Look: SMCT feels hurried. All you have to do is look at the other games on the PS2 to see how incredible a game can look. This one does not look incredible, it’s very average. The players like Agassi and Sampras only resemble their real life counterparts in hair color, or lack there off, and outfits. Aside from that there is little if any resemblance.
Even the great looking courts can’t make up for the shoddy treatment done on the player models.
Feel: Namco tried hard to make this like Virtua Tennis. It isn’t on that level yet. The controls are tough and don’t always respond the way you hope. The training mode does help you get an understanding for the game itself, but even that can’t always get you on par with what is going on during a real game. The shot placement is quite good and the physics of the ball are up there. What you do get is a solid game, although tough at times. It requires a good sense of understanding, and even if you don’t quite get tennis you can learn.
The game is at its best when you have two-four players playing. The four player mode is fast and furious and the highest level of fun for tennis.
Hear: Aside from the changeover noise and occasional music there isn’t much to hear, unless you count grunts and the snap of a ball off a racket. But the balance is there, tennis isn’t a game of sound and this game hits that dead center.
Frankly: With star players like Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles, Anna Kournikova you almost can’t go wrong. Well you can, that is if the players are only said stars by name alone. Hopefully Namco will sort out the player models for next years version, if they do they will walk away with what will be the best tennis game you’ve seen.
+ bboy
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