Reviews

An interesting Tennis game to say the least. Containing vector graphics the players look like paper figures which is all the more amusing. Players can play on different courts such as carpet and grass represented by a different colour, an example being grass as, well predictable green, but really bright green that makes things hard to look at. Hitting the ball is determined by a flashing black box that appears as the ball comes towards you, this can be tough but you should manage it with plenty of timing. The game actually plays really good, a little bit slow at times but it's certainly better than some of the other tennis games I've played. Oh and the music by the late great Richard Joseph is excellent, a really good rendition of the Wimbledon theme tune plays at the start (unless you run 48K mode that is) and it follows with a really good tune that remains one of my favourite tunes on the ZX Spectrum.

All in all it's pretty good, I never was good at this game myself but it's definately one to come back to again.

Another tennis game and one from Sensible Software, yes, THAT Sensible Software famous for the Sensible Soccer games, and this was their very last game on the Spectrum, they only did four and this was the final one. This has a nice rendition of the BBC Tennis theme done by the late Richard Joseph. It's then followed by another lovely tune to match. The presentation is nice as well with a large number of tournaments to compete in, including Adelaide, Wellington, Guaruja, Australian Open, Indian Wells, Japan Open, Monte Carlo, and of course Wimbledon. So I chose Adelaide, a cement tournament and my first round opponent is Pieter Aldrich of South Africa. The player design is, well different to say the least, they are entirely of Vector lines. So onto the gameplay and the colour of the game varies from each court you play, cement is black, is blue and grass of course is green but this really hurts its look and I much preferred the other colours. The one main problem I had was the gameplay is done with the dreaded numbered keys but I mapped my keyboard the Sinclair joystick which used the arrow keys and tab to fire so all good there then. The game overall plays really nicely actually, it's straightforward to hit the ball, you have a flashing box at the bottom to tell you to hit the ball, I had no problem doing rallies and winning points, and all in all it just felt nice. The scoreboard is also a nice touch as well. This is a very acceptable tennis game, it looks a bit weird but it does play nicely, and even though I lost to Mr. Aldrich I was able to give him a good game and managed to keep with him the first six games before he took advantage of my mistakes and claimed the next three games to beat me 6-3. I enjoyed this quite a lot and it's well worth a look for tennis fans. I really want to find time to do an in depth career in this game, and believe me I don't say that about a lot of these games.