Sega Superstars Tennis

Rating Everyone 10+ Genre sports Publisher Sega External Links Sega Website

Sega has been known for their bevy of beautimous gaming titles. In fact, they’ve won bigger, more rightful praises as a software developer than as a console designer. Sure, plenty of people say that the Dreamcast is the greatest console ever created. Many people preferred the quality of Betamax over VHS, too. In the end, perhaps it’s a combination of financing and licensing that supports one and dooms the other. Betamax goes the way of the dodo and Sega gets consumed by Nintendo. Such is the marketing food chain.

However, now that Sega doesn’t have to worry too much about hardware development, they can focus on what they’re best at, right? Out comes Sega Superstars Tennis, a multi-console release that appears to be more of a marketing buffer than an attempt at a serious sports title. Don’t get mislead by the word ‘Tennis’ in the title. This little packet provides much more than one-on-one or doubles matches with Sega characters from various successful Sega franchises and Jet Set Radio.

Although the game would seem to be geared toward single player and multi-player tennis matches, the highlight comes in the form of something called Superstars Mode. Here, you navigate between various worlds on the giant board of Planet Superstar. As you visit titles such as Jet Set Radio, Sonic the Hedgehog, Samba De Amigo and others, you will either compete in a set of skill tests or matches in order to unlock the hidden treasures found within. Most of them are more skill trials, but you can also unlock music tracks, new Superstar boards, and even new characters, up to a total of 15.

I don’t know if these skill tests are supposed to be a tutorial of some sort. Otherwise, the game lacks instruction outside of the manual. That’s all fine and good, so long as the game controls are intuitive. I’ll save you the suspense: they’re not! Even characters that are supposed to be focused on ball control lack the ability to do so. Further examination proves that power-based characters are the way to go, but that’s beside the point. Sega Superstars Tennis is already on the wrong foot. Whenever your hopes of scoring in a match come down to either using Superstar moves or just waiting for your opponent to slip, fun becomes tedium all too soon.

Speaking of Superstar moves, each character has some sort of special shot power when their star meter fills, which is accomplished by keeping a volley going and scoring on your opponent. Once the meter is full, the Superstar button will trigger something special. Either your character’s Superstar move is mildly entertaining or game-breakingly unfair, Dr. Eggman! Rather than add that little extra twist, many of these extra moves seem rather tagged on with little though given to how each one might affect the overall match. Couple that with frantic button-mashing that keeps the ball in play and you have less of a game and more of a random lottery.

The reason the lack of control is such a shame is due to the intense variety found within the entire game. Superstar Mode’s skill tests are actually worth playing, provided you can make competent use of one of the characters. Aside from completing singles matches and tournaments, you are charged with slaying zombies, completing puzzle boards, coloring in graffiti tags, what have you. Each Superstar world has its own custom set of challenges adapted to the atmosphere of the game it represents. Once again, the only thing hampering it is the difficulty of completing said tasks because of the controls.

The graphics are probably the most vibrant I’ve ever seen in any game to date, discounting Katamari Damacy. Some Sega titles have a hallmark of great graphics and this is no exception. Pretty much any game that was made exclusively for a Sega system had decent graphics and a rich color palette. They’ve continued the tradition here. Character models are perfectly stylized and detailed according to overall feel. Even though there have been a lot of minuses so far, this is definitely two huge thumbs up for Sega Superstars Tennis.

If you’re purchasing this to play tennis matches with your friends, it’s one-to-four player madness in either singles or doubles mode. Outside of that, this title supports online play in order to reach the masses of other tennis-ites and Sega fans alike. Most of this title’s effort at replayability seems to be cubby-holed into multiplayer and unlockables. If music tracks, minigames and extra characters aren’t your thing, you can certainly keep the ball rolling with the characters offered. However, unlocking everything may prove to be more effort for less worth. Even the most die-hard Sega lovers may grow weary.