The second opus of Big Ant’s tennis game is here and while it greatly improves in certain fields it still lacks some key elements to become “The Ace”.
Tennis, it’s that game you watch live in the middle of the night on a European broadcast. Tennis games however are enjoyable whenever you want and now with the Switch’s handheld mode, wherever you want.
The first real good tennis game used to be Top Spin, I remember being blown away in a store seeing the graphical bump on the newly released Xbox 360 demo pods. Years later it’s Tennis World Tour that is making a name for itself and having a great game on the go is a real treat.
The game offers a wide variety of star players but due to some licensing problems, you’ll see some great names missing in the roster. Also note that there are almost double the number of male players in a sport that is quite gender-balanced. Some legends are paid DLC or pre-order bonuses while others are just missing from the game somehow. Federer, Nadal, and Medvedev are present as well as one of my favorites: Kvitova. As a Belgian, I had to side with Goffin for the majority of my matches.
Although the game offers a form of progression in stats and cards you can use to your advantage I feel like there was a missed opportunity to give your players a bit more customization options. The characters look great but a few more shoes, outfits and cap styles would’ve been nice to spice things up a little esthetically.
Not that the game looks bad, I was surprised by how good it looked most of the time! When the camera angles change to the action in replays there is a good attempt at a dynamic shallow depth of field but somehow it looks really clunky in some replays instead of making it look nice as intended. Most of the time you’ll be seeing the downwards camera angle from above and this one looks really crisp. From far away it looks like actual tennis footage from TV. The shadows cast on the ground are pulled off nicely and the colors are authentic!
It’s called World Tour for a reason and with the addition of different types of soil and weather, the game and locations all have multiple parameters that impact the gameplay. Whether it is fatigue weighing in on your stamina during hot climate or the modified bounciness of the ball on gravel and hard soil. They all have a change on gameplay and are not only a nice esthetic change. You can also choose to play during the night time or during the day to add immersion of overseas’ matches.
Animation wise the game deserves some credit! Vastly improving from the previous version and I just love how the facial expressions change when hitting the ball hard into the opponent’s side. I was afraid these facial expressions wouldn’t translate well on Switch since I never saw them in the first version. To my surprise, they were in this second opus and immediately noticeable!
If you’re new to the game the game handles this well by offering the tennis school in a step by step tutorial teaching you all there is to get you started. It has a low learning curve for the basics but mastering the technique to land the ball exactly where you want will take time and especially good response time/timing. You’ll have to think in advance to really keep the edge over your (AI) opponents. You can also choose to go with the Switch’s Joy-Con motion controls to have the most immersive experience. I found out that it translates well enough and if you love Wii Sports’ tennis back in the day you’ll feel right at home although it takes some time to move and coordinate your swings in the beginning. It’s like an extra layer of gameplay you can activate whenever you want!
Online gameplay is stable and it has a better matchmaking system underneath so that improvement is a welcome one. The addition of doubles is also a really nice smash from the developers. It’s what fans wanted and Tennis World Tour 2 listened.
I believe TWT2 is a great addition to the Switch’s roster and the game is really making progress by improving on its first iteration. Next time we want to see some more customization options and a more solid stat and campaign system. Let’s hope we can get past all the licensing hiccups as well someday to include all players, and locations around the world. But for now, we have a good tennis game on Switch to keep us entertained!
