Gameplay

At the heart of Sega Superstars is the singles and doubles tournaments. Playing single-player mode, you can compete in tournaments to win trophies and unlock (gasp!) more tournaments. Same goes for doubles. Superstars also has a ton of minigames to offer. Are they fun or interesting? Not really, but they do at least provide a break from the monotony of the single or doubles matches. All minigames and tournaments lead down the same path: to unlock more tournaments, more minigames, or more characters. The problem is unlocking any or all three of these things is not motivating to me in the slightest. If the first of the series isn’t fun, why should I want to continue?

The controls are horrible and slow. The Wii controller can be held in a “classic” style (horizontally instead of vertically), or you can hold it like normal. Holding it like normal allows you to serve by swinging the remote downwards, or swing your racket by moving the remote from side to side. Obviously, I wanted to play with the remote like normal to simulate a regular tennis game.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter which way you swing the remote. A backhand, spike, or regular swing is performed depending on the position of your character, not which way you swing the remote. The best part is: your character is moved for you automatically. Sure, you can move your character slightly by pressing the d-pad, but how much do you want to operate your thumb and swing at the same time? Generally the auto-pilot moving is accurate, but it does take some of the fun out of it.

The timing is awful. Whether you are doing the actual swinging or just button mashing, you must prepare for your hit well ahead of time in order to execute a swing that will connect with the ball. After awhile timing the swings gets easier, but you have to wait for your character to wind up before swinging the racket. I lost many games because my character was still winding up when the ball sailed right by him. I wish the game could sense movement more accurately instead of you – swing, then character – wind up and swing.

The minigames are no fun. To begin with, you have the task of either hitting big inflatable balls into a wind tunnel, or taking out zombies. You are either given a limited number of balls, or a limited amount of time to complete the task. And guess what!? After you beat one of the minigames, another one of the same variety opens up. You can even access these awesome games on the games’ opening menu. 

Sound and graphics are okay, but nothing spectacular. The music is re-mixed classic Sega tunes, but I honestly didn’t know that. Graphics are bright and mostly sharp, but we’re dealing with cartoon characters here, which really can’t be that hard to make pretty.

Lands just on the line…

Page Listing 1 : Lands just on the line… 2 : Gameplay 3 : Conclusion

Conclusion