World Court Tennis
Reviewed by Inkhands
Tennis is my favorite sport and it has been for about a
decade now. Over the years I've played quite a few tennis
games and for the most part I have somewhat enjoyed all of
them. Of course there has only been a few tennis games that
I have really loved, but for the most part none of them had
really stood out as being a bad game. However, that was
until I played World Court Tennis, which happens to be the
worst tennis game I have ever played. When I evaluate this
game for strengths and weaknesses all I come up with is way
too many flaws, and not a single strength.
There are three modes of play in this game. There is a
singles mode for one or two players and there is a doubles
mode for two or four players. In both modes you choose
between nearly 20 different players. You also choose between
how many sets in the match between either 3 sets or one and
what type of course to play on between either clay, grass,
or hard. In both modes there is also a watch option. This
option was featured in a lot of early games and I never
understood their purpose, as I never quite enjoyed watching
the play the . Considering that playing isn't exactly an
appealing idea, maybe watching it will turn out to be a
better experience. I personally would prefer watching the
game disolve into a pile of ashes, but that could just be me.
The other mode is a quest mode. Originally I thought this
might just be a decent aspect in this game. You choose to
play as a male or a female tennis player. You talk to a King
and then you venture around saving the world from ... an evil
tennis King. However, once I actually started playing, I
became very annoyed with it, and decided it wasn't enough to
redeem this game after all. It's actually set up like a role
playing game seeing as how you start out in town, otherwise
known as Chicago. Of course this brings me to the point,
when did Chicago become a country and when did America have
a king? Also, why does it only take about 3 minutes to walk
from Chicago to Paris, and where is the Atlantic Ocean at? I
know these are silly points, but this is a silly game.
You wander around and compete in random tennis battles. You
don't even play a full set in these matches either. All you
have to do is win one game. You earn a certain amount of
money and you use this money to purchase rackets, shirts,
and shoes. The clothes help you to avoid the random
challenges you encounter along the way. The rackets simply
uprade and the only noticeable difference is the higher
speed and power you can hit the ball with once you buy a new racket.
You have the ability to warp from one town to any other town
you have visited instantly. Such as you start out in Chicago
and if you lose a challenge, you go back to Chicago. If you
want to go back to Paris without taking the long walk, all
you have to do is select warp and you will be taken to Paris
in just a second. There are houses in town. Some of these
are stores where you can purchase the items I mentioned
above. Also, some are places that allow you to bet on other
tennis matches. However, for the most part they are simply
houses. You go into the house and the people inside seldomly
give you any useful information. They simply say 'Tennis is
fun.' or 'Hey. What's up?'. All the dialogue in this game
is terrible by the way. For a quest, it certainly has a
poorly written storyline. However, I suppose I can't really
expect too much originality in a tennis game.
The quest mode could have been a great addition to this
game, but instead it comes out being a lot of wasted
potential. The actual purpose is to simply wander around,
face challenges, and beat the champion near each town. You
usually play at least a full set in these matches. The
random ones can sometimes be avoided, but usually only if
you have purchased the more expensive clothes. They will
challenge you and then ask if you accept the challenge. If
you say no, sometimes they'll just tell you bye. Other times
your enemy will be 'pushy' and you will be forced to play.
If you do lose, the King will at least give you some money
for the effort.
The graphics look very much like an old NES game instead of
the usually great graphics I've seen the few Turbo games I
have played. The graphics are very disappointing actually.
The players have no detail, but they do have very large
heads on top of small bodies. The actual courts aren't
impressive either. Just green or brown depending on whatever
type of surface they are supposed to be. In the quest mode,
your player wanders around on the world map, carrying a
little tennis racket. It looks very much like the original
Dragon Warrior game on the NES did in that respect. The
mountains aren't well drawn. The simply look like little
brown rocks. The little houses are all white with red roofs.
Nothing on the world map is impressive looking or detailed.
One thing I have to question about the graphics, is while on
the world map, and you encounter a random battle, you of
course then switch to the court and the players. However,
why are there people in the stands? You are walking by a
lake, someone wants to play tennis with you, and they happen
to have a court there and a stadium full of people? What if
you did say no, then there would be a lot of disappointed
people at the court that day. I know this is another silly
point for me to be making, but wouldn't the game had been
more realistic if they were playing on some broken down
court with nobody else around?
Of course the graphics are below average, but sadly the
sound is even worse. The first thing I noticed about this
game is the terrible sound effects. There are no voices for
commentary in the game. If you get an out or a fault, then
you're going to get some bonks and bloops to accompany that.
No words, no voices, just a bonk. Dong. The music is just as
bad. I ignored the music for the most part. The only thing
that stood out to me in the sound department was how poorly
the effects sounded.
The control is another terrible aspect of the game. The
players do not move fast enough. You only get two types of
swings, that I could find anyway. Just a regular swing and a
lob. The lob is of little use, because it seldom does
anything but go out anyway. Moving the player as fast as I
can, does little good, as a good majority of the time, the
ball would end up hitting the net when I tried to return
anyway. Serving is also terribly set up. I won more games
when I received than when I served. The reason being, nearly
ever serve I tried, no matter what shot placement I tried,
the ball would either hit the net or go too far. I would get
a double fault on at least 70% of my service.
Despite the problems with control, it still did not turn out
to be an overwhelmingly challenging game. A less experienced
player may find it more difficult, but since I wouldn't
recommend this game to anybody, not even people that love
tennis the way I do, then it shouldn't matter if the game is
challenging or not. It's very easy in the singles mode and
it's just boring in the quest mode. Very little challenge in
the game, but it has a high annoyance factor.
This game isn't very fun either. It's too annoying and it
doesn't have many options at all. The only decent mode is
the quest mode, but it turns out to be more frustrating than
enjoyable. I admit tennis isn't exactly an extremely fun
sport, but it does have it's charms, especially for me. This
game has no charm whatsoever. All it's faults kill the
gameplay factor and therefore this game has no replay value
at all. If for some reason you do happen to play this game
once, I seriously doubt you will ever play it again.
Overall, bad graphics, poor sound, terrible control, zero
fun factor, zero replayability, and virtually no gameplay. I
don't recommend this game. The only reason to even attempt
this game would be the quest mode, but since it's executed
so poorly, you'll probably find that mode to be as tiresome
as I did. A couple of poorly done modes equals a very bad
game. I've played some unimpressive tennis games, but as far
as I can remember none of them can quite top this one. It
probably only deserves a 1, but I'm going to give it a 2,
just because the quest mode was a nice idea, if only it
hadn't turned out to be so terrible.
Graphics - 4/10
Sound - 2/10
Gameplay - 3/10
Fun Factor - 2/10
Challenge - 4/10
Control - 3/10
Replay Value - 1/10
Overall: 2 out of 10
OR
Life Insurance - Free Credit Report - Gardening - Loans - Loan 