Video sports has gone a long way since the days of Pong and its variance back in the late 70s. Breaking the ice was Atari Basketball with its ‘illusionary’ depth of field court. Also the AI was decent enough however the weaknesses are still prevalent here. Tennis, on the other hand, didn’t have much success until now with Atari Tennis. By all means it’s still have a long way to go with regards to AI and actual gameplay, it’s still satisfying enough in small doses to get your tennis fix.
The court is shown with that ‘depth of field’ look where the bottom half is ‘larger’ than the top half. This game can be played with either two or four players, human or computer opponent so it caters for all walks of life. Also it sports two difficulty levels being intermediate and advanced. Strange though as you may think as ‘beginner’ should be the lowest but not in this game.
To control the guy, for which incidentally is always right handed (sorry lefties), requires joystick control as there’s no keyboard command. It also involves the use of the fire button to direct your hit. What this means is that you press the fire button and the eight positions of the joystick corresponds to the eight positions of the court. That is when pulling the stick back and left cause the guy to return a shot close to the net on the left side. Pulling it forward and right will make the ball land at the back court right hand side. Note though that pressing the trigger will force the guy to stand still so aim those shots very carefully and quickly.
It’s not too difficult to get used to it however there are inheritance weaknesses. As come to expect, you want to make your opponent run from left to right, back and forth until he misses the ball. However, in this game the guy can run the entire court in a flash so making him run from the back to the front would be fruitless. Making him run from left to right is your only hope however, even that has its moments. What I have discovered is that hitting the ball at an angle, (e.g. if the ball lands close to the right side of the net, hit a return shot close to the left side of the net and not the left back of the court) will ensure a sharp angle return, meaning the ball will travel a lot faster. And what this means is that the returning guy will have next to nothing of returning these types of shots.
Mind you it’s not exactly an easy thing to do as it does require a bit of practice however the moral of the story is, the more of a return angle shot equals to the ball travelling a lot faster oddly enough. This also goes with lobbying the ball. As come to expect, if the opponent is close to the net and you return a lob, you expect the ball to swing over him to the back of the court. Well not in this case as the guy can run from the front to back (or vice versa) in no time. Also returning a lob will make the ball travel close to light speed so you will have a better chance of winning lottery than returning the lob slam.
Because the game has two difficulty levels, I cannot see much difference between the two. The Advance AI feels the same as the immediate AI so I cannot comment the actual difference other than the advance AI has a tendency to lob the ball more often, meaning he’s easier to defeat. Also the AI, when on the bottom half of the screen, cannot return your serve well enough if aimed at the middle back – you can almost guarantee an ace there however it doesn’t work when the AI is on the top half of the court.
Visually is barely hitting on average. The court has that nice depth of field look and very welcoming. It also has a shadow cast on the ball so you know where the ball is at any one time. The guys are just blown out stick figures and the overall game lacks in colours. Also the sound is minimalistic at best – meaning you only get the sound of the ball being hit, a small ding when scoring a point, the bounce and that’s about it. There’s no crowd cheering and no music. At least play a victory song when winning the cup would be nice.
Thankfully the game scoring system is accurate to tennis with deuces and advantages – that is you must win with the score at least two points ahead. Also there are only two sets to be played so, depending upon your skill, it may take around twenty minutes or so to knock out both games and take the cup. Seriously the AI doesn’t pose much of a challenge and if playing against a human opponent, rallies can take forever as the guy can whip around the court in no time, save if you can sharply angle your return (as explained before).
Atari Tennis is certainly a step up from previous tennis games as it produces that depth of field and somewhat persistent AI. Yet it still has a long way to go of being an awesome tennis game as there’s still too much mishaps to satisfy our cravings. Other sports games like Pole Position, Decathlon and Starbowl Football cements what electronic sports can deliver, sadly we are still waiting for the next ‘Pole Position’ tennis. I’m sure it will eventually get there one day.
5.5 / 10