EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis Review

Written by: Steve Martin Posted: 12th June 2009

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We go for the Grand Slam!

EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis Details:

Goto EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis Game Page

	Sports
	Nintendo Wii
	EA Canada
	EA Sports

Out Now

1-4

Has anyone else noticed that professional tennis player Rafael Nadal has one huge arm and one average arm? Most people say that it is from his continuous tennis training with his coach, I would like to propose that it is actually from playing Grand Slam Tennis on the Wii! My arm has not ached this much since I first got my Wii and discovered the additive nature of Wii Sports.

Speaking of Wii Sports, the simplest methods of control for this game uses exactly the same control mechanism as the tennis game in Wii Sports. Your player is moved for you automatically, leaving you to swing the remote to make your player swing their racket. The timing of your swing will affect the direction the ball travels, additionally swinging from low to high allows you to put top-spin on the ball, and a high to low swing gives you a slice shot. Holding A or B whilst swinging makes you perform a lob or a drop shot. These new types of shots add some extra strategy to the game, especially compared to Wii Sports Tennis. You can also attach the nunchuck, which allows you to move your player manually but I would not recommend this unless you have mastered the above control method, because your character doesn’t seem to like moving and swinging at the same time. Finally, there is the new Wii MotionPlus control system which I was unable to test because we were not sent the Wii MotionPlus attachment with this review copy, sorry folks!

The modes of play are varied with an excellent Grand Slam mode that lets you create your own tennis star and build them up, gaining new abilities by playing challenges, and mini-games before attempting to win each of the 4 major tournaments. There is also a selection of mini-games included tweaking rules for party play, although these are fairly uninspiring, and lack any real creativity. An interesting addition is the Get Fit mode where you can set yourself goals for how many calories to burn off playing Grand Slam Tennis in a week, and shows you how far you are towards that target, it’s a really good simple idea and would appeal to those who are fans of Wii Fit and the like. There is also an online mode that allows to play people over the internet if you so wish, but make sure you’re ready! The roster of players is also impressive with all of the big names, Nadal, Murray, Federer and the Williams sisters as well as some legendary players such as Sampras and Boris Becker!

However, there are some major negatives mainly with the gameplay, I found it impossible to play at the net, it was difficult to judge when to swing and every time you moved towards the net the AI controlled player would easily power its shot past you! This was very frustrating and causes every game to become a boring battle at the baseline (not unlike real tennis!) and I also found it hard to hit winners past the opponent, even on the easiest difficulty setting. This meant that an average 1 set first to three games match would take at least 20 minutes. I accept that it is nice to have some proper rallies as opposed to the lightweight Wii Tennis, but this constant baseline play causes the aching arms that I mentioned before and the games become dull and boring. In multiplayer mode this is probably not so much of an issue but playing in single player, these niggles really annoy you after a while and make the game a lot less fun, and caused me to lose interest very quickly!

On a more positive note, I really liked the graphical style especially the pseudo-cartoon tennis stars, my favourite being John McEnroe compete with afro! The arenas and courts are also well presented with sharp visuals as you would expect from an EA sports game.

The audio is of a good standard with the usual crowd noises and umpire calling the outs and the scores as you would expect. The only downside is Pat Cash’s pointless and extremely limited commentary, he only speaks at the end of a point, never during the action, probably so he doesn’t put you off, but he never has anything important or useful to say! They might as well have not bothered, as he constantly repeats himself!

This is a step in the right direction and builds on the basic premise of the Wii Sports Tennis mould. I like the new types of shots as this allows for better rallies. However it is a lot less forgiving than what many Wii gamers will be use to, and requires more practice and patience to master. I found the net play to be flawed and it can be very frustrating at times, because of the difficulty involved in playing a winning shot. There were a few Wii-mote throwing moments reminiscent of the temperamental Mr McEnroe! This maybe something that is addressed with the Wii MotionPlus add-on which we cannot comment on. I found it a little disappointing overall. The game modes are nice and varied and the graphical style is great, however the actual tennis games tend to descend into uninspiring baseline games, especially with the computer. I’d compare it to Tim Henman, lots of promise but not a winner in my opinion!