Sega Superstars Tennis

"Sonic matches Mario at Tennis"

Sega Superstar Tennis Review

Sega Superstars Tennis is a great classic for many years to come (hopefully anyway). Sega truly knows how to make a single tennis game, and make it as good as Mario Tennis (who by the way, have like what, 3 tennis games)? Mario Tennis was fun, no lie, and so was Super Monkey Ball Tennis, but this game is truly unique and a classic that may live on for Sega's glory. With special attacks, different combinations of characters, and a ton of Sega fun, this game is great. It also boosts Sega's introduction of many of their various characters, some well known and others not.

Gameplay: 8/10

The gameplay of this game is very similar to Mario Tennis. All that you really have to do is move and push a single button to hit the ball. It's rather simple, yet fun. There are also special attacks. These can be used by pushing the R button when there is a star around the character. This does a special attack, a blast shot that the other team may have trouble defending. The only problem with this is that if you click it too fast while the ball is on your side, you may miss the ball and the special is foiled. Also, specials can be foiled by a single play, or a missed serve. Other than what was just mentioned, the gameplay is great. There are some minor problems in hitting balls close by, but I've seen this happen both in Mario Tennis and Super Monkeyball Tennis, so it's not much different. Each character has their own stat (power, speed, all-around, and spin) that applies a different taste to the game. A truly great idea, even though Nintendo thought of it first.

Music: 7/10

Here's how it is: some of the music is great, some is horrible. The music for Sonic is great, but Beat's music is downright awful (in my opinion). I gave it a 7 because I enjoyed Sonic's music. Not much music is noticeable, except the bad songs, like Beat's.

Story: 7/10

There is no real structured story, but honestly,how could there be? It's a tennis game, and it's fun, that's all that really matters. The only story is competing for a trophy cup by facing various opponents in their home tenis court, and that is fun itself. Trophy challenges can be played in singles or doubles.

Graphics: 9/10

For the Nintendo DS, the graphics are pretty good. They aren't very special, but they look great on the DS. The graphics are certainly a plus, and they don't disrupt the gameplay at all. I like the lush colors each stage offers.

Replayability: 7/10

There isn't much more than tennis, so it can get boring after awhile (as does most games played), however there are some minigames I tried with minor interest. There are extra characters to unlock as well as some stages by playing the game. Also, I believe this game can be played online with wi-fi, allowing even more fun against tougher opponents. It does have it's replayability, though it's not state of the art.

Overall: 7.6/10 which could round to an 8 out of 10
This game is fun, but don't get me wrong. Some characters are less known than others and seem mediocre compared to others. I personally wished there were more Sonic characters as that is my preffered Sega game (and one of their largest franchise). However, I was happy to see Samba de Amigo, Nights, and Monkey Ball. In fact, seeing Nights increased my interest for this game and had me ding a bit of research on it and the game itself. This universal Sega game can help introduce you to other character's games just like it did to me. So should you buy this game? I say yes. I made the decision to buy this game for a cheap price, and I felt it matches Mario Tennis, if not I like it better. Nonetheless, you should buy the game and try it out. I'm glad I did.

What's next? I can see Sega Superstars vs. Mario Tennis...

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/08

Game Release: Sega Superstars Tennis (US, 03/18/08)