Tennis Ball Blast! (Anna Kournikova Smash Court Tennis (PS))

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Product:	Anna Kournikova Smash Court Tennis (PS)
Date:	26/08/01 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: look below

Disadvantages: look below

Anna Kounikova's Smash Court Tennis - PSX

How many tennis stars can lay claim to winning England's prestigious Wimbledon using a wet fish? Or a frying pan? Or a cola bottle? That would be none then, except Anna Kornikova!

Such is the bizarre nature of Namco's Smash Court Tennis that what you see is never all you get. On a first glimpse, AK's Smash Court Tennis looks like any normal tennis game, albeit with spindly super-deformed characters with heads like fish bowls. Play it a while and win some tournaments though, and strange things start to happen.

Smash Court Tennis 2 on import is decent enough, although it included a bizarre RPG mode that went on for days with no plausible way of saving it - that's gone now and been replaced by some altogether more straightforward tournament modes and an enjoyable sub-game called 'Smash Blast'. Competing in the tournaments as Anna, because basically she is the best character, you'll be able to unlock bonus stuff by winning. There are four Street Tournaments and four Grand Slam competitions to play in, each one needs to be completed several times before you can drain it of goodies.

By winning the Street Tournaments you'll unlock extra characters - 24 to be precise. After loads of extra cartoon characters, you'll start to get the juicy ones like Pac-Man, Tekken characters and a couple of blokes from Time Crisis. Do well in the Grand Slams and you'll earn extra equipment like the aforementioned cola bottles, fish and frying pan rackets as well as loads of other gizmos like light sabres, panda masks and a bunch of hungry chicks that follow you around the court. So basically there's a lot to work for in this game.

With so many other tennis games around, it was important for Namco to get the balance right with this one, and it's served-up a blinder by scrapping fancy, motion-captured graphics in favour of tongue-in-cheek gameplay t
hat offers a surprisingly vast array of racket strokes.

It's all easily mastered though, and once you've battled against the computer opponents and won a few prizes, the challenge soon wares off. I found myself gliding effortlessly through the Grand Slams in no time without the CPU opponents even winning a point, let alone a game. This game comes into its element when played with three other human opponents - especially when the hidden characters come into the fray.

With so much on offer, any graphical shortcomings are forgiven. There are loads of courts to play on and so much hidden stuff that you'll battle away like I did until it's all out in the open. When it is, you can rest easy in the fact that four player party games just don't come any better. Now, where's that fish?

Advantages:

Extremely hilarious
It looks and plays a right laugh
The intense lifespan, trying to get all the items and characters

Disadvantages:

After a while the CPU opponents get easy
Smash Blast is too easy as well - you just run away from the ball
You don't always have three friends over

My Rating:

Graphics: 6
Sound: 7
Gameplay: 10
Overall: 9 - Phwoar! Anna Kornikova? Luvverly Jubbly!


IJC

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