Sega Superstars Tennis (DS) Review

SEGA has 3 decades worth of gaming mascots under their belt and what better way to celebrate such a bright, colourful collection of beloved characters than with an innovative, unique Tennis game. While it is nothing new and regardless of the fact the competition does it better, at least the DS finally gets a competent tennis game. When compared to the other versions of the same game released on every platform except for the Atari, believe it or not, the DS version is surprisingly the most polished, enjoyable of the crew.

Superstar Tennis is a casual friendly spin on the so far successful Mario Tennis series by Camelot. Superstar includes over a dozen of your favourite SEGA stars though some omissions from the game are sure to raise some curious eyebrows. Expect to see old favourites like Sonic, Tails and a couple of the Monkeys from Super Monkey Balls including a very special unlockable that will warm your retro heart.

The game is split up into three components and sadly, unlike its next generation brothers does not feature any online play at all. What it does include is a short but easily accessible Tournament mode in both Single and Double sessions. You will uncover the bulk of the unlockable characters in this mode. Naturally there is a Multiplayer component that supports both single and multi card play. Single card is incredibly restrictive, dropping you and a local opponent onto the standard course in a one set match. To experience all the characters and all the stages multi card is highly recommended as it is a great deal of fun. The final key mode is the Mini-Games that are the definition of portable gaming. They are short but cleverly designed games thatll have you shooting bad guys in a Virtua Cop styled shooter or collecting rings with Sonic while dodging enemy fire. Its comes as a slight surprise to find that the mini game aspect of the game proves to be the most enjoyable in this nice portable package.

There are two control schemes that as the player you can expect. The touch screen is used in one to hit the ball by making strokes across your screen when the ball is in play. You control the character by using the Dpad and select which way the ball will travel by the direction of your stroke. The most solid scheme just so happens to be the classic use of the Dpad and two of the face buttons for normal hits and spinning hits. The R and L buttons are used with either control scheme to allow your character to perform a special move, much akin to those in Mario Tennis. The only difference is you dont have to sit through a tedious 10 second cut scene and the special moves are easily countered by a skilled player.

The game features a nice clean, crispy style in which the graphics represent something you would have previously seen only with Nintendo developed games. The stages are beautiful designed and perhaps due to the games minimal assets the developers were able to make scenery that was enticing to look at rather than being a very poor imitation of the console versions. Each stage carries a signature track and the game has an upbeat, techno theme behind it almost reinstating the idea that this is a handheld game and it should be played in bursts rather than in drawn out sessions like Phantom Hourglass and The World Ends With You.

Normally the DS version of a franchise that has released on every other console on the market gets the short end of the money stick but in some strange twist of fates Sega Superstar Tennis on the DS has proven to be the most polished, final version. While a particular lack of depth in the single player portion may turn some gamers off, ultimately the DS future rests in the casual market and this is a game that suits their twenty minute journeys aboard the train and bus just as much as Brain Training and Tetris DS.