Davis-Cup Tennis
Reviewed by Inkhands
Davis Cup, one of the better tennis games I have played,
uses a combination of solid game play and a variety of
options. The game can be played using one, two, three, or
four players. Each of these options have their own modes. In
the one player mode, the first thing you do is create and
customize a player. You can change his name and select him a
native country. The default name is simply Player 1 and the
the United States serves as the default country. There are
also fifteen other countries you can choose, such as Sweden,
Germany, France, or Italy.
Along with these minor details, the players has certain
abilities in six categories. You are given 30 points to use
to better your player in any or all of these areas. They
range from forehand, backhand, volleys, smash, and serve.
The default number for each of these is set to 50. Along
with adding to them, you can detract as well. If you feel
safe selecting a backhand volley to be lower than 50, then
you can use those points to better your player in a more
important area such as service or forehand. Your player will
usually start out fairly weak, so it's a good idea to use
these points in the best way you can. That will better your
chances of winning, because the game is much harder if
you're player is lacking in skills.
Once you have your player and set his abilities you can save
that player, but then you can also actually play the game.
You can set him up with a singles or a doubles exhibition.
You can also send him to the training mode to improve his
skills at the base line, with volleys, or a smash. This
training mode uses a ball machine and it slowly shoots ball
toward you at first, but then it gets faster. On the main
screen is a practice mode, but you can't select an area to
practice, you just have a ball machine shooting the ball all
over the court. There is a Davis Cup mode, of course, and
there is also a Championship mode. These two modes are very
similar. You have to select a doubles partner as well,
because they vary from singles games and then to a double
game. No real players are here, but some of their first name
sound suspiciously familiar.
The other type of mode is tournament mode. This is a mode in
which you can play in one of four countries, France,
Australia, United States, or Great Britain. The four major
grand slam tournaments in real tennis are each located in
these four countries, so they may not carry the real names,
such as Wimbledon, but they take place in the correct
location. The options on the main screen will select how
each of these matches will be played. You can change how
many sets you want to play between either 1 set, 3 sets, or
5 sets. You can also select the speed of the game between
very low, low, medium, and high. In exhibition mode you can
select what type of court to play on between either clay,
hard, indoor, or grass.
There's one other thing about this game and that is the type
of view to have. The default is a split screen. What this
will do is place you in the near court on the top half of
the screen. The bottom half will place you in the far court.
This would basically allow you to look at either, but
sometimes it can be both distracting and a little confusing.
You have to get used to the fact that when you hit left your
player will move to the right in the back court. So, for
that reason it's almost better to turn the split screen off.
You will then be left with a single view. Your player will
always be the player in the near court, despite the fact
usual tennis rules state the players must switch sides. If
you like playing in the far court you're out of luck, unless
you can get used to the split screen.
It took me hours to get used to the control in this game. I
think it's mainly my fault, but it was a frustrating few
hours until I finally figured out how exactly to swing in
this game. There is only one button for swinging your
racket. When I play other tennis games I have a habit of
holding the button, even though I don't need to do that. At
least the racket will move back and then forward on it's on
to hit the ball. That's out of the question in this game. If
you hold the button, the racket will remain pulled back. It
will only move forward toward the ball after you release it.
The other type of way to swing is to hit the button twice
really quickly. Otherwise, hit the button and release it at
just the right time to actually hit the ball at all. One
other problem I found was the fact I couldn't find a way to
cancel a choice I had made. If I selected the wrong option,
I had to reset the game. Maybe there is a way to cancel, but
I couldn't find it.
The main challenge from this game is getting used to the
controls. Once I did that, the game became easier, but I
still had trouble winning even a game, let along a full set.
After a while I became much better at it. The challenge
really varies depending on how skilled your player is and
the speed at which you play. Needless to say a game at high
speed is harder to play than one at low speed. The high
speed game has the player throwing shots at you in
a split second before you can even move to where it is, let
along swing. Also you can play a short one set match or a
lengthy five set one. The longer the game, the usually more
challenging it becomes to actually win. Overall, tennis
games are usually challenging for me, and this one is no exception.
The courts are the highlight of the graphics. The view is a
flat level baseline view from behind whichever player is in
the near court. The players are not particularly detailed,
but they are pretty large on the screen. The courts are a
nice shade of green and brown though. The crowd in the back
are not great looking and the guy with the yellow shirt must
have about ten twin brothers, but overall the graphics are
fairly well done. The music in the game also sounds very
good. On the options screen you can select from three types
of music or turn it off. You can also put it on random and
it will play a song randomly. The default one is very good
though and is probably the best music I ever heard in a
tennis game. The opening theme is mixed in with the players,
the announcer, the ball hitting the court, and the crowd.
Overall, the visual and audio aspects of this game are both
above average.
With all of the modes and the fact up to four players can
play this game at once, there is a good reason to play this
game over and over. The fact you can create and save players
is also another high point of the game. Even if the process
is simple, it's still always nice to be able to customize
your own player. You can even create your opponent in the
exhibition mode. Overall, this is one of the best tennis
games I have played. It's better than many of the sub par
tennis games I have played on the Genesis, Super Nintendo,
Nintendo, and nearly every other system you can think of.
The only one I can really think that I prefer over this game
still is Super Tennis on the Super Nintendo, which is my
favorite tennis game pre Virtua Tennis on the Dreamcast.
Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 7/10
Control - 6/10
Challenge - 7/10
Appeal - 8/10
Game Play - 9/10
Replay Value - 8/10
Overall: 8 out of 10
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