DigiVoyager

Part 1: Wimbledon, and the privilege of playing Mario Aces at work

Tennis has been on my mind recently. Partially, because one of my colleagues talks about the Wimbledon in the doctor's lounge to all of us during our breaks, as if it were some local cultural tradition (it is not, unless you are from the 1%) and then tells us all about player X or Y's personal lives, as if they are people we have known our whole lives, then she makes us watch the morning replays on the TV installed there. It is....pain.

It has also been on my mind because coincidentally, one of our new trainees has been bringing his Nintendo Switch and plays it during his breaks (which for us, are many and frequent, thankfully). Everyone has started calling him “kiddo”, because who plays video games in a hospital? He is just a nice, harmless guy who noticed me watching him play and, in front of our other colleagues, asked me if I wanted to join him. I realized if I said yes, I too would become known as “kiddo #2”.

But then I have always been content to go my own way, and so I said yes, admittedly it also had to do with the fact that quite a few of my colleagues think I am already strange for using Mastodon and watching anime (the former is a far bigger checkmark against me, oddly enough). I wonder what nickname I would get if they find out I keep a notepad file of untranslated games I would like to play someday.

Funnily, after the incident, one of my colleagues chided me “I didn't know you were so childish too.” It saddens me to see such narrow minded judgement. I always thought I had a positive image, as a techie of sorts, because almost everyone comes to me to find out what's wrong with their laptops, but maybe I'm viewed as nothing more than the most convenient troubleshooter they have access to, probably.

Anyways, after checking out a few games, I found Mario Tennis Aces on there, and we played. One of our colleagues even made a tiktok of us “goofs” where we were flailing around the joycons, thankfully it did not gain any traction. Mario Aces is more like a fighting game in the vehicle of Tennis, if that makes sense. There are lots of different mechanics at play, every character has enough idiosyncrasies to make them somebody's favorite. Were it not already so well known and written about, this article would be just that, me gushing over Mario Aces. But to be brief, I am a fighting game head, I love fighting games, and Mario Aces scratches that exact itch. I have tried Virtua Tennis too, as well as Top Spin (there may be another article on those, someday) but trust me when I say, Mario Aces is different.

Alas, Mario Aces has been gushed about far too much, and I do not personally own a Switch to play it as much as I would desire. And so, I began a journey. I was already familiar with the Gameboy titles, and I did not simply want to reexperience those.

So I did what any unreasonable man would do, and played every tennis game on the original PlayStation. It will surprise you to know, outside of one specific series, they were all horrible. Actua Tennis, Tennis Arena, Roland Garros French Open and many more. I even tried the Prince of Tennis game, which has some very interesting ideas, being a tennis strategy game, but is ruined by one simple fact, the game has zero flow, none at all.

Konami's Prince of Tennis, PSX

Briefly, there's a grid, though you don't move around on it, your player does so automatically, the arrows indicate where the ball will land, then you have a very short time window in which to react and move a marker/cursor to where you want to hit the ball. There's a very detailed Tennis Academy too, that teaches you about the ins and outs of say, net-play, or even basics like bringing someone in closer so you can lob them. It's a shame it hasn't been translated, because the academy contains some great nuggets of information, but the game overall is pretty awful, yet it remains interesting.

Anyways, let's talk about the main focus of the article, the only good series on the PSX, Namco's Smash Court.

Part 2: Smash Court, a Mario Tennis for the rest of us

I did not live the PS1 era, I started gaming during the PS2 era, playing older titles, mostly PS1 and SNES via emulation. But I can empathize with someone who did, imagining for a second someone who really wants to play Mario Tennis but cannot, in this case it would be Mario Tennis 64, a game with surprisingly satisfying ball physics, interesting characters with their own quirks and lots of ways to have fun.

But supposing that someone had a PS1, and bought every Tennis game? And almost all of them turned out to be mediocre? That's how sad things were, and it is in this context that one begins to understand just what made Virtua Tennis so famous.

What's not as well known, is Namco had a really good Tennis series on the PS1. Smash Court – the successor to their lesser known SNES Tennis game, Smash Tennis, also a fun title in its own right. Smash Tennis itself is linked to four other games, Namco's World Court arcade game (and its sequel) as well as Namco's Family Tennis for the Famicom, and it's Super Famicom remake titled Super Family Tennis. In other words, Smash Court has quite the storied pedigree, being essentially their 6th game.

Namco's World Court.

The second Smash Court game was localized as Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis. Get past the ugly graphics and you will find a surprisingly fun tennis game, though not one with as much depth or as many things to do, admittedly. Even today, you can have a good time, either playing the PAL version through an emulator setting it to 60 Hz, or the Japanese version (I myself have confirmed the PAL version is slower than intended, and it hurts the game feel a little)

Heihachi Mishima is not dead. He just got fed up of fighting, and went to play Tennis instead.

If that other guy looks familiar, it's because he is. That's Eddy Gordo, every button masher's best friend.

The ball physics is fun here, and it's extremely easy to get into. Whilst an arcade game at its core, positioning matters, placement matters, and you can't play stupidly and get away with it, like say in Virtua Tennis. I've had tighter games here than in VT, funnily enough, though one can obviously argue which one feels better, and certainly, VT takes the cake there, this game can have awkward hitboxes sometimes, besides the obviously rougher feel but it is also classic Namco at its finest, the stages have the sort of aesthetic one would expect from their fighting games, and soundtracks to match. Most of the stages ooze personality, and the ones that don't still have catchy tunes. My only issue with the game is how awkward the power shot feels, due to the time it takes. That's something they fixed in Smash Court 3, where it charges up very quickly making it viable, but still keeping the risk of using it intact.

Pakistan, circa 2030. The elite have blocked the roads so they can play some tennis.

This game is pretty much a celebration of all things Namco, you'll find art that pays respect to their older titles, easter eggs in stages, and of course, characters. Besides being a silky smooth, arcade quality tennis game that carries Namco's signature sense of style, it's also chock full of characters from their other games.

Police commissioner Pac Man got word that some people were playing Tennis on his roads, of course he also had to join in, it was his civic duty. Damn the people and their obligations.

Also included in the roster is Yoshimitsu, again from Tekken 3. Reiko Nagase from Ridge Racer, and Richard and Sherudo from Time Crisis also make an appearance.

A brief overview

Smash Court is, all in all, a game that can be quite fun for a few hours, though more multiplayer inclined. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy a good game versus the AI, but like many other titles, the lack of SP content is apparent. You do have some incentive, winning tournaments unlocks new characters, but I feel the entire process takes too long, and the characters you want are towards the tail end, like 4th win of tournament X and so on. There's also gear for you to unlock in Grand Slams.

The series found itself being reinvented on the PS2, as a more serious arcade/sim hybrid, a middle ground between Virtua Tennis's satisfying arcade gameplay and Top Spin's more simulation oriented gameplay, keeping Namco's trademark high quality arcade style feel and gamesense.

But what became of the original Smash Court style games? Well, they made one last title, and it did not get localized. I do not mean Smash Court 3 for the PS1, but Family Tennis Advance for the GBA, the last classic arcade style Smash Court game.

Family Tennis Advance is very underrated, it's basically Smash Court 4 (the original style) on the GBA, it plays as you'd expect and while barren on content, it is supremely enjoyable. Besides Pacman, you will also find Klonoa, Rick from Splatterhouse, Valkyrie and many other lesser known classic Namco characters. Along with some fun stages.

One stage has a gimmick, a car may pass every now and then

Well, that's about it for Smash Court, or at least what I have to say about it.

Sayonara! And remember, it's not Tennis without Heihachi.