Court is in Order
SEGA Superstars Tennis remixes classic franchises in ways you have to play believe.
Published: April 15, 2008
That tennis is really fairly simple. X kicks off a Power shot, Square slices, and lobs and drops are done by tapping X then Square or vice-versa, which is weird in that it leaves the other two face buttons with no use. Though the AI starts out as a pushover, some of the latter singles and doubles tourneys can be incredibly tough and will almost instantly recall classic Virtua Fighter bouts for those lucky enough to play them with friends. The multiplayer here is definitely the draw (which makes it even more of a shame that there's no online play in the PS2 version), and the only extra wrinkle that's added with the mascots are Superstar Shots that can be kicked off after the star logo at each player's feet fills by making crack shots and returning serves. These shots are often insanely unpredictable and can even attack the other players.
Okay, they're unpredictable for human players. The AI apparently knows exactly where every shot will drop, so things like Ulala's wildly twisting "5" shaped shot that also summons a handful of Morolians that will stun opponents should they stand still long enough are actually invaluable. That the characters themselves are largely interchangeable, separated only by Speed, Spin, Power, Control and All-Around attributes.
One of the most attractive parts of SEGA Superstars Tennis' treatment of the myriad characters and courts is the obvious love and care spent in updating them for the current hardware. Though there are a few Dreamcast games being brought over, most of the games are based on arcade or early console hardware, and fittingly, the original games' music, sound effects and even HUD elements have been ported over lovingly. In the Sonic stages, you'll get a little square portrait; in the House of the Dead stages, it's a handful of torches, and things like zombie bites or thrown rackets cover the screen with the usual graphics that you'd see while blasting things in the arcade.
There's variety and care, little touches abound, sure, but the visuals aren't absolutely perfect representations. The models absolutely look and move like they should, but there are bouts of sometimes intense frame drops and even slowdown that can make some of the challenges a little difficult. Otherwise, though, the textures and models for both the stages and characters really are top-notch.
That goes double for the audio, which regularly remixes classic themes, updating them, sure, but preserving some of the simpler qualities which made them so memorable in the first place. Grinding through the Planet Superstars mode will often unlock multiple themes from the source games that can be picked from prior to actually starting a given challenge. It's a nice touch, and all of the music is great stuff. There's more than a little repetition from the characters, though, meaning you'll hear the same two or three lines every time you score a point or finish a challenge, but they're all delivered well enough. Another nice little touch: when you fail a challenge, you'll usually hear that game's game over music.
Things like that show just how much care went into crafting all the different modes of the game. Online play would have helped, but obviously local play is where Virtua Tennis originally hooked people, and that core is alive and well here. Granted, neither the tennis itself nor the challenges that help mix things up are universally attractive, but taken as a full offering, SEGA Superstars Tennis is surprisingly solid, and if you grew up with the house that Sonic built's offerings during the industry's earlier years, seeing this amount of fan service wrapped around a game that does all of it justice is more than enough for me to recommend it.
