Grand Slam Tennis for Nintendo Wii - close to the real thing?

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fun to play, different game modes, good online play...

Cons: ... lacks variety of opponents, weak graphics, controls not always 100% responsive...

The Bottom Line: 
Hard to know whether to rate this 3 or 4 star; Grand Slam Tennis is fun for a long time though so I'm going for 4.

Author's Review
With Wimbledon starting today (and Andy Murray playing his first-round match as I type), I thought it would be a good time to review some tennis games, so I'll start off with Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii.  One of the earliest games to use the Motion Plus controller extension, it probably does offer the most realistic experience of playing tennis on a console - though it does have some faults too.

There are several game modes, but the main one of interest is Grand Slam, which is the career mode.  You play the four grand slams and can also play various exhibition and challenge matches around these.   Each tournament is played on a different surface - Indoor for the Australian Open, the clay courts of Roland Garros for the French Open, of course grass courts for Wimbledon, and the hard courts of Flushing Meadow for the US Open.  Each surface has slightly different characteristics which are reflected fairly well in the game, and you may need to use different tactics to win on each surface.   Each player has their own distinct playing style too – some players are very difficult to beat on particular surfaces.  Nadal is good on every surface but especially clay; Stefen Edburg is very difficult to beat on grass, etc. 

Completing challenge matches can earn you bonus skills, such as Michael Stich's servce, Rafa Nadal's forehand topspin, or Justin Henin's speed - each skill is rated bronze, silver or gold, and as your reputation grows through victories on the court you can equip one, two or three of these abilities to enhance your game.

There are a few different control methodologies you can use, but the only one I actually like is using the Wiimote Motion Plus along with the nunchuck - otherwise you just don't get the feeling of control over either player movement or shot selection.  That said, the controls don't always react quite as quickly or accurately as I'd have liked.  The court itself seems a little on the short side, but basically it's quite easy to play a serve and volley / baseliner game, and playing sliced / topspin shots is easy enough.  How much the angle of the Wiimote affects your shot selection I never have been entirely certain, nor the speed / amount you swing it as far as the shot strength goes, but that doesn't stop it from feeling really satisfying when you manage to put a good forehand crosscourt groundstroke past your opponent or manage that tricky backhand slice drop volley.  True to my form when playing the game in real life I tend to be much better at volleying and lousy at lobbing.

There are three difficulty levels to ease you into the game (I think it won't take long for Easy to be too easy for you, but Medium presents a nice challenge for a while with the best players), several tennis party games (2 against one, close court etc) and a practice court where you can practice serving, returning etc.   Grand Slam Tennis is one of very few games I've spent significant time playing online - there seems to be a tiny bit of lag sometimes but overall it's very good, although the server doesn't seem to find reasonable matches in terms of your skill most of the time.  (This may be because of the time I go online or may just be because I'm not as good at the game as I like to think I am!)

The graphics are okay - a bit of a mixed bunch really.  The players look reasonably like the characters they represent and player movement animation is quite good.  The character models themselves don’t seem to be much different – Michael Stich doesn’t really look much taller than the other players for instance – but their faces and hair are quite well modelled, so Maria Sharapova’s blond hair and John McEnroe’s facial expressions are caught quite well.  Their trademark looks, such as Pat Cash’s headband, are also included.  Each player also has certain mannerisms that closely resemble real life too, whether it be the hands on hips disbelieving look of McEnroe, Andy Murray's fed up look or the fist-pumping celebrations of Rafa Nadal.  The line judges and ball boys / girls are extremely static, which is more or less understandable in the case of the former (and unforgivable in the case of the latter!).   

The sound is good too - different umpire judge voices for each major tournament, realistic calls and crowd sounds, and lively music.  The commentary is okay but doesn't quite have enough variety, and there are some odd errors at times - "2 points away from the set" usually comes up at the right point, but sometimes is said when you quite clearly are nowhere near 2 points away from the set! - and Pat Cash's commentary just sounds wrong when you are playing - you guessed it - Pat Cash.  

Your opponents are made up of tennis legends from the past few decades, which in some ways is good, but in other ways destroys any illusion of realism.  Still, playing against Bjorn Borg or John McEnroe is fun in itself - some of the omissions from this hall of fame were a little baffling, but clearly they couldn't fit every tennis legend there has ever been into the game.  The game could definitely do with a larger number of different players though.  (Full list of male players: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Lleyton Hewitt, Kei Nishikori, Pete Sampras, Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Pat Cash and Michael Stich.  Female Players: Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Ana Ivanović, Lindsay Davenport, Maria Sharapova,  Martina Navratilova, Justine Henin and Chris Evert.)  Where are Ivan Lendl, Steffi Graf, and indeed a whole host of others?  I suspect media rights are the answer.

One other feature of the game is tracking the number of calories you've burned, and setting calorie-burning goals for yourself.  This is no EA Active, but it does get you moving and you'll burn a few calories as you win grand slams.

Overall Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii is a good, but not great, game.  The controls feel quite intuitive but aren't always as responsive as they should be.  The online play is good (though again, not really great), and the game has enough extra features to keep you interested for quite a while.  Crucially, despite any drawbacks, Grand Slam Tennis remains fun to play even after a large number of games.  Not perfect, but definitely good.  (If you already have the MotionPlus controller it's no more expensive than most Wii games, though obviously the price racks up quite a bit if you need one or more of the controller extensions to play the game.)


Other sports games for the Wii:

Wii Sports
Big Beach Sports
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games