Games for this generation are a little different from those of the golden age of gaming, it isn’t just about graphics, gore, fiendish puzzles and an arse kicking soundtrack, its now all about how you can control the game. So when one of the biggest names in gaming announces their take on a casual game, most gamers would expect something pretty special. If you’re one of those people, maybe its better you close this window, shut down the PC and go outside for a while, because you’re in for a bit of disappointment. If you’re the casual gamer however who’s collection consists mainly of Wii Sports and Wii Play, maybe you should carry on reading.

Before I cry like a small child about the problems the game has lets start with the good stuff, after the nicely done AMV that was also in the DS version, you get to the main menu full of well, nothing really. You have a few options for single player consisting of an adventure style mode dubbed Planet Superstars, which lets you pick the game universe to play in and then asks you to complete certain tasks such as collecting all the coins around a court in the Sonic universe. This all works pretty well even if after a while a little boring and helps unlock additional levels, music and most importantly characters in the game to be used in single and multiplayer.

In addition to that, you have quick play and tournaments which come in single and double variants. That’s pretty much it for single player which think this is a bit odd, as I’m sure you would of guessed by the lack of single player options this game is more orientated to the multiplayer side of things (which I promise I’ll talk about soon), why then are you forced to play through single player to unlock everything? Why can’t you unlock it going through tournaments? Or just by playing several hours of the game? Why not have them all unlocked for multiplayer and have them locked for single player? Mario and Sonic at the Olympics was a multiplayer game at heart and because of this it had all the characters unlocked as you start, so what’s Sega playing at here?

The character list and stages you can unlock is still fairly impressive, spanning a lot of Sega franchise both well known and not. Each character has their own special stats which make them better in certain areas such as running or technique. In addition to this everyone has a special move or what Sega call a Superstar State, which temporarily gives you the ability to not only be rather cheap, but blame that on in-game features. The Superstar State aren’t exactly great and could have done with a bit more work

With single player seriously lacking some actual tennis, the multiplayer picks up the pieces and tries to glue itself back together. Luckily it does this quite successfully and you can start having some real fun with some friends. Unlike Wii Sports where one control method is forced, Sega Superstar Tennis allows players to pick the version of control they like the most, Wiimote (Wii Sports style), Wiimote/NunChuck (using the Wiimote to swing while using the NunChuck to control your character) and Wiimote once again (on its side like a NES controller). I like the idea of being able to pick your control scheme, its unfortunate then that 2 out of the 3 control schemes don’t work as well as they should.

Those who have played Wii Sports (and honestly that should be all of you seeing as it comes free with the Wii) will have gotten used to the tennis Wiimote controls, the game isn’t perfect but the auto movement is usually pretty good and swings are well mapped and as a package it works really well. Almost a year and a half on and Sega Superstar Tennis isn’t even at the same level as Wii Sports with regards to controls, it’s a shame but with a few friends around all using the conventional Wiimote method, several shouting spats broke out, all directed at the TV when their characters didn’t move, or the swing was extremely slow.

Now the speed of the swing is different in each character and players would get used it to it, but for the character not to go near the ball? That’s something that shouldn’t be happening. Also using the Wiimote controls, none of my friends could work out how to charge up shots. I myself was using the Wiimote on its side, sitting comfortably on my sofa with a cup of tea. Because my control method was clearer, easier to use and I was controlling my movement, my team won. Not because we were better players, because the other team couldn’t control their characters.

Now onto the worst part of Multiplayer, online support. There isn’t any! That’s correct, this game came out on almost all formats and the only ones who didn’t get online were the Playstation 2 which is obviously a last-gen system and the Wii, even the DS had online play! I have no idea why it’s happened but it’s a big portion of the game that’s missing.

Closing Comments:

When Sega announced a tennis game on the Wii, casual users all around the UK rejoiced as another game came out that they could purchase which would be better than carnival games, hardcore games woot’ed as they could play as some retro characters that Sega don’t use enough, but the biggest noise made was the Nintendo fanboys, knowing that they wouldn’t get online play.

It’s a real shame Sega didn’t spend a little more time working on the Wii one, giving it the features it so deserved and working out the kinks in the control methods, without decent controls the game is seriously flawed and although its likely the casual and hardcore player will enjoy it, it just doesn’t hit the right points it needs to and within a few hours Wii Sport will be going back in the machine.

Score – 7.0

+ Good character list.
+ Graphically good.
+ Lots of single player…

- Shame about the multiplayer.
- Controls needed more work.
- No online play.