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This thread has been linked to the game 'Sega Superstars Tennis'.
Much against my better judgement I decided to buy Sega Superstars Tennis on the Wii while it was offered to me at half price. I mean, it couldn’t really be that bad on the console that Tennis was built for, could it?
Sega have stuffed as many of their franchise characters in to the game as possible, so everyone from Ulala to Sonic and NiGHTS are there for you to choose, but while the lovely cut scenes lead you towards some sort of hope that this game is going to be a great Sega party, the game itself has other ideas.
Part of the problem is that Wii Sports already includes a very good, if basic, tennis game that really works. If Sega Superstars was the only Tennis game on the Wii it wouldn’t be so bad, but as a worse game than one that comes free you have to question why Sega released it in the first place.
Graphically, while the courts are very colourful (sometimes eye-wateringly so), they don’t all provide an ideal backdrop for actually playing the game, providing more of a distraction. The cut scenes are great and there are loads of things going on in the background while you play the game, a lot of work seems to have gone in to the feel of the levels. Music provides a homage to the various games that the characters are taken from. It’s nice, but nothing special.
The many Sega characters to choose from all have their strengths (Sonic is fast, Tails can produce a good spin and NiGHTS is a good all-round character) but feel very similar until you launch into their special moves. These special moves are graphically glorious but ultimately lead to the ball doing odd things in order to confuse your opponent. Playing against the computer, this doesn’t really work anyway, but against another human player it does the job.
Not that any of this matters when the characters you’re playing against seem to play in exactly the same way. Yes, they too have special moves, but they seem to launch them at exactly the same point in the game each time and behave the same as each other. This just makes the game one big slog to get though rather than any sort of challenge which might come from playing different opponents.
The controls work well, particularly if you stick to just using the Wii remote. There are 2 other options, using the remote sideways like an old fashioned controller without any motion sensing and using the nunchuk to move and the Wii remote to hit the ball. Both of these seem to work fine but, to be honest, the Wii Remote alone is the best option as it gives you a better sense of playing Tennis and lets you use both hands (the Nunchuk/Remote combination is a bit fiddly).
After about 30 minutes it all blends in to one boring tennis game, though. Even playing with another human player is less fun than with Wii Sports Tennis. The mini-games should help to break up the monotony, but they all need to be controlled with the traditional method rather than the Wii remote sensing controls, and they don’t hold your interest for long.
After playing the Wii and PS3 versions of Sega Superstars Tennis I can safely say that the Wii version is more entertaining. However, when even the Wii version suffers from just not being good enough to compete with a game which comes free with the console, why bother?
4/10
Sega have stuffed as many of their franchise characters in to the game as possible, so everyone from Ulala to Sonic and NiGHTS are there for you to choose, but while the lovely cut scenes lead you towards some sort of hope that this game is going to be a great Sega party, the game itself has other ideas.
Part of the problem is that Wii Sports already includes a very good, if basic, tennis game that really works. If Sega Superstars was the only Tennis game on the Wii it wouldn’t be so bad, but as a worse game than one that comes free you have to question why Sega released it in the first place.
Graphically, while the courts are very colourful (sometimes eye-wateringly so), they don’t all provide an ideal backdrop for actually playing the game, providing more of a distraction. The cut scenes are great and there are loads of things going on in the background while you play the game, a lot of work seems to have gone in to the feel of the levels. Music provides a homage to the various games that the characters are taken from. It’s nice, but nothing special.
The many Sega characters to choose from all have their strengths (Sonic is fast, Tails can produce a good spin and NiGHTS is a good all-round character) but feel very similar until you launch into their special moves. These special moves are graphically glorious but ultimately lead to the ball doing odd things in order to confuse your opponent. Playing against the computer, this doesn’t really work anyway, but against another human player it does the job.
Not that any of this matters when the characters you’re playing against seem to play in exactly the same way. Yes, they too have special moves, but they seem to launch them at exactly the same point in the game each time and behave the same as each other. This just makes the game one big slog to get though rather than any sort of challenge which might come from playing different opponents.
The controls work well, particularly if you stick to just using the Wii remote. There are 2 other options, using the remote sideways like an old fashioned controller without any motion sensing and using the nunchuk to move and the Wii remote to hit the ball. Both of these seem to work fine but, to be honest, the Wii Remote alone is the best option as it gives you a better sense of playing Tennis and lets you use both hands (the Nunchuk/Remote combination is a bit fiddly).
After about 30 minutes it all blends in to one boring tennis game, though. Even playing with another human player is less fun than with Wii Sports Tennis. The mini-games should help to break up the monotony, but they all need to be controlled with the traditional method rather than the Wii remote sensing controls, and they don’t hold your interest for long.
After playing the Wii and PS3 versions of Sega Superstars Tennis I can safely say that the Wii version is more entertaining. However, when even the Wii version suffers from just not being good enough to compete with a game which comes free with the console, why bother?
4/10
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Much against my better judgement I decided to buy Sega Superstars Tennis on the Wii while it was offered to me at half price. I mean, it couldn’t really be that bad on the console that Tennis was built for, could it?
Sega have stuffed as many of their franchise characters in to the game as possible, so everyone from Ulala to Sonic and NiGHTS are there for you to choose, but while the lovely cut scenes lead you towards some sort of hope that this game is going to be a great Sega party, the game itself has other ideas.
Part of the problem is that Wii Sports already includes a very good, if basic, tennis game that really works. If Sega Superstars was the only Tennis game on the Wii it wouldn’t be so bad, but as a worse game than one that comes free you have to question why Sega released it in the first place.
Graphically, while the courts are very colourful (sometimes eye-wateringly so), they don’t all provide an ideal backdrop for actually playing the game, providing more of a distraction. The cut scenes are great and there are loads of things going on in the background while you play the game, a lot of work seems to have gone in to the feel of the levels. Music provides a homage to the various games that the characters are taken from. It’s nice, but nothing special.
The many Sega characters to choose from all have their strengths (Sonic is fast, Tails can produce a good spin and NiGHTS is a good all-round character) but feel very similar until you launch into their special moves. These special moves are graphically glorious but ultimately lead to the ball doing odd things in order to confuse your opponent. Playing against the computer, this doesn’t really work anyway, but against another human player it does the job.
Not that any of this matters when the characters you’re playing against seem to play in exactly the same way. Yes, they too have special moves, but they seem to launch them at exactly the same point in the game each time and behave the same as each other. This just makes the game one big slog to get though rather than any sort of challenge which might come from playing different opponents.
The controls work well, particularly if you stick to just using the Wii remote. There are 2 other options, using the remote sideways like an old fashioned controller without any motion sensing and using the nunchuk to move and the Wii remote to hit the ball. Both of these seem to work fine but, to be honest, the Wii Remote alone is the best option as it gives you a better sense of playing Tennis and lets you use both hands (the Nunchuk/Remote combination is a bit fiddly).
After about 30 minutes it all blends in to one boring tennis game, though. Even playing with another human player is less fun than with Wii Sports Tennis. The mini-games should help to break up the monotony, but they all need to be controlled with the traditional method rather than the Wii remote sensing controls, and they don’t hold your interest for long.
After playing the Wii and PS3 versions of Sega Superstars Tennis I can safely say that the Wii version is more entertaining. However, when even the Wii version suffers from just not being good enough to compete with a game which comes free with the console, why bother?
4/10
Sega have stuffed as many of their franchise characters in to the game as possible, so everyone from Ulala to Sonic and NiGHTS are there for you to choose, but while the lovely cut scenes lead you towards some sort of hope that this game is going to be a great Sega party, the game itself has other ideas.
Part of the problem is that Wii Sports already includes a very good, if basic, tennis game that really works. If Sega Superstars was the only Tennis game on the Wii it wouldn’t be so bad, but as a worse game than one that comes free you have to question why Sega released it in the first place.
Graphically, while the courts are very colourful (sometimes eye-wateringly so), they don’t all provide an ideal backdrop for actually playing the game, providing more of a distraction. The cut scenes are great and there are loads of things going on in the background while you play the game, a lot of work seems to have gone in to the feel of the levels. Music provides a homage to the various games that the characters are taken from. It’s nice, but nothing special.
The many Sega characters to choose from all have their strengths (Sonic is fast, Tails can produce a good spin and NiGHTS is a good all-round character) but feel very similar until you launch into their special moves. These special moves are graphically glorious but ultimately lead to the ball doing odd things in order to confuse your opponent. Playing against the computer, this doesn’t really work anyway, but against another human player it does the job.
Not that any of this matters when the characters you’re playing against seem to play in exactly the same way. Yes, they too have special moves, but they seem to launch them at exactly the same point in the game each time and behave the same as each other. This just makes the game one big slog to get though rather than any sort of challenge which might come from playing different opponents.
The controls work well, particularly if you stick to just using the Wii remote. There are 2 other options, using the remote sideways like an old fashioned controller without any motion sensing and using the nunchuk to move and the Wii remote to hit the ball. Both of these seem to work fine but, to be honest, the Wii Remote alone is the best option as it gives you a better sense of playing Tennis and lets you use both hands (the Nunchuk/Remote combination is a bit fiddly).
After about 30 minutes it all blends in to one boring tennis game, though. Even playing with another human player is less fun than with Wii Sports Tennis. The mini-games should help to break up the monotony, but they all need to be controlled with the traditional method rather than the Wii remote sensing controls, and they don’t hold your interest for long.
After playing the Wii and PS3 versions of Sega Superstars Tennis I can safely say that the Wii version is more entertaining. However, when even the Wii version suffers from just not being good enough to compete with a game which comes free with the console, why bother?
4/10