Unrealistic but addictive

I have never been a big video game person, but always a huge tennis nut. So while the ugly cold weather was still preventing from playing the real game I badly needed some fix for my tennis cravings. I bought my gameboy player last summer to entertain me on some really long trips, but never really got very addicted to any of the games I tried. I bought it mostly because it was the cheapest game system around, but for a few months it was just lying around completely unused, and I almost thought about selling it.

This all changed as soon as I got my new tennis power tour game. I’ve been playing it pretty much daily for the past month, and have beaten it on all difficulty levels, which is an absolute first for me for any game. Actually it took me less than a day to beat it for the first time on the easy level. I think this is the main reason why I don’t like games that much, it seems like every game there is a point where it just seems impossible to pass and I get very frustrated rather than entertain, plus most of them tend to be rather repetitive.

To my own surprise I actually now own three game systems – the gameboy, a gamecube, and some retro style thing which I never really play, but I got the cube and that last one as Christmas presents. I got the power tour game for the gamecube as well, but the gameboy version is way more fun, and lasts a lot longer. The gameboy game is in a story mode and it takes place at a tennis academy, where you develop your player from level one to as far as you can go. Although it’s a Mario game, you can’t really play as Mario in the story mode. Instead your choices are a boy or a girl with default names Clay and Ace, but those can be changed. Mario and many other characters are available to play in the exhibition mode, and as you go on in the story mode you unlock additional characters that could be played in the exhibition. As you progress in the story you meet the others as well and eventually you get to play at a tournament in the mushroom kingdom, where Mario is your last opponent. Once you beat him you finish the game and then you can keep going back to play the tournament again, but you don’t make as many points any more as the defending champion and it gets a little boring.

The story line in the game is pretty simple – you do different trainings around the academy, compete on deferent circuits – juniors, seniors, and varsity, and once you become the top player in varsity you go onto the tournaments, which unfortunately are only two – the island cup and the mushroom kingdom cup. As you advance through the different circuits you also get more training options, with different mini games. Most of those were rather boring to me, but you do have to do them, otherwise your player won’t have enough power and technique to compete in the tournaments.

Now the most controversial part in the game is some weird Power Shots that you can develop through training on the machines. Those are very unrealistic and physics defying and can change any point at any moment. I would imagine that many people would find them entertaining, but I would’ve preferred a more realistic game play. There is an option to turn off the power shots in the exhibition mode, but not in the story one which is a huge disappointment. On top of those power shots, the other aspects of the game are also not very tennis like – you don’t really have to position yourself very close to the ball, instead the game moves your as need as long as you’re in the general direction and keep hitting the shot buttons. Neither of the players ever makes any unforced errors, you can’t really hit the ball out except in very, very, very, rare instances and this might happen once through the whole game, but it may not. Same goes for serves, returns and everything. It does make you feel really good about your game, but it’s not very realistic. The other untrue part of the game is the scoring. The sets are only 2 games long, with a tiebreak at 2-2. Again in the exhibition mode there is an option to change the number of games in sets to 6, but not in the story mode. I was hoping that selecting difficult level of play will increase the games in sets in the story, but unfortunately it only made the opponents faster, and harder to outhit.

Finally, even though there is a story line after the first time it’s only a waste of time, and an added annoyance, because it doesn’t have any effect on the development of the game what so ever. You don’t really need to read all the little dialogue, just keep hitting next till they finish, no matter what you answer it will be the same result. The game does double it’s length though with the added doubles circuit. You basically go through the same stages as in singles, but with the other character as your partner. You don’t, however, start from level one. If you’ve reached level say 35 in singles that’s where you’ll start in doubles. It’s actually really fun because you kick but like that really well. You could actually start in the doubles tournament first and built your player to a high level, and then go into singles. Depending which game play is more fun for you this might be a better way to go.