It’s been a while since a good tennis video game came out. With games like Top Spin or Super Mario Tennis leaving their legacy, it’s hard to find a game that could fill up that blank space… Big Ben and Breakpoint Studio knew about this hole to fill and united hands to create the next tennis video game! Unfortunately, with all their cards on the table, it seems that they weren’t fully prepared and didn’t qualify to take the cup home!
With all of the promises the developers made, the game is just a big mess and doesn’t give you the real deal. Tennis World Tour is a game people talked highly off, however with the poor quality of the game and design choices, the game creates a whole new “weak” standard for sports games. The game feels rushed, and it seems that the developers made this game to promote the next big tennis event, nothing more. That’s very unfortunate, especially for the people with high hopes who bought the game.
Let’s talk about the good things that the game has to offer. There is a large roster of 30 playable characters that are known in the tennis world. Names like McEnrou, Nadal and Rodger Federer will certainly ring a bell. There also some less known characters in the roster but when you look a little closer to the world ranking, some players will seem very familiar in the tennis environment. It’s a bit regretful to see that some important players aren’t available “at the moment” like Novak Djokovic, but we’ll give the developers the benefit of the doubt and revise the game in the future because some of these characters might be added with DLC. Each character has their own kind of stats which is of course based on their “actual” performance in the real world. Then again, the game should be patched to bring the balance up to a notch because the balance in this game still needs some work.
The gameplay is very simple, your controller will have a button for each “standard” tennis move like drop shots, volley, slice, topspin, … As a player, you’ll have a lot of control over your characters moves. Holding down a certain button, makes your character charge his moves. Charging your move will make your move more powerful but it will also heighten the chances of shooting the ball outside the court. It’s a risk to take but sometimes the risk is just worth it. Finding the “blind spot” of your opponent is always a game of trial & error. But once you get the hang of it, the game plays great, gameplay wise. However, the game tends to perform moves, you weren’t even trying to do. The game’s AI alters your moves instantly when it thinks you’re not playing “correctly”. This is a no-go if you want the player to have a decent experience. Especially, when the game “gives up on you” when you’re going for a decent save of a difficult ball. Going for a difficult ball often leads to a point for your opponent as your character just “give up”. It’s like the AI wants you to lose. This can lead to some frustrating games, especially when this AI’s behavior has been programmed to do so instead of it being a bug.
The game has a career mode and for the most part, it works. The gameplay is fluent and the standard tennis moves are all available to you. You can really play the way that you want it to play. You can use some moves to keep the game going or you can make it a little bit harder for your opponent by making some cheap shots. However, don’t forget that your opponent can do the same thing and make the game even harder for you. Something that was a bit “unfortunate” to see was the balance between a woman’s career and a man’s career. The game lets you choose the gender of your character and in the right mind, this “choice” should only be a cosmetic kind of thing and not something that could influence your gameplay. Your gender will automatically put you in a certain “specific” ranking and this could be a breakpoint for some gamers. Male players will have a bigger chance to compete against well-known tennis players while as a woman, you won’t be able to play with the “big boys”. You’ll have to do it with a couple of known female players and that’s it. Too bad, this was actually something the developers considered to make in their current game. Why couldn’t they make a fantasy career mode where female players could also compete with the “big boys” instead of being limited to the same gender competitors. It would have been a whole other experience.
Other than this, the game does a great job to follow the footsteps of a professional tennis player. You get a sponsor; earn money and you travel across the globe to become the best player anyone has seen. As a tennis player, you travel around the globe to compete in tournaments, train your skills and present yourself in demonstration matches. Just like in real life, this consumes a lot of energy and you’ll have to keep an eye on your physical health if you want to come out on top. Doing activities cost money and energy, if your energy bar has been depleted, you’ll have to take some rest. Doing activities also cost money, so it’s up to you to find the right sponsor that’ll help you out. The career mode has a decent learning curve as you start your career with smaller tournaments and eventually rise up the ranks that allow you to compete in some of the bigger tournaments. Each tournament gives you a choice as a player, to play the matches you want. You want to go big or small, that’s up to you.
Playing matches also allows you to gain experience which means an increase of your stats like attack, defense or serve/ volley. Gaining a new level also opens up doors to receive special skill cards. You can equip these special cards to gain some advantages over your opponent. This card system definitely amps up your games for the better, they can boost your endurance or even strength to perform better on the field. However, you want to play, there are many cards that’ll suit your playstyle. This feature seems pretty great, but It still needs some work because I have the feeling that not every skill card is equally good and will get you that advantage during the match.
Even though Tennis World Tour has great tennis sounds, it is still not able to create an amazing atmosphere. During the matches, the crowd’s reaction is average at best. The crowd’s reaction doesn’t make a lot of sense, they react when they shouldn’t, and they yawn when there’s a decent match being played. I mean, the AI’s being programmed to change certain player moves into something more realistic, something a real professional player would do to create a real-life tennis match. Then there’s the crowd being bored out… it doesn’t make sense and it’s definitely not fun for you as a player. Where’s the sensation of a real tennis match? Where’s the crowd that’s going wild? Apparently, not in Tennis World Tour. The commentary of McEnroe should also be improved because he quickly repeats himself during the match which doesn’t really add up to the match’s atmosphere.
The game also offers a multiplayer component which ranks your player globally. There are different challenges to complete, these can alter from week to week. You can also play a tennis match with more than 1 player which is a nice game mode. There were no online connection issues during my walkthrough.
Conclusion:
Is World Tour Tennis the next big thing? Nope, not even in the long run. The game runs fluently on my system but there are so many other things that influenced my game experience and not in a great way. The career mode is okay, too bad for the bad balancing. The traveling mechanic is a nice touch to do something different and this feature is definitely a plus. Leveling up and becoming the best tennis player with all of these skills is great on paper but the AI programming stands in the way of being a great and rewarding system. Poor design choices make the game feel like “average”. Hopefully, a better tennis game comes along to fill that blank spot.
