Grand Slam Tennis (Wii) Review

Posted by Drew Robbins on 07.05.2009

EA returns to the court after a 10 year hiatus to deliver not only the best tennis experience for the Wii, but possibly the best ever.



Title: Grand Slam Tennis
Publisher: EA
Developer: EA Sports
Genre: Sports, Tennis
Players: 1-4 (online and local)
Rated: E for Everyone

Let it be known that I am a man who loves his tennis. I watch the big tournaments on TV and if I can I’ll play it in my spare time. Unfortunately, being at the bottom of the dark abyss known as Illinois, its pretty difficult to find anyone who actually wants to play tennis, so video games were a welcome way to take in the action of the court without leaving the comfort of my home. Though games like Virtua Tennis were nice, it was very notably played with a big clunky Dreamcast controller which could not have possibly been farther removed from the actual experience of playing tennis. Luckily, the Wii’s motion control capabilities gave me promise that the sport would finally completely translate to a home experience. I didn’t receive instant gratification because of the imprecise motion controls that made Wii Tennis an easy and boring experience, but now, at long last, a truly good tennis game has made it to the Wii, in the form of Grand Slam Tennis.

Gameplay

Grand Slam Tennis is one of the first games to take advantage of the Wii Motionplus, which means that the review of this game is going to be like an early review for what is to come with this new peripheral. If this is any indication, good things are in store for Wii owners. In my first foray with the game I couldn’t grasp exactly what this device had done, but within the next several minutes I began to notice something. All of my shots were going straight to the doubles line. Normally this wouldn’t be exciting, but you must understand, when playing real tennis, my ball does the same thing! Yes, I can suck at the real sport, and that suckiness has made a successful transition to Grand Slam Tennis.

As with anything good in this world, the Motionplus runs into a couple of rough spots along the way. Synchronization appears to be a problem, with the game at moments misinterpreting a tiny motion as you making a backhand shot, leading your character to stumble moronically as the ball goes past him. I’d say on average this happens two to three times a game, but this can easily be solved by holding the Motionplus steadily in place. It isn’t particularly surprising to see the device have some early problems, so hopefully this is one of the kinks that get worked out later on. Heck, from what I’ve heard, Tiger’s controls are near perfect so its probably a problem we won’t be seeing to much of in the near future.

Of course, you don’t have to play with the Motionplus, but if we are on that train of logic, you can also play DDR without a dance pad. Or Donkey Konga without drums. Sure, the game gives you alternate options, but if you actually want a good experience, there is only one option. If you aren’t playing with a remote, nunchuk, and motionplus, then you are playing a completely different game. Without the nunchuk you are being guided by an AI which is clueless to whether or not you want to hit a forehand or backhand. Without a motionplus you are playing a glorified version of Wii Tennis. So why settle for something less. Price shouldn’t be too much of an issue, a motionplus will only run you $20-25, and I’m assuming by this point a nunchuk is already in your possession.



Grand Slam Tennis is loaded with a few modes to satisfy your single-player needs, with the meat of the game being in the Grand Slam mode. As you can probably tell, the mode takes you to each of the major four tournaments. Before each tournament you play some friendly exhibition games alongside some pretty average mini-games. Exhibition matches are expectedly fun, and they are used to give your created character new abilities. For instance, if you play Chris Evert, you may earn her fitness ability which boosts a few stats of your character. Or, if you’re playing John McCenroe, you get the ability to complain after every hit! Well…not really, but a man can dream. Your character also builds up a star rating, which acts somewhat like achievements, boosting itself when you do something special. For instance, I hit an impressive game-winning forehand, at which point the game paused, panned to my character, and showed the star rating going up. It’s a really neat touch, and is even active outside of the Grand Slam mode.

As fun as it is to climb the brackets, I can’t help but be disappointed by the lack of minor tournaments in between the events. It is like playing Madden and just instantly jumping to the playoffs without any of the regular season build-up. Regardless, the mode is still a fun way to build up your character and whore him out to sponsors by winning licensed clothing. You have plenty of clothing options, but when given the choice to make it a corporate shill for Adidas…I mean, that’s a pretty obvious choice.



The party mode is, clearly, where all of the local multiplayer takes place. You can engage in some simple matches or more bizarre alterations to a match. One mode has three players taking the court seeing which one can be the first to win 3 games, but the catch is that each game, someone different gets to be alone on one side against two others. Usually, the solo player doesn’t win, so most often two people end up taking the prize in this one. Other games include a straight up handicap match, the traditional doubles match, and one where certain hits will gain you double points.

Outside of the Grand Slam mode, the bulk of your gameplay time will be spent online, which I can say with little hesitation is the best I’ve seen implemented on the Wii. Much like Mario Kart, you have a player score which starts at 500 and goes up or down depending on whether you win or lose. While still a great feature, this isn’t what makes the online so great. Each match you play earns or detracts points from your country. For example, if you lose online, the USA might drop a few points. Even though, at this moment, the ratings are a bit skewed (the USA has a pretty dominant lead), the feature is a great concept that should be seen in many other sports games. I don’t play the FIFA games, but if this isn’t in them, needless to say, it really should be.

Graphics

Now almost three complete years into its life span, its good to see that developers are finally starting to recognize that nobody wants a poor attempt at realistic graphics on the Wii. Grand Slam Tennis goes for a more stylish look, using cartoonish characters and environments as opposed to the bland realism of this year’s Virtua Tennis offering. The game actually doesn’t look too shabby. Actual tennis players look pretty decent in the game, and are surprisingly well animated. Sure, the visuals won’t shock anyone or make them believe that the Wii is a graphical force to be reckoned with, but they work and meld nicely with the game. My only real complaint is with the tennis ball. Its size is mildly larger, not a complaint, but it lacks any detail whatsoever. Come on now, Mario Tennis on the Gamecube had a really good tennis ball, so don’t tell me the Wii can’t do that.



Sound

Usually with sports games, the sound comes down to a mix of the announcers and the audience, and in those respects, GST fails on an audio level. The commentators are virtually non-existent during a rally and only pop-in every once in a while to either make a mildy witty comment or break the fourth wall (“It’s almost like they are playing a video game”). On the other hand, with the audience, they do make noise but they hardly give the illusion of being into the match. In NBA 2K9, you could tell that the virtual crowd was into each and every game, but the applause after a game of GST feels pretty phoned in and could use some work.

After this initial disappointment with the audio, GST bounces back with a disturbing attention to detail. When Nadal hits the tennis ball he makes the audible grunt. Certainly realistic, but incidentally bizarre and hilarious.

Lasting Appeal

In a strange change of pace, the replay value of GST all comes down to the online play, which I’ve already mentioned and have cited as the best example of online multiplayer on the Wii. The game tracks your points, your country’s points, your win and loss record, pretty much anything you’d want to know in a competitive online scenario. But the icing on the cake? No friend codes. God bless EA and their determination to rid the world of those horrid, overly long numeric patterns. GST uses EA’s own little online service, and your account on this can transfer over to other EA Online games such as the apparently incredible Tiger Woods 10 or possibly even the upcoming Madden game.

As with all good things the online comes with one fault, it has “Ryu and Ken syndrome,” or as it has also been know “Dallas Cowboys Hysteria.” Common knowledge has it that most people you play online are complete jerks, and though you can’t hear them, you can pretty much tell that they fit the stereotype as almost everyone I’ve faced uses Nadal or Federer. I’m aware that I can fight back by using them too, but screw that! I want to play as the greatest person ever, myself!



Fun Factor

For all of the game’s faults, when it comes down to it, the game is fun. Most times when I review a game I never even look at it again, and put it on the shelf where it will gather dust with other boring relics I never plan to touch again. But I can honestly say that with this game I’ll be coming back for more. When I claim it as the Wii’s best online game, I’m not kidding, it rightfully earns that praise. Even for local multiplayer it is a blast, and finally gives an outstanding alternative to the tripe that was the original Wii Tennis.

The 411

The decision to purchase this game comes down to a pretty easy question, do you like tennis? If you are a big fan of the sport, and even engage in the sport in your free time, you will no-doubt enjoy this game. Grand Slam is a fun way to prepare you for the game’s real online draw. If you’ve just been settling for Wii Tennis over the past few years, then now is the time to act, because Grand Slam Tennis is likely as good as it is ever going to get for the sport on the Wii.

Graphics	8.0	A stylized look makes the best of the Wii's hardware without looking like a watered down experience.
Gameplay	8.5	Grand Slam and Online are a blast, despite shortcomings, but some control miscues can make for some frustration.
Sound	6.0	Commentators might as well not be there at all, crowd seems out of the experience...but grunts are here. Yay?
Lasting Appeal	8.5	The online could have you coming back for quite a while, but the abundance of Federer and Nadal could ruin it for you.
Fun Factor	9.0	The best tennis has ever been on a console.
Overall	8.0   [ Very Good ]