A great debut tennis title for EA Sports and company.
Until now, the best sports experience on the Wii came from the system’s pack-in game, Wii Sports. Sure, Madden was fun, Tiger was playable, but none really captured the sport “as advertised” with the motion controls that the Wii offers. Well after 2 plus years, the Wii finally receives a sports title that not only plays the part, but offers a ton of goodies, options, and play modes to satisfy even the most hardcore of sports gaming fans. That sports title is Grand Slam Tennis.
This debut franchise from EA Sports makes its first iteration on the Wii, with HD versions for Xbox 360 and PS3 due later this year. Much like the most of the new games that are coming down the pipeline that are multiplatform, the Wii version of the game has a unique, almost cartoonish graphical touch to it that differs from the other versions. So I assume not only are Wii gamers casual in play, but want animated visuals as well? In any event, don’t let the kid friendly graphics fool you, as not only does the game still look genuinely good, but it is a killer on the court.
Grand Slam Tennis offers rich depth of play as well as a wealth of options to keep this one in your Wii library for quite some time. Beginning with a 23 player line up that includes such greats as Boris Becker, Chris Evert, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, The Williams sisters, and even the ever temper tantrum throwing John McEnroe. But the goodies don’t stop there, as you have fully licensed events from the Grand Slam tournaments including Wimbledon, a career mode where you can create your own player and try to become a champion yourself, mini games that are fun and instructional, online play, and even a calorie tracker for those who wanna shed some pounds while swinging the old racket. The game, also is one of the first Wii Motion Plus titles on the market, but unfortunately I was unable to acquire one for the time of this review.
Even without the Wii Motion Plus adapter the game still plays great, but much like prior tennis game in the past, timing is everything. If you swing early you cut cross court, swing late and you shoot it down the line, etc. You have top spins, slice, and lob shots at your disposal as well as attacking the net and performing a drop shot. Unlike the Wii tennis title, you actually have control of your player movements with the nunchuk, but casual gamers can set the nunchuk aside and still allow for the CPU to determine the player movements.
Looking past the game’s animated look, the visuals are still quite nice, with a smooth framerate for both the player animations and the sense of speed. The backdrops replicate the actual events quite nicely, and the game even has some brilliant sound design such as game intros, announcer score keeping, and accurate and lively crowd reactions.
The online functionality consists of playing singles and doubles rounds and your wins and loses are posted on a leaderboard, nothing more. Maybe next year EA will incorporate leagues or tournaments. I will give them Kudos for at least adding in the feature on the franchises first outing.
This without a doubt is one of the best sports outings on the Wii thus far, and I can’t help but to imagine how much better the game plays with the Wii Motion Plus adapter. From other reviewers, it is said the game feels even more authentic, and if I can get my grubby little hands on one soon, I’ll revise the review with enhanced motion control thoughts as well. For now, even without the add on, the game looks good, plays great, and will keep you playing for hours on end, even if you aren’t a huge fan of real life pong.
I can’t recommend Grand Slam Tennis enough for Wii owners, and am excited to see what changes are made when this title hits Xbox 360 and PS3 later this year.
