Porty Love
At this point, we have all become accustomed to the triangle trade of video games. What I’m referring to is the rampant porting of games between PS2, PSP, and Wii. Unless a game is built specifically with motion controls in mind, and sometimes even when it is, you will often see it making its way to all three of these systems in a fairly timely fashion.
However, what we aren’t used to is seeing PSP games coming out on the Xbox 360. Smash Court Tennis 3 is one of these few exceptions, coming out on the PSP over a year ago and only recently being released for the Xbox 360. Unfortunately, it is a prime example of why we don’t often see these two systems sharing titles.
Everything about Smash Court Tennis 3 feels like a very slightly improved year-old PSP port. Graphically, the game’s characters and environments lack the detail you would expect from a new Xbox 360 game. The game’s many courts are fairly static, with only the crowd, players, and at times passing cloud cover actually moving. Tennis stars like Rafael Nadal end up looking more like caricatures than their real life counterparts. The clothes in the game are all fairly bland, consisting mainly of plain-colored basic options with the occasional painting pictured on the front. Characters’ animations are also incredibly clunky and repetitive, having your player of choice sliding around the court rather than fluidly moving about.
If the dated graphics weren’t enough, the game also feels ancient in the gameplay department. Players will make their way through the game’s tutorial that explains how the game should work. I say should because, in reality, it is an entirely different story. You have all the standard options for shots including spin, lob shots, and drop shots. All your shots rely on holding down a face button to charge, releasing at the correct time, and aiming the shot with left analog stick. This can be problematic as matches tend to creep along at a lethargic pace, thanks in part to how slowly your character moves. If you are lucky enough to actually get to the ball before it passes you by, you either don’t have time to properly charge your shot, are still holding the analog stick in the direction you were moving, or your character won’t even attempt to swing. While all these situations happen frequently, the latter is the most frustrating, since there is no reason for your character to give up on a ball before you do.
Thankfully, even with these unforgiveable gameplay issues, players will still undoubtedly manage to breeze through almost every match with relative ease. This is made possible due to some of the worst A.I. I’ve ever experienced in a tennis game. Opponents mostly seem content to stay at the back of the court, running back and forth as they poorly attempt to chase down your shots. Aside from some infrequent aces, your opponents almost seem like they don’t want to score. That is unless they decide to rush the net. Once your adversary is at the net, you might as well put down your controller. Because of the loose, sluggish, and often inaccurate controls offered, you are almost completely unable to deal with their net defense. Sure, you should be able to just place a lob shot behind them but this just results in them spiking the ball, which is also next to impossible to return. Fortunately, since the A.I. is so inept, it fails to realize that rushing the net works nine times out of ten and will only occasionally employ this strategy.
Players will also be able to take Smash Court’s clunky gameplay online to duke it out with human opponents. There aren’t many options here besides singles and doubles matches as well as the ability to join an online tournament. Playing against friends online is definitely more enjoyable than dealing with A.I. adversaries, but there is a slight amount of lag present that helps to spoil even this aspect of the game.
One of the few highlights of this game comes in the form of its Pro Tour mode. You start off by creating a character with a plethora of sliders, affecting everything from eye depth to chin width. The options here are fairly robust but, again, characters end up looking more cartoony than realistic. Once you have created a character and chosen their play style, you can begin to start leveling them up. The Pro Tour mode will have you training, competing in tournaments, gaining sponsorships, and participating in charity events. Whenever you actually win matches or complete events, you will receive experience points to use to improve your character’s performance and abilities. Improving core skills is important, but purchasing specialized shots and power-ups can also make a big difference when competing in matches.
In this mode, stamina plays a very large role. The more you run around and the longer it takes for you to put your opponent away, the more your stamina meter will diminish. When at full stamina, your character will move quicker, have more powerful shots, and be more accurate.
Conversely, if your meter is empty, it becomes incredibly difficult to pull out a victory. While this is an interesting mechanic, one of the power-ups you can purchase fairly quickly completely negates its effects. Once purchased, players will perform the same whether they have any stamina or not. The stamina meter could have really added a sense of realism and depth to this mode but, unfortunately, the game sells itself short by allowing players to easily bypass it.
Another thing worth mentioning in the “what were they thinking” category is characters’ celebrations. After almost every point, players are given the option to press one of the face buttons to cause their characters to react to the situation. These usually range from happy to angry, with some really odd options like touching when playing with a doubles partner. While that last one sounds a little disgusting, none of these reactions matter in the least, besides the challenge option which challenges a ruling on the court. Players often celebrate before these options even appear and most look remarkably similar. There is also no benefit or consequence to any of your decisions. Whether you celebrate, taunt, or just remain solemn, you will never get anything from doing so, and your opponent won’t ever react to what you are doing. I guess it was just added to help keep you from dozing off between volleys.
While Smash Court Tennis 3 managed to get a few things right, the negatives far outweigh the positives. Sluggish controls, sloppy animations, and the general feeling that you are playing a PSP game through your Xbox 360 make this game fall far behind its competitors. With games like Top Spin 3 already available on the system, I don’t understand why someone decided to dust off and repackage this mess. If you are looking for a good game of tennis, look elsewhere.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 2.8 Graphics
While it does look better than its PSP counterpart, it doesn’t look that much better. 2.0 Control
Everything feels very sluggish and unresponsive, which is only further exacerbated by the game’s poor animations. 2.4 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The sound of the ball thudding off of the back wall is satisfying, but much of the game is devoid of music and all but the slightest of sound effects. 2.5 Play Value
If you can manage to deal with stupid A.I., bad controls, and sliding around the court, the Pro Tour mode and online multiplayer add a decent amount of longevity to this flawed experience. 2.4 Overall Rating – Average
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
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