Sega Superstars Tennis okay, has weak tennis

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March 31st, 2008 posted by The Illusion in Reviews

Sega Superstars Tennis, while seeming as bad an idea as “Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games”, isn’t the usual “Out of the factory into the store” from Sega. Unlike recent Sega titles, it’s actually enjoyable for some.

When I first heard about it, I thought “Now how am I supposed to like these guys if they actually keep me from doing so?”. After reading reviews, looks like Sega might be ready to get back on track.

But… Tennis?

The entire aspect of Sega’s stars and Tennis, while not wholly original (at least it isn’t Capcom’s Smash Bros. ripoff Blade Warriors), is still somewhat unique on paper. In practice though, it could use some improvements, namely in the superstars mode. The superstars mode allows you to go to different worlds based on the “Superstars” in the game, the premise being that each world has unique challenges and minigames (One of Sonic’s levels for instance is collecting rings on the court). While some of these challenges are fun and innovative, collecting rings on the court just sounds boring, and some of the worlds have nothing to do with the character they’re based on (Golden Axe’s world is actually House of the Dead). To be fair, some of the challenges are surprisingly cool, like smacking down zombies with a tennis ball.

While the actual tennis isn’t much, and the minigames seem to dominate the game, the oddest thing is that the Online mode (360/PS3 only) is actually pretty good. You can just play a quick match, play a ranked match, enter a tournament, or watch someone else play. This is marred by the fact that nobody plays online, and that, once again, the tennis isn’t the most entertaining thing there.

Although you should probably rent it first, if for some reason you have fifty bucks burning a hole in your pocket, check it out.

Here are some scores from Game Rankings:

IGN: 6.2/10 l Game Informer: 7.5/10 l EGM: 70/100 l 1up: B- l Gamespot: 7/10 l Nintendo Power: 8/10

These scores and more give the game a 73.5%