Jennifer Capriati Tennis
Reviewed by Inkhands
This will probably be one of the last tennis games I review,
considering this is the seventh one I have written. Others
review many RPG's, but I get bored with those. I'm terrible
at shooters. Other sports games are okay and I'll review one
or two basketball or baseball games, but tennis is my
favorite sport. I play a lot of tennis video games,
therefore I have reviewed more of them than any other type
of game.
I am giving this game a 7 overall, even though maybe it
deserves a 6. I'm giving a 7 partly because I enjoyed it
more than I do an average tennis game. So while this game
doesn't quite have as many options as I have seen in other
tennis games, I still ended up enjoying it more than some of
those other tennis games I have played. Most tennis games
are usually very similiar so it's hard to think of something
new to say about them, but I will just try to describe this
game as best I can without feeling I have already said the
same things about another game.
There are three basic modes in this game and you also have
the ability to create up to four players. You have an
exhibition mode which is where you only play one match.
There are 12 women to choose from, including Capriati, and
12 men to choose from. You can also choose one of the
players you have created, if you have created any. The 23
players other than Capriati are all made up and have made up
names. There are three courts to play on - hard, clay, and
lawn. You can play a one player game in this mode, a two
player game, or let the play the and you
can watch.
There is also a very basic training mode. Your coach is
hitting balls to you and you have to return them. You choose
where your coach will be standing on either the left or
right side of the court or in the center. You can be in the
near court or the far court. You can practice on either of
the three courts. You can make the ball be flat or a drive.
You can exit this mode any time you want and adjust any of
these options to suit your training needs. I don't really
feel this adds much to the game. If you want to practice you
could just play an actual match. That's always been my logic
on getting better at any game. However, the training mode is
here, and you can play it if you want to.
You can create up to four players and save them. This game
only has a password feature though. You name your players,
decide if they are male or female, right or left handed, if
they hit some of their swings with a single hand or both,
and if they have a flat or a drive spin on the ball. You are
given 12 points and you add these 12 points to one of 4
categories - power on their forehand and backhand, their
footwork, and their ability at the net. You can't put all 12
into one category though, the limit is five points per
category. Not that you would really want to put all 12 into
one category. It's better to try to balance them out anyway.
Once you create a player you can then begin playing as him
or her in the other modes.
The circuit mode isn't a very complicated mode. You simply
choose one of the 24 players, or a player you have created.
You are entered into the Sydney Open to begin with. This
would be the same as the Australian Open in reality. There
are only 8 players and you only have to win one set to win
the match. This means to win the entire tournament you only
have to play 3 sets. This is probably one of the easiest
setups I have ever seen in a circuit mode. You move on to
other touranments after that, but they don't get any more
difficult. If you play as a player that is ranked 12th you
can certainly tell the difference than if you played as the
number 1 or 2 ranked players. Also the rank of who you are
playing varies and that makes the challenge of the match
vary, but not too much.
The graphics of course are nothing spectacular at all. They
are less than good. The players are small and have very
undetailed moves. They look very undetailed and very
unrealistic. Basically you can tell the color of their
clothes and hair. Other than that, there isn't much to the
look of the players. The view is slightly overhead and from
the back of the player in the near court. The chair umpire
actually sits at court level, which is very unusual. There
isn't really any crowd that I saw. The courts are all very
nondescript. They look like clay or grass as little as they
can and still get by with it. Lackluster graphics found in
this game.
The sound is equally bad in this game. The sound effects are
weak and sound very much like something out of an NES game
instead of a Genesis game. The crowd has that same ringing
sound that is found in Nintendo games. The person that calls
the game sounds like a very bored Australian. He says the
scores and calls the shots, but other than that, you're not
going to find much sound at all in this game. What you do
find is very poor. So I really don't care much for the sound
in this game.
Controls in tennis games are usually easy to figure out, but
much harder to actually master. Not in this game. Usually it
takes me a few matches to get used to the way a tennis game
plays, but halfway through the first set I had figured out
how not to fault on my serves or go wide on my backhand. You
get the usual shots in this game, such as the lob and the
regular swings, but the actual shot placement is probably
better in this game than I have seen in many tennis games.
The ball went where I wanted it to go almost every time. The
only real flaw with the controls is the diving. You can dive
in this game, but doing that usually makes the ball drop
short of the net, and you lose the point. It's better not to
make a diving play at all, but you really have no control
over this. If you swing at the ball from too far away, you
will dive whether you want to or not. That's the only thing
I saw wrong with the controls.
This is one of the easiest tennis games I have ever played.
It's easy to master the controls. Shot placements are easy.
All my tennis strategies worked as well in this game as they
have in any other tennis game and better than some. It's
really easy to win a tournament, considering you only play
three matches and only one set per match. This is a very
easy tennis game, at least for me anyway. If you are
inexperienced though and this is the first tennis game you
have ever played then it might pose more of a challenge.
Otherwise for anybody with basic tennis skills, not a
challenging game at all.
All tennis games are fun for me, and this one was quite
enjoyable I must say. The replay value is a little low
considering there is so little to this game. Even the
circuit isn't hard to play. It plays more as one tournament
instead of four. There are better tennis games and once you
play this one you'd probably go looking for one of those to
play again. While I'd say the fun factor was a little high
for me in this game, I would have to say the replay value is
lower considering the lack of both options and challenge.
Overall this is a nice tennis game and I may seem biased
because I love tennis, but I'm usually hard to impress when
it comes to tennis games. They really have to stand out in
some way for me to really love them. I'm giving this game a
7 because although it's easy and not very special, it still
was fun to play and not frustrating. Not a must have tennis
game, but not a bad game either.
Graphics - 5/10
Sound - 5/10
Control - 7/10
Gameplay - 8/10
Fun Factor - 6/10
Challenge - 5/10
Replay Value - 5/10
Overall - 7/10
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