Jimmy Connors Pro Tennis Tour

"Precursor to Virtua Tennis"

From reading the other reviews you'd think this was one of the worst tennis games around. Not at all. It's easily one of the best. It's game mechanics were HUGE inspiration for games like Virtua Tennis and game that bettered Virtua Tennis - TopSpin (Xbox & PC).

The main gameplay mechanics that VT and TopSpin effectively "borrowed" from this game is this one in particular - how you hit the ball and direct it. The game practically invented the "wind up" feature in tennis games. The longer you hold down the shot button, the harder you will hit the ball. The only bad thing about the way it's implemented is that you are rooted to the spot as soon as you start to wind up your shot. In VT and TopSpin your character still moves for the ball once you've pressed the button, effectively making the game a little easier, although still more reaslitic than in Jimmy ConnorsPTT.

There are a large variety of shots in this game (more than Virtua Tennis by far). There is a basic topspin shot (A), slice (B), lob (X) and a dropshot (Y). That's not all, there is also the L & R buttons which give you very strong passing shots, but they're much harder to get over the net and stop from going out.

The topspin shot is the basic shot in the game, the slice slows the ball down helping you mix up the play, the lob is used to hit the ball over your opponent's head when they come close to the net, and finally, the dropshot is used to just get the ball over the net and no more so your opponnent has to charge towards the net to try and return it. All these shots are implemented into the game very well, making it easy to see which shot you or your opponent has used.

The serving in this game is great also. You hold down the button and a small disc flies into the air, you have to land this disc in the area you want to hit the ball to. If you use the basic shot buttons here it's pretty easy to land it in the right spot, but alternatively you can use the L/R buttons to create a much faster serve (over 100mph), but the disc moves faster and it much harder to control.

The main menu gives you 4 options - Exhibition, Start Tour (the main career gameplay mode), Continue (for resuming games) and Practice. These are adequate. There are 3 levels of difficulty - Amateur, Intermediate and Pro. There is also 2 different modes of play - Easy Mode, where your player moves on his own and you just hit the ball, and Full Control, where you move and hit the shots as in most tennis games. During the Tour mode you can only play as Jimmy Connors, although in Exhibition matches there are a number of other fake players you can choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, including serve, backhand, volley, etc etc.

The graphics aren't great, but they're more than enough considering it's a tennis game. This is one of the games where the gameplay overcomes the graphics. Improving the character sprites a little couldn't have hurt though.

In conclusion, I'm finding it absolutely crazy that no game has taken what this game started and improved it. Virtua Tennis has less shots, but it has a career mode. TopSpin has around the same amount of shots + a career mode, but still, it's not an improvement at all gameplay wise, since the mechanics are almost exactly the same with the "wind up" feature. Jimmy Connors Pro Tennis Tour was made in 1992, and no game since has made any improvement on what was is offered here (besides career modes). Maybe it's because it didn't sell well, so nobody saw it, I have no idea, but 13 years is a long time. We've had other contenders along the way such as Smash Court for the PS1/PS2, but that series is way to simple gameplay-wise to hold a candle to this game. To me, Pro Evolution Soccer has the football/soccer crown, and Jimmy Connors Pro Tour Tennis still has the tennis crown. It's a shame there was never a sequel.

Buy this game at all costs if you're a tennis fan.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/28/05