Title: Super Tennis World Circuit (JP) Super Tennis (NA)
Release Date: 08/30/91
Developer: TOSE/Tonkin House
Publisher: Tonka House (JP) Nintendo (NA)
My first big "whoops!" in this blog when I covered it completely. I was watching another Chronogaming show by Jeremy Parish known as SNES WORKS (highly recommend this series, and his other companion series Game Boy Works, NES Works, and Virtual Boy Works) and noticed he had an episode of a game that I had not covered. All I can say is...
Background
As far as sports go, tennis is one of those sports that translates really well to video games. Visually, it is a lot simpler, the goals are very straightforward, and there is only one player that you have to control during play (even with doubles tennis). If you don't know anything about tennis, it is a high speed racquet sport played on a "court" designed specifically for the sport. In the simplest terms, players use a racket to volley a tennis ball to the other side of the court, where another player waits to return it back to your side. Player's score points when their ball hits the other player's side of the court without it being returned to their side. Of course there are other minutia to the rules, but I assume that if you don't play tennis, don't care about tennis, or aren't aware of what tennis is, you will just skip this post in the blog. I'll tell you what, I'll attach a video here on the basic rules. Thanks internet (and Ninh whose video I poached).
Now this game is developed by Tonkin House, who is a prominent Japanese textbook and sometimes educational game developer. TOSE, the many a time aforementioned shadow developer, is also listed as a developer, so I can assume that TOSE did most of the developmental heavy lifting with this title.
Gameplay
As far as the game itself, it is a very faithful representation of tennis. You can play a singles match against the CPU or a friend, a doubles match with a friend against two CPU players, or a doubles match with the CPU as your partner against another player and the CPU. The controls are fairly simple, with the player being able to put spin on the ball, or perform different types of shots depending on the button that is used.
This, off the bat, seems to be a showcase of the system's Mode 7 features. Most tennis games before this only had a flat and static image for a court, and the distance between the player, the ball, and the net was not as natural or intuitive. The court, in this case, though, is a Mode 7 background plane, which can be spun, adjusted, and flipped.
This, off the bat, seems to be a showcase of the system's Mode 7 features. Most tennis games before this only had a flat and static image for a court, and the distance between the player, the ball, and the net was not as natural or intuitive. The court, in this case, though, is a Mode 7 background plane, which can be spun, adjusted, and flipped.
The presentation on this game is superb. The palette of the game is bright and colorful, and the images really pop off the screen. You have really nice sprite work, as well, with a detailed version of the girl on the Super Famicom box actually moving in-game on one of the menus. My favorite menu is perhaps when you enter the world circuit, and you get a "Street Fighter II" style map that shows your tennis star globetrotting around the world. Your in-action sprites are cute "chibi" versions of real tennis stars from that era (though the game only lists their first names to avoid licensing issues).
The game puts a lot of little detail work that really helps sell the game. It is nice to feel that the developer didn't just want to make a bare-bones tennis sim, but really wanted to polish it to a professional degree. If you serve a let (when the ball hits the net on the serve), then a ballboy runs out to retrieve the ball. The line judges actually gesture to make calls if you hit a ball into a fault (out of bounds). Your player will scream "NO" sometimes if they make a double fault.
Even now the game is very playable, if pretty challenging. Okay this is really more of a complaint on me than the game, but I suck at this game! I can't even serve correctly. Nine times out of ten, I will double fault on a serve, and can go whole games (the subsection of a set) without making the ball over the net. I also have the worst time hitting the ball back across the neck, and I continually hit the wrong type of return (I usually accidentally hit the lob button). The computer, perhaps sensing weakness, offers no relief; the computer will hit the ball perfectly to where you are not. If you have just served and are still in the back court, the computer will gently send the ball right over the net. If you are hugging the right side of the court, the computer will send it to the left. The computer seems to know, automatically, where you are sending the ball as well, and covers your return volleys easily. I usually only managed to score points when the computer would accidentally fault.
How is the music?
Sports games, by the way, secretly have some of the best music on the SNES catalogue. Check it out!
Ads and Commercials
Verdict
Even though I am terrible at this game, it is still one that is very playable. There is certainly a lot of fun to be had in this game, and I highly recommend it for those building a comprehensive SNES collection. For a sports game of this era, it has aged exceedingly well, and I can see why they added it to the SNES Online catalog on the Switch.
No comments:
Post a Comment