Blitz Review – EA Sports: Grand Slam Tennis 2

The Game

EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis 2 is the latest iteration in the massive EA Sports stable of games and the sequel to the Wii-only Grand Slam Tennis released in 2009.
It’s one of the few dedicated tennis games on the market at the moment, with most tennis games now taking the shape of mini-games in Kinect Sports and similar party games.

The Good

If you’re serious about your tennis, and we suspect you are if you’re reading this, you need to get a copy of Grand Slam Tennis 2.

The game boasts a new ‘Total Racket Control’ mechanic that allows the player to use your controllers’ thumbstick almost exactly as you’d expect it to work with a tennis game.
Put simply, this is how a tennis game should play with a controller – not waggling it around.

The attention to detail is very impressive, from Roger Federer to Maria Sharapova and even retired legends such as Pete Sampras, you won’t go want for iconic players to play as.
Alternatively you can create your own character using a fairly good character creation tool and assign stats to set him or her to certain tennis play style.

The official tennis courts and competitions are present and detailed too, along with ESPN Grand Slam Classics sets of scenarios that allow you to play historic matches in real-life tennis history as they were or change the outcome if you wish.
The ESPN-branded instant replay is also a cool feature.

Online multiplayer is implemented well too, it works seamlessly and doesn’t even require an Online Pass “due to technical reasons with our code registration system.” according to EA.

The Bad

The game can get very repetitive, very fast.
This is to be expected given the nature of the game and if you’re a massive tennis buff then this shouldn’t be a problem, much like soccer fans can play FIFA for months on end but for the more casual tennis fan, repetitiveness may well hamper your experience quite quickly.

Some of the animations can be quite blocky at times too, given that the players are the focus of the entire gameplay, this is disappointing at best and downright annoying at worst.

The two commentators are constantly repeating themselves from match to match and sometimes even during the same match, a minor gripe but annoying all the same.

Wrap Up

EA Sports Grand Slam tennis isn’t for everyone, which is hardly surprising.
If you’re not a tennis fan then it’s obviously not going to be your game of choice.

That said, you don’t need to be a hardcore tennis-buff in order to enjoy it and even if you’re just slightly interested in tennis overall, do yourself a favour and give Grand Slam Tennis 2 a try.

We don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

 

You can contact the author of this post, Luke Hoare Greene at Luke@TechTV101.com or Follow him on Twitter.