SLAM TENNIS (XBOX)


It may not be Grand, but it's got slam

By WILL BARKER

For me, tennis is a big deal. I stay up to watch the US Open, Wimbledon, and the French Open. I like the spectacle of big serves, the personality clashes and umpires who don't speak English. It's what makes tennis enjoyable.

And, if people didn't enjoy the sport, the advertisers would leave, which would mean the organisers couldn't pay the huge prizes to keep the top-flite players coming back, and the world would go into recession, leading to WWIII and the end of the human race as we know it!!

So, with tennis' important contribution to the safety of the world explained, let's look at the first serious tennis title on the Xbox, Slam Tennis, so that perhaps future generations of gamers will be able to thwart the end of civilisation.

Before we go any further, it must be said that I really got into the Virtua Tennis games on the old DC, playing it all the time, taking it to friend's places - that sort of thing. Sadly, the fun wore off after about two months of non-stop playing.

It got too easy and, while there was - and still is - plenty of depth to its gameplay (crafted by the legends that are Sega), it got to a stage where only a handful of human players posed any threat. Indeed, I was like a Lleyton Hewitt, complete with lots of screaming and intimidation tactics.

So, with the advent of Slam Tennis, could my insatiable appetite for a demanding tennis title be quenched? First impressions point to the affirmative…

From the outset, one of the best things about Slam Tennis, compared with Virtua Tennis series, are the increase in shots/buttons and the improved AI.

The d-pad or analogue stick control player movements, while there's one button for lob, one for flat shot (sic), top spin shot, backspin shot and lob.

Furthermore, the triggers add left and right spin to any type of shot you perform, making for a seriously high number of potential strokes.

AI is also much tougher than in Virtua Tennis. I suppose if you thought the CPU players in the Dreamcast title were more than a match, then this game will seem way too hard. But for those who crave more of challenge, you will find it in Slam Tennis.

Playing human opponents is ultimately more fulfilling, because there's the trash talk factor, and all the excitement that comes with real-life competition, but the CPU opponents still manage to emulate what I'd term fairly human playing styles.

For instance, on the harder difficulty settings, the CPU will be down-right methodical in trying to take apart your game, but at the same time still manages to exhibit human behaviour by making the odd forced error here and there. It's damn good AI programming from the folks at Infogrames.

One particular aspect of the game I didn't really appreciate was the arcade-oriented 'special shot meter'. Every time you hit the ball, you're special meter will fill up a few pixels - just a conventional fighting game.

Once it's full, you can pull off shots that are almost impossible to stop.

What this means is that so long as you, or your opponent, slowly plugs away at you from the baseline, he'll always be able to double-tap any of the stroke buttons, henceforth unleashing a glowy tennis ball of doom. Being a tennis purist, I would have preferred complete simulation rules, but at the same token, you sometimes find yourself thanking the Lord that the special meter was included.

Game modes are very similar to those found in Virtua Tennis, and should keep even those with hideous tennis elbow injuries occupied for quite some time. These include arcade, exhibition, championship and challenge modes.

Arcade and exhibition (singles and doubles) modes are self explanatory, while the championship mode differs slightly to the career mode found in VT.

Similar in form, but not function - instead of travelling all over the globe, you simply unlock singles, doubles and 'pop the balloons' challenge matches by slowly whittling away a pyramid of stages.

It sounds confusing, but it's pretty straightforward: Just imagine one block, which is the hardest level, sitting on top of two blocks, which then sit on top of three blocks, on top of four, and then five.

As such, each tournament has 15 levels, with some six tournaments, which equates to 90 games or matches.

Graphics don't really matter so much in a sports title when the gameplay is so addictive, but even so, Slam Tennis doesn't disappoint. The characters appear to be very smooth (though only their last names are used to avoid hefty royalty fees - cheapskates…) and lots of work must have gone into the motion capture process, because not once do the digitised players look awkward.

Sports game developers take note - Slam Tennis has one of the coolest replay features seen in recent times. We're talking picture-in-picture stuff here.

The main window will show your player attacking the ball, while a smaller window in the bottom left-hand corner shows a close-up of where the ball lands, and sometimes of the grimace on your opponents face.

Sure, it's been done to death on the telly, but its simplicity is what makes it so cool!

The game moves at a lovely clip - 30fps, or thereabouts - which makes running about the court and smashing the ball to and fro' an absolute delight.

The controls are silky smooth, making Slam Tennis very hard to put down and, because there are more shots at your disposal than the average tennis game, Slam Tennis has more scope than any other tennis title offered today, period.

I really dig Slam Tennis, and all the eclectic challenge games that come with it, though the score should be taken with a grain of salt, as this reviewer is quite the tennis geek.

This is easily the premier tennis game at the time of writing, and the only one on the Xbox. It may just be a carbon copy of VT, but that's okay by me, because the amount of moves on offer is more than doubled.

Fila World Tour Tennis will be coming in 2003, but it's going to be up against very stiff competition - kudos to Sheffield House on a job well done.

ORIGINALITY 75%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 85%
PLAYABILITY 90%
ADDICTION 95%
ENJOYMENT 85%