We're most impressed by the game's stellar production values. The menus simply look gorgeous. The camera moves in a nice, cinematic way, and the text overlays border on sexy. Load times are incredibly brief, rarely interrupting gameplay. The graphics look solid on PSP's diminuitive screen, and the animations, for the most part, are detailed and fluid.
There's a lot of potential in Smash Court Tennis, and we're sure that its various game modes will offer a lot of value. The tutorial mode has been excellent, and we've enjoyed playing simple matches of tennis. Arcade, Pro Tour and Challenge modes look to offer a significant amount of gameplay. The build that we've played does have some very noticeable glitches, though. There are some missing animations and graphics, especially when playing near the edge of the court. At times, it appears that there's no way to exit back into the menu. We're hoping that these issues get cleaned up by the game's final release -- if so, we could be looking at a winner. We'll be giving you more info on the game as we get closer to its release.
[Image source. Thanks, Robert!]
See also:
Smash Court Tennis 3 downloadable demo
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-27-2007 @ 8:07PM
Brandon said...
You guys finally realized what I had been evangelizing all along. Smashcourt and Virtua tennis are not the same. Smashcourt on the psp is far more simulation oriented, and in my opinion a deeper experience than the virtua tennis titles on the handheld. The game is more based on precision timing and rhythm, and just becaused you pressed the button doesnt automatically make the shot good. The players movements are also more realistic as momentum is a lot more dramatic than in virtua tennis (where the player in some rallys can dive for every single shot).
Thank you for finally seeing what I saw all along.
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6-28-2007 @ 6:54AM
txa1265 said...
So Brandon, is the Smash Court game more like Top Spin 2? Because the dynamic in that one (played PC version ) is much more simulation-based than Virtua Tennis 3(played PC & PSP).
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6-28-2007 @ 9:46PM
Brandon said...
Yeah I would say they are similar. There are some differences in how they play but they both are more simulation oriented than Virtua Tennis.
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7-02-2007 @ 10:08AM
Craig said...
This is a great tennis game. Perhaps the best one I have ever played on any console, mainly because the World Tour (Pro Tour) is so deep and the gameplay is the most realistic tennis simulation I have encountered. The AI is quite clever too and you can be wrong footed quite often and there are quite a few different styles you can come up against - there are 250 different players on each of the mens and womens tours! And you can compete in up to 59 different tournaments around the globe - although you must rest and train as well so you certainly can't play that many in a season. Also the graphics are fantastic for the pros - very realistic. The only thing I hope they improve on for future editions is that they make the doubles a bit tougher as I find it's a bit too easy to poach at the net and the opponents aren't quick enough to react to my volleys. But singles is fantastic! The world tour rocks.
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