Sega Superstars Tennis (Wii) Review

Nintendo popularised the mascot themed game on the Super NES with Super Mario Kart, then subsequently tweaked the formula with Tennis, Baseball, Soccer and a myriad of other sports. Sega has taken this format, thrown in their mascots, cranked up the c...

First the details, Sega Superstars Tennis takes characters from such popular franchises as Sonic, Space Channel 5, Samba De Amigo, Super Monkey Ball and Jet Grind Radio then places them in themed environments from those games and others such as House of the Dead and Outrun, giving them crazy powerups to use along the way. Sounds like a recipe for success right? Especially when the game is based on the much lauded Virtua Tennis gameplay engine.

Gameplay Modes
It is a bit interesting to see that the main mode in Superstars is a series of themed mini-games based on each court. Anyone familiar with Virtua Tennis would recognise some of these mini-games from the career mode in that game, where they serve to level up your player. Unlike Virtua Tennis where these games play a necessary but side role to the main tournament mode, in Superstars this is the first option in the menu and the main way to unlock new courts, tunes and the like.

Some of the games are quite amusing – the House of the Dead court has you blasting tennis balls into an advancing wall of zombies however others are pretty tired various Sonic games have you avoiding electrified mines whilst collecting rings. This inconsistent quality is quite jarring, with some games not providing nearly enough fun to bother completing. Every now and then you will be asked to compete in a singles or doubles tournament, often to unlock new characters, and one must question why this wasnt fleshed out into a main mode all of its own.

Which brings me to the tournament mode found in the game. One has the feeling that this was cooked up just before the game was ready to go gold, as it is completely devoid of any options. You cannot set the difficulty level, the number of games to play, and there is no perceivable reward for winning. Nothing is unlocked, no ending movies are played, and there is no recognition of your achievement when you go back into the mode later on. A real disappointment.

Controls
Superstars gives a few control options which is great as some people will find one method easier than the other. Those wanting to throw in a nunchuck and expecting to find Wii Sports Tennis with player control are going to be bitterly disappointed. Superstars Tennis is the very definition of tacked on controls. Anyone that has played Virtua Tennis will be familiar with the two button control technique; one for backspin, one for topspin. Incredibly, instead of mapping ball spin to Wiimote rotation, and forehand/backhand to swing direction like Wii Sports Tennis does, Superstars Tennis maps swinging in one direction to topspin, and the other to backspin.

Even more confusing is that using this control scheme, the game still keeps the Virtua Tennis technique of choosing your shot once you get into position, rather than relying solely on how hard you swing. This makes perfect sense and works great with a regular controller but makes zero sense when you are using the Wiimote.

Thankfully you have the option of using the Wiimote on its own NES style, or plugging in a Classic Controller for a much better experience. You will need to get used to the timing of your swings tho, as the Virtua Tennis engine is a peculiar beast. Not necessarily bad, just different.

After a few rallies, you will build up a power move, signified by a sparkling star underneath your characters feet. Unleashing the power moves allows each player to do a move unique to that character which will generally either vary the ball movement, impair the opposition or a mix of both. There are some quirks however when it comes to these moves that tend to break their use. Power moves are not to be activated when you want to hit the ball; that is, you activate your power move, and then you take a swing. Whilst this might be a simple difference, it can cause confusion; sometimes after returning from the power up cut scene your character might decide to not hit the ball, and also because you can power up at any stage, powering up just as your opponent is about to hit the ball can act as a serious distraction.

Possibly the other disappointment with the powerups is that there are only offensive powerups available. Games such as Mario Power Tennis offered both offensive and defensive special moves, which greatly increased the strategy and affected when you might use them. Some of the powerups are a touch unbalanced as well, meaning points are often decided completely on the use of a powerup as opposed to the oppositions skill at counteracting them. It is worth noting too that in exhibition and friendly matches it isnt possible to disable the powerups, making regular games impossible to play.

Graphics
To put things bluntly, Superstars Tennis is not what you would define as sharp. Those of us familiar with the Nintendo 64s oft used vasaline anti-aliasing technique will feel like they are returning to an old friend. Superstars Tennis is appallingly blurry, and this is made even worse when some courts, such as the Super Monkey Ball one, feature colours so poorly chosen that the backgrounds blend into the court.

Whilst 480p isnt the sharpest image format going around, games such as Mario Galaxy highlight that crisp graphics are possible on Wii, so meeting with something so below that standard is jarring and unsettling. The detail in the courts themselves are quite nice, and without the blur the game would be quite pretty, but unfortunately Superstars Tennis is such a mess youll spend more time trying to clean your TV in the hope of a crisper picture.

Another head scratching decision is that there are no multiple outfits for each player. This means that when playing against the same character as yourself, you will appear identical. Understandably this gets especially confusing when playing multiplayer, and dont even consider a doubles match with four identical characters. A solution could have been as simple as recolouring the power star underneath each player but alas, it seems the developers never thought of playing against the same character.

Sound
Each court in Superstars has music lifted from the game the court is based on. This results in a fairly eclectic soundtrack, from the Latin inspired rhythm of Samba De Amigo to the 80s rock of Sonic the Hedgehog. It would have been nice to have more tunes from each series available, as even after unlocking songs in Superstars mode the music will repeat far too often. Audio quality is acceptable, but could certainly be better.

A special mention must be made too of the sound bites each character uses after a point or game concludes. Whilst some characters appear to have multiple, others only have one. A prime example of this is Dr Eggman, whos cackling after winning each point becomes so ingrained into your psyche that you will want to tear your ears off. The developers must never have played with or against this character as how anyone could remain sane after listening to his one sound bite following each point, Ill never know.

Conclusion
If youve gotten this far you probably have a good idea already whether or not Superstars Tennis is for you. The nostalgia factor for those who love their Sega franchises will be hard to resist, as many different franchises are represented quite well in the game. However, those looking for a serious challenge are able to find much better options elsewhere. The motion controls are significantly inferior to those found in Wii Sports Tennis, and the mascot themed tennis game is executed much better in Mario Power Tennis. Those wanting a more serious, Virtua Tennis derived game will be disappointed by the barebones tournament mode and the inability to disable powerups.

Superstars Tennis is at its core an enjoyable game; it is just a real shame that Sega couldnt polish up each aspect of the finished product to perfection, as each area falls down in some way or another. Those looking for crazy tennis should boot up Mario Power Tennis, and those holding out for Wiis first sim tennis game will need to look forward to Top Spin 3.