There are already two tennis games for the 64 for this superb new Activision title to compete with: The extremely difficult Wimbledon 64 and, more significantly, the excellent Matchpoint from Psion.

Screen presentation in the new release is quite different to Matchpoint. The men are a lot larger and chunkier and the court isn't constantly in view, so it scrolls slightly if a ball goes near the edge of the playing area.

Gone are the crowds (although they can be heard) along with the ballboys, umpire and tough judges. This doesn't really detract from the game, but it gives it a rather lonelier feel.

Activision's tennis also has a different approach to the play: priority is on the different type of ball to play, rather than running about after it. The computer will automatically move your player toward the ball -- you simply decide which sort of shot to play and when to play it.

John throws up the ball to serve.

The disadvantage of this is that you have little control over whether to stay at the back of the court or move to the net. The advantage is that you can get a lot more variety in the type of shots you play.

In normal play the different joystick directions and the fire button give you five main options, which are: flat shot, topspin, lob, slice, and drop shot. This gives plenty of scope for tactics. For example, if you are standing at the net with your opponent back, a drop shot will probably be a winning play. But if you play one from your own back court, chances are it won't clear the net.

If your opponent lobs you, you automatically enter 'smash mode', and use the joystick to direct the shot in one of five directions. The smash into the corner leaving the computer player stranded, is one of the game's most satisfying moments. It looks very authentic too.

John is about to hit a devastating volley at the net.

Similar control is used to serve. Your man will automatically throw the ball into the air and it is up to you to time his racquet to hit the ball correctly, in one of three directions. Pressing fire will give you greater speed, but makes it harder to time the hit.

There are three types of surfaces to play on: clay, grass or a hard court; grass being fast and clay slow. There are also four men to choose from, called John, Jimmy, Ivan and Bjorn. Who could they be? They all have different styles of play which are suited to different courts and matches.

You have a one or two player option and can play either a one set warm-up, or best of three or five sets. The computer opponent is very good and has 'floating intelligence': the more you improve, the better he gets.

One minor bad point is that a player always serves from the nearest court to you, and players change ends after every service. This is contrary to the rules of tennis!

JR

Timing your shots

The key to On-court Tennis is timing. You have to allow for the significant amount of time it takes for your player to take his backswing and then play the shot.

When you first play the game, you're likely to miss every ball (and also serve piles of double faults). But once your mind slips into the rhythm of the game, you not only make contact every time, you also start using the timing to DIRECT you shots and make winning plays.

Try this, for example. Serve wide to the left of the left-hand court, drawing your opponent out to the sidelines to make his return. If you're playing on grass, and your player is 'John', he will now almost certainly move to the net for a volley. If you delay the shot for a fraction of a second, the racquet swings late and the ball angles gloriously into the open right court.

Once you've got properly into the swing of things, the timing gives the game a superb authentic feel. Hit a smash too late and it rockets into the net, swing early on the serve and the ball will be long. Get it right and POW, what a shot!

Look out for some electrifying rallies with both players at the net. To avoid being passed, you have to act only a fraction of a second after the computer's played its shot. Just like the real thing.
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Htmlized by Dimitris Kiminas (6 August 2001)

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