Golden Axe, Super Monkey Ball's MeeMee, Space Channel 5 alum Pudding, Reala from NiGHTS, Shadow the Hedgehog, Alex Kidd, Sonic's gal pal Amy and fellow JSR blader Gum can all be unlocked), but the number of stages is a little deceptive.
There are certainly plenty of different treatments of areas from classic games like the cel-shaded Shibuya bus station from Jet Set Radio (thank goodness whatever crazy legalese that prevented SEGA from using the original name is over with), Curien's Mansion from The House of the Dead, the Docks stage from Virtua Squad and so on. Others, though, actually re-use the backdrops of other levels, meaning there's not really a complete Golden Axe stage, nor a ChuChu Rocket one, nor a Space Harrier, nor Alex Kidd... you get the idea. After everything's unlocked, you're actually looking at about half of the promised number of full stages.
Luckily, the actual modes are the focus here. Puyo Pop Fever stages, for instance, recycle the NiGHTS stages, but still play out like the real game where you have to pop like-colored puyos to keep the full "wall" of dropping critters from hitting the top. ChuChu Rocket levels take place amidst the neon-lit backdrops of Space Channel 5, but is still about flipping arrows to guide blind mice to their interstellar escape from ravenous cats. The Virtua Squad challenges are nearly identical to the light gun game, right down to the Justice Shots of hitting the weapon of a pop-up target rather than tagging them in the head or body.
In all, there are well over 100 challenges, though the actual number per level can range from just one to more than a dozen. The downside to the more lengthy ones is that some of the challenges can start to feel worn out well before you've finished them, but the other themed levels (not to mention level music, one-off mini-games that can be played outside of Planet Superstars with friends, and extra characters) can only be unlocked by completing the challenges. Granted, they probably weren't meant to be tackled all in one sitting, and there's plenty of variety and even some tennis mixed in, but the game's are often addictive enough that you don't want to stop.
