Impromptu Sports Video Game Review: Super Tennis
Imagine if you will, a sports game light years ahead of it’s time in terms of playability that was stuck with cartoonish graphics and no real licensing support. Say, a Wii title, since all Wii sports titles are like that. Hey-oooooo!
No, instead we’re talking about Super Tennis, one of the best sports game to grace the Super Nintendo and a game that I have personally killed at least 50 hours of downtime playing. It’s a rare game for the SNES that manages to create a timing system where things are pretty balanced, even if winning technique does usually focus on a few main strategies.
There are three modes: singles, doubles, and circuit. Obviously, if you choose singles or doubles you’ll end up in an free play match against a computer opponent where you’ll get to choose the type of court (clay, grass, hard) and characters. If you pick circuit, you’ll be playing in 8 prestigious 16 player tournaments, places like the French Open…oh pardon me, the “Paris Open”. All four majors are there, and then also Nairobi, Tokyo, Beijing, and Rio. The number of sets changes depending on whether it’s a major or not. If it isn’t: 1, 1, 1, 3, and if it is: 1, 1, 3, 5. Win every tournament and you’ll get a match in a place that resembles hell with an incredibly awesome player named “Don J” who will probably beat your ass. Unless you played as a girl, because in 1991, boys ruled and girls drooled.
There are four shots once the point starts, and two different serve speeds. Topspin, backspin, slice, and lob are your weapons in a point. Each has it’s strengths and weaknesses: The backspin is probably your all-around strike: best for trading long strokes and trying to wait your opponent’s mistake out. It doesn’t have a weakness, but it’s incredibly hittable. Topspin is easily the best shot, especially on returns. You can often send them right back at the opponent and catch them in-between. However, if they do get to it, you’ll be at a disadvantage as you’re forced to return against a netbound player, and thats the worst situation to be in. Still, probably worth spamming against most of your adversaries. Slice is a set-up shot, it buys you time to attack the net if you want to, and also can be used to throw timing off. If you nail a slice on just the right timing, you’ll also hit an unreturnable shot that clips the net. However, slices also have a tendency to go wide if you hit side-to-side, so it’s a situational shot, and if you squib up the timing on your attempt, it will hit the net fairly easily. Finally, there is lob, which is utterly useless on it’s own accord. No computer opponent is slow enough to get caught by surprise on the lob, and most of them will settle under it and hit a smash at you. However, if you pair the lob with the topspin follow to the opposite side, you’re almost guaranteed to win the point as it’s hard to smash and then dash after something. It’s a very specialized strategy to be used against people who crowd the net, as well as superstar Don J. Flub the smash timing and you’re out a point, and that’s the roughest timing to nail in the game.
When serving, you’ve got your basic hard serve, which is best served up the middle or angled to the inside corner, and you have your “get it in” serve which rarely ever aces and which I would personally never use. I’ve read in a few reviews that you can also control the way the ball goes in the air with L and R. I’ve never found that necessary, and it’s one more button I can’t reach when I’m using my keyboard as a controller. But hey, maybe it works for you.
Every player has their own ratings that they are good and bad at (forehand, backhand, serve, volley), but unfortunately, you don’t find those out until you beat the game once. The best guy to use is Phil. I’d tell you the best girl but I was so disappointed that the game didn’t have a boss for the girls that I just turned it right off. Once you get the hang of the timing, it’s a pretty brisk game. You’ll definitely have a lot more problems with net-chargers, since the lob is not really all that effective at stopping them unless you master the topspin follow up, although there are a few long volley players who can stun you with a good shot every now and then. I usually have the most problems with Brian and Phil.
The biggest gripe with the game has to be the terrible camera angles you are forced to use when you play in the far court, since the camera doesn’t rotate with you. You don’t get the same look at the ball as it comes at you, so you will often mistime a shot terribly. I prefer to play defensively on that side of the court and just abuse topsin returns if at all possible. Once you get good at serving, you’ll probably ace about 30-40% of serves, so it shouldn’t be too hard to hold your own on those, but receiving in the far court is definitely a pain.
For me, Super Tennis is right up there with NBA Jam and Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball in replay value for SNES sports games. There isn’t a lot of depth to it’s modes, but there is plenty in the game play. That should be the most important thing to you anyway, right?
