Sega Superstar Tennis is a light-hearted tennis game that is definitely geared towards a crowd of casual players. It’s packed with a never-ending variety of challenges and cool mini games. On one hand, you’ve got eight stages of diverse competition for multiplayer revelry, each offering a unique twist of tennis madness. One stage such as the Puyo Pop Fever has you hitting groups of matching colored balls, sort of like a modern version of Tetris where you have to match as many Puyos as possible to score combos and clear the wall. On the other hand, you’ve got Superstar mode, which would be considered a single-player “career” mode, where you unlock most of the game’s remaining features such as new tennis courts and characters.

It’s easy to see that the real excitement of Sega Superstar Tennis comes from the multiplayer experience. This particular portion buckles in more bliss than any other options being offered in the game. Though the single-player modes have its own appeal, Sega Superstar Tennis really comes alive when it is played with friends. With a lineup of nostalgic mascots and bubbly characters, you are in for a festive show. Those seeking a casual single-player experience will definitely like what Superstar mode has to offer. This portion is made up of 14 different worlds where each location is based on a famous Sega title. What we love about this particular mode is that it combines tennis with gameplay according to the franchise that the place is based on. For example, in Sonic’s stage, you collect rings while trying to avoid moving projectiles, a reminiscent of what you’d be doing on the old Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Another example is the Jet Set Radio stage, and if you’ve ever played the game Jet Set Radio, you know the theme is mostly about painting graffiti. Here, you’ll pickup cans and hit the opposing court with the right colors. Our current favorites at the moment are Virtua Squad and Curien Mansion. In Virtua Squad, you take out the bad guys by locking at them first, then hitting them straight with the tennis ball. You’ll find that the theme here revolves around Virtua Cop. In Curien Mansion, your objective couldn’t be simpler: hit zombies to stop the shambling horde from reaching you! What’s nice about this particular challenge is you get power-ups every now and then; they range from sizing up your tennis ball to shooting three balls at a time.

Sega Superstar Tennis’ controls are very simple but there are some occasions when a button to swing won’t respond to your command. This incident happens rarely and apparently it’s a computer’s attempt to cap the scores from your hitting all the winning shots! This “capping” can be rather cheap, especially when you’re playing for the championship point where your opponent could suddenly catch up with you to a deuce. What sets the game back is the inability to effectively use volleys and drop shots at the net. We could have easily won a match if it weren’t from the “soft” rallying as we were closing in on a sharp valley to the opposite corner of the court. Nevertheless, the controls are easy to pick up and the relatively balance gameplay makes up for an exciting turn of events on the court.

The character lineup of Sega Superstar Tennis is fairly diverse. There are 16 in all, eight are already available, and the other eight are hidden. The starting eight includes Sonic, AiAi, Nights, Ulala, Beat, Amigo, Tails, and Dr. Eggman. You can unlock most of the remaining characters including Shadow, Gilius, Mee Mee, and Pudding in the Superstar mode. Each character specialty is broken down into speed, power, spin, control, and all around. But what you didn’t know is that each character is equipped with a special move that is unleashed by pressing the LT or the RT button. But you have to charge your “star” first before you can begin to execute such special maneuver. Graphically, the game looks decent overall, with a dash of lighting effects here and there. However, it’s good to see the characters have received great amount of details and incredible animation, especially when they power-up their special move.

An example of this incredible animation can be seen with Sonic, who lights up in Dragon Ball Z fashion after activating his special ability. The same goes for certain characters, and these kind of creative visuals certainly add a lasting appeal amongst casual gamers. It’s also nice that Sega made the tennis ball clearly visible during the rallies. It could have easily disappeared into the background filled with contrast but thankfully that is not the case here. As for the audio, it’s cutesy and attractive. Many of the soundtracks are tuned to the music of classic Sega games with a little bit of remix on the side. The sound effects are alright; you wouldn’t really feel the impact unless you switch your vibration on. Sega Superstar Tennis is not your traditional tennis game but it is definitely family-oriented and aims for those casual gamers at heart. The single-player experience is fun overall but in a nostalgic way. Multiplayer is a blast and it’s very easy to pick up on the gameplay. This is certainly a relatively solid party game.