WTA Tour Tennis

"Luv or Hate"

This game is doomed. It's sad to say. But can you really see a bunch of guys getting together to play as a bunch of women tennis players on a Friday night. And women generally hate videogames...''something to this day I don't understand'', so their goes the other half to give this game a fighting chance. Ad to this the somewhat negative press and the shoot from the hip players reviews and you just have to pitty the poor Konami executive who OK'd this release. But forget about all that, please. Because by doing so you may find one of the truest games of tennis you can play outside of wacking a fuzzy yellowgreen ball around on you're neighbourhood tennis court.

GRAPHICS:

OK, these are not as well realized as SEGAs wonderful Tennis 2K2. Most of the girls up-close look more like dolls than human. Some look kind of like their counterparts. Some are a little uglyish. On some replays when the girls are going high for a ball, they seem to float like a magnet was under them was moving them. They don't walk as naturally as they could...a bit stiff. But everything I've said here has nothing to do with the actual game play. During game play it comes off pretty smoothly. The window dressing isn't perfect...but folks it's only the window dressing. This isn't a bad looking game at all. Yes it's not as fluid as Tennis 2K2, but it's still not bad overall.

SOUND:

This was done very well. Players names are called out by spectators. Excitment levels eb and flow. The crowd is alive folks. Sound can get the heart rate going in a sport game....this is a very good example of sound done right where it counts. If you want to quibble about the menu music then be my guest. Personally it's a none issue to me if the menu music is a little too smooth jazz for my tastes. If the sound puts me on the court...thats all I care about.

GAMEPLAY:

I was ready to give up on this game. For the first few hours everything I returned to my computer foe seemed to have ''just kill me'' written all over it. Everthing was just a big floaty lob waiting to be smashed down my throat. I know you've read this about this game...it's hard not too. Yes, big slobbering lobs, slow tedious volleys, slow footwork, killer AI. It's all true. All true until you learn how to hit the ball. This game will not give you ''give-mes'' like Tennis 2K2 does. If you are standing slightly too far from the ball when you hit it, you are off your center of gravity, you didn't do the footwork to get yourself in good position to make a return shot....YOUR DEAD! Maybe this makes this game a bad game for you, but for me it's real tennis. I was fortunate to play this against another real human being who also plays real tennis with me...and let me tell you, it was real. Double faults, shots hit out of bounds, blistering shots down the line, unforced errors, hight useful lobs truely out of reach of those hoging the net, little drop shot....real! real! real!
I'm so glad that I didn't return this because I was just being a bonehead who wanted it easy.

FINAL WORD:

I love Tennis 2K2, I love this too. This isn't for everybody though, so renting first is strongly suggested. If you do rent, set yourself on hard levels so that you pick and control your shots. On easy your returns will be mostly soft. But take the time to learn the controlls, let it become second nature, and wonderful things start to happen. You can make ground strokes and any other shot. Just not easily. This is much more sim than Tennis 2k2. It's not as fluid and pretty as Tennis 2k2. But Tennis 2k2 didn't make me think as hard as this game does. If you're not going to give this a couple of hours then you shouldn't bother, because you just won't see it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/15/02, Updated 04/15/02