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Posts with tag sumo-digital

Metareview: Sega Superstars Tennis

Sega and Sumo Digital may have served up a worthwhile tennis option for the Wii, but can the DS title rock the court? From the early reviews, it looks like the character roster is the best thing the handheld has going for it, though there are some solid gameplay mechanics buried beneath the fanservice.

IGN: 69% -- Solid, but too easy. "If you replaced the traditional tennis courts with ones taking place in such SEGA universes as Sonic the Hedgehog's Green Hill Zone, the Nights dreamworld Nightopia, and House of the Dead's Curian Mansion, and then replace the professional athletes with Sonic and Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog, AiAi from Super Monkey Ball, Beat from Jet Grind Radio, and Ulala from Space Channel 5, you'd get SEGA Superstars Tennis. And that's exactly what Sumo, the developer of Virtua Tennis, has done for SEGA ... But compared to other tennis games, it feels more automatic than it should be."

GamePro: 45% -- This is on the DS why? "The final thing to keep in mind when avoiding Sega Superstars Tennis for DS is that the game looks better on consoles. Also, the play style isn't really suited to handhelds, since there doesn't appear to be a way to save your progress in a tournament. While the character roster has potential, the tennis here is just too gimmicky and frustrating to recommend."

Nintendo Power: 80% -- The Nintendo magazine found themselves immersed in a solid experience -- for both tennis and Sega fans. "The default button-based control scheme is less forgiving than that of the Mario titles, calling for more precision and tighter timing -- either a welcome challenge or a minor frustration, depending on how much you mind AiAi acing one past you ... Control issues aside, Sega Superstar Tennis is swimming in clever game references and should be fun for even a casual Sega fan."

Gallery: Sega Superstars Tennis

Tennis Harrier

We're pleased to see that the bizarre Sega-history minigames are intact in the DS release of Sega Superstars Tennis. Here, Ulala, a dancing reporter from a satellite-based TV station in a retro-futuristic musical world, is taking a break from rescuing Michael Jackson from TV-faced aliens to play Space Harrier using a tennis racquet. So, you know, it's your basic tennis game.

And since we follow all Jet Set Radio-related developments eagerly, we'd like to point out that the second-best-known member of the GG's, Gum, is visible in these screenshots as a playable character. It remains to be seen if you have to jump on top of a car in order to convince her to join.

Gallery: Sega Superstars Tennis

New International Date & Details

A press release for New International Track & Field just burst through the tape and into our inboxes, complete with news of a U.S. release window and fresh details.

Apparently, the game will be launching stateside this summer, with more than 15 characters available from the start. A further two are unlockable (and our money would be on Snake making his second non-Metal Gear Solid appearance of 2008), and there'll be 20 events to keep us distracted and our touchscreens gouged.

Also worth mentioning is the "Voice Boost" feature, which will allow players to bellow into the DS microphone to give their character a performance boost by cheering them on. We saw this idea used (briefly) in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (one could psyche up the crowd by clapping near the microphone), but it seems like it could be a more significant feature here. "The louder you are," declares Konami's press release, "the bigger the boost!" That could get annoying.

Gallery: New International Track & Field


[Via press release]

And it's Pyramid Head from Belmont by a length

Look at Frogger's expression here -- he simply can't believe that he's part of a 100m sprint with super-deformed versions of Pyramid Head and Simon Belmont. Nor can we, actually. The cast of characters in Konami's New International Track & Field is even more unusual and eclectic than that of the DS's other mascot/athletics mash-up.

As well as Frogger, Pyramid Head, and Simon Belmont, these 28 new screens feature Pentarou, a penguin whose most notable appearances came in the Parodius series of games, and Evil Rose, a fighter from the mediocre Xbox 360 'rassler Rumble Roses XX. The events appear to be just as diverse, including as they do the likes of "Belmont's Challenge," which looks like a kind of vampire-themed take on archery.

Gallery: New International Track & Field


[Via press release]

Sega Superstars Tennis continues to be awesome despite apparent lack of Alex Kidd

The latest batch of screenshots from Sega Superstars Tennis doesn't reveal any new characters at all, and that unfortunately includes the rumored Alex Kidd. We can't imagine that Sega would be withholding Alex from these screens for some kind of big reveal, unless ... oh, no. They're relaunching the character!

It's more likely that they just forgot about Alex Kidd and neglected to include him in the screens. Luckily, we can distract ourselves from the paucity of Kidds with new screens and character art of the other players. Look, Beat looks kind of cel-shaded as a result of his low-polygon model!

Sega Superstars Tennis seems to use buttons

You know buttons, right? Those clicky things on either side of the touchscreen? New screenshots of Sega Superstars Tennis show the view on the bottom screen, which contains nothing more than a scoreboard. There are no icons to tap, no moves to select, and definitely no predefined areas to rub. Just character portraits (of what we assume are the player-controlled characters in each team, in the case of doubles) and scores. You're certainly not controlling the players directly via dragging them around, because they're up on the top screen.

Of course, stylus controls could still turn up. This display could be temporary, to be replaced when developer Sumo Digital figures out the user interface for the touch controls. Or it could be what displays if you choose a traditional control scheme.

Check our new gallery featuring screens of the most exciting multiplatform handheld mascot tennis game ever to have a version made for the DS. Ever.

Gallery: Sega Superstars Tennis



[Via press release]

Ace Channel 5: Sega announces Superstars Tennis


Hey, Sonic's already appearing in another sports game! Sega announced today that they're making a new tennis game for just about every system, called Sega Superstars Tennis. The concept is simple enough, and is pretty much contained in the title: Sega characters playing tennis. Already confirmed as part of the cast of "over 15" characters are Sonic, Super Monkey Ball's AiAi, Space Channel 5's Ulala, and Amigo from Samba De Amigo. They'll be playing on courts inspired by Sega games, like the Samba court found above.

Obviously that's not a DS screenshot, but it gives you an idea of what the game's about. We may balk at Sonic games, but we are ravenous for Sega mascot games like this one. The game became an insta-buy for us as soon as we saw Ulala; unfortunately, there are way more than 15 characters we'd like to see in this game, and at least one more slot will probably be taken up by Tails or Shadow or some other Sonic friend. We're hoping for Ryo Hazuki, ourselves. Or Gilius Thunderhead. Or Joe Musashi, or Alex Kidd, or Michael Jackson.

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