With the US Open only a few weeks out, and new versions of the title out soon, we take another look at “the deepest tennis experience on the Wii.”
Outside of an update to Marble Madness for Wii, the one genre that I have been waiting for is that of Tennis. Sure, Wii gamers were handed Wii Sports Tennis at launch, but that was a tech demo. A demo that teased us by putting a sweet bit of honey on our tongue before stuffing our mouth with bees. Angry bees. All the demo accomplished was to leave us with hunger pains. Hell, you couldn’t even play a full match, let alone move your character on your own accord. It’s taken far too long, years in fact, but Electronic Arts promised to deliver a real tennis experience with this week’s Grand Slam Tennis. Promises are nice and all, but did EA Canada pull it off? In short, yes, yes they did.
The feature set for EA’s Grand Slam Tennis isn’t earth shattering, but it is enough to keep gamers busy. Newcomers to the game, or just bored friends, can play together, or against each other in a basic pick up and play match. Up to four players can participate, this goes for nearly all the modes, in one of these quick matches. Naturally a company with pockets as deep as EA makes use of all avenues and Grand Slam Tennis is no exception. Players can select from a deep roster of USTA licensed stars, like French Open winner Roger Federer or everyone’s favorite hothead John McEnroe, or even create their own custom character if that is more their style.
The bulk of the title comes from the typical career mode, known as Grand Slam Career in GST. Like so many other sports games, the mode follows your character through the ups and downs of their career as they pursue the ultimate goal. In this case that will be winning all four Grand Slam events (Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open, French Open). The mode is entertaining, but far from original. Unfortunately the Challenges and Online modes, while fun and highly entertaining, follow in the footpaths of the career mode. The developers did engineer a rather unheard of feature for online play, the ability for two players to play from a single console! Arguably the most sought after feature in all online-enabled titles.
It is a sad state of affairs when just a couple of features can have one excited for a game. That is just a sign of the times, a time when a mildly popular sport isn’t properly represented on the most applicable of consoles. Fear not, for Electronic Arts reportedly developed the title from the ground up with the Wii in mind, and it shows. Using any of the various control schemes, Wii Remote (allows simple commands, rush the net, to your character via the D-pad), or with Nunchuck (also full control of your character), offers superb racket swinging action with the ability to slip one over the net, or easily lob a shot over your opponent’s head. As impressive as the gameplay is with the basic setup, the title’s true depth isn’t realized until you plug in a Wii MotionPlus unit into your controller. With added technology literally in hand, Grand Slam Tennis goes beyond the simple timing mechanics of previous games. Hitting a shot down the baseline, or going cross court, becomes as natural as normal tennis. Sure, it isn’t the same exact thing, but the near 1:1 mapping of the Wii MotionPlus to on screen actions is uncanny. Frankly, it is a lot closer to the experience gamers expected when the Wii first hit the scene.
Wii MotionPlus aside, Grand Slam Tennis is the best tennis game I have played on the Wii. It has depth, solid gameplay, the ability to play full, realistic matches (that would be multiple sets) and big-headed licensed characters that act like their fleshy counterparts. In fairness, the past competition
doesn’t exactly make for much of a challenge. Still, Grand Slam Tennis makes good use of the basic Wii Remote, even better use of the Wii Remote + Nunchuck tandem and awesome use of the Wii MotionPlus attachment for the deepest tennis experience on the Wii.
Grand Slam Tennis is available now for Nintendo Wii, and will be coming to PS3 and 360 this fall.
*Reviewed after ~6 hours of play. iTZKooPA has not gotten his hands on Virtua Tennis 2009, Grand Slam Tennis’ main competitor, as of press time. Review from June.
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