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Posts with tag tennis

Stars Catalogue now offering GBA titles [Update 1]


Two Game Boy Advance games have randomly appeared in the Stars Catalogue, leading us to surmise that Nintendo has been spring-cleaning its warehouses and found a bunch of old, unsold stock. Kirby & The Amazing Mirror and Mario Power Tennis are both decent purchases, we suppose, even if the price (5000 Stars each) is steep (you'd need to buy at least 20 DS games to amass that many Stars). We're still waiting on the warehouse with all the sealed Super Famicom consoles to get cleared out (it must exist somewhere).

Some other new tat has also been added, including a Pokémon sports bag, and three further items that have (inexplicably) sold out: a Raving Rabbids T-shirt, a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon bookmark, and a Brain Training pen. Don't all rush at once, please.

[Update 1: And the Kirbster has sold out!]

More Top Spin 3 screens, tennis fans clap politely

Thwock goes the tennis ball, and the crowd goes wild! Tennis fans should be automatically impressed with the graphical quality displayed in Top Spin 3 for the DS, if only because some pour souls actually tried their hand at Tennis Masters.

Five new screens are ready for action in the gallery, and they certainly hold true to our original positive impression. Here's a tip - open the gallery, put a hat and sunglasses on, then pay some chump five bucks to hold up your monitor while running back in forth in front of you. It's just like being there! The upside of buying Top Spin 3 when it comes out? You'll have no more money left to waste on paying people to do stupid things.

Gallery: Top Spin 3



[Via press release]

Spend 2 1/2 $10-dollar bills on Touch Detective, Sega Superstars Tennis



You'll have to forgive our convoluted title -- really, it couldn't be helped. If it's not immediately clear, and we very much doubt that it is, GameStop has two great DS online and in-store deals this week:
Which both add up to $25 (provided that you round up)! See what we did there? Two-and-a-half $10 bills? $25? Come on!

Top Screens

2K has released the first screens of the DS version of Top Spin 3, and we're pleased to say it looks pretty nice! We always feel surprised when a 3D game on the DS doesn't look awkward and jag-tastic.

We aren't sure how much of an audience there is for portable tennis, but with this relatively high-profile release, along with Tennis Elbow and the recently released Sega Superstars Tennis, there seems to be something for everyone (who wants to play tennis on the DS). Top Spin, of course, brings the series' pedigree and a stable of (3D models in the likenesses of) real tennis stars like Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, and Andy Roddick.

Gallery: Top Spin 3



[Via press release]

Barnyard Blast creators' latest weird title: Tennis Elbow

Sanuk Software, whose claim to fame (in our eyes) is the satirical Barnyard Blast, are now working on a tennis game for Europe, called Tennis Elbow, to be published by Neko Entertainment. With Barnyard Blast, we found the title interesting because Eric contributed to it; with this, the title is notable because it is an injury.

Tennis Elbow is still early (the weirdly identical screenshots look mocked-up), with no European release date yet. Sanuk promises 250 different opponents in 90 tournaments, in five different kinds of courts. With that many matches to play, your character is liable to suffer ... some kind of stress-related ailment.

What's with the "FAT" signs on the stands?

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

2K announces Top Spin 3 for DS


For all of you looking for fast and furious Tennis action without the resulting elbow pain, look no further. 2K has announced that Top Spin 3, the latest iteration in their, you guess it, tennis franchise, will be gracing Nintendo systems. Development duties will be handled by PAM development, a 2K studio, and release is currently planned for spring 2008.

Head past the break for the full press release.

Continue reading 2K announces Top Spin 3 for DS

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]

Sega Superstars Tennis is a love note from Sega to itself

We freaked out when we saw the first Wii screenshots of Sega Superstars Tennis, because of a large amount of Jet Set Radio-related content. Well, it turns out that the DS version also features Beat as a playable character, along with a Shibuya Bus Terminal-located tennis court. Jet Set Radio is one of the most wonderful things in the world, and so is anything that reminds us of it. Even in an extremely graphically impaired DS version, it is beautiful and joyous and fills us with love for video games.

This is the first time we've seen a Space Channel 5 stage in any iteration of Sega Superstars Tennis, and while it's not as visually exciting in screens as Shibuya-cho, we assume it'll be vibrant and colorful in motion, pulsing in time to the game's signature music. We're so glad to see Sega bringing back some of their Dreamcast-era classics. It was an excellent time for Sega (creatively).

If Sega wants to continue trading on our memories of when they were great, they are welcome to do so. We are willing to be exploited in this manner.

A Wii Sports-alike on the DS? Simple!

D3 Publisher's Simple DS Vol. 29: THE Sports Daishuugo (The Big Sports Assembly) is exactly like Wii Sports. Except it doesn't look as good, has different sports, doesn't have any kind of motion controls, is probably lacking in polish to the point of glitchiness, and nobody's ever heard of it. But outside of those and probably some other things, the two are the same.

THE Sports Daishuugo contains five main games: baseball, golf, volleyball, tennis, and futsal, as well as minigame variations on all of those. Like any decent casual sports game, it allows for multiplayer-- four-player single-card play.

We're actually surprised by how bad this doesn't look. The characters are cute and the graphics are non-awful. We wonder if this cute sports game will take off in Japan, where Wii Sports sells tons as a standalone product.

[Via Siliconera]

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.

Gaming to Go!We debate the hot topics!

This Month's New Games

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Oct 21
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Oct 21
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Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
Oct 21
What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver Oct 21
MySims Kingdom
Oct 28
Ninjatown Oct 28

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