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SEGA Superstars Tennis features classic SEGA characters – including Sonic the Hedgehog and Ulala from Space Channel 5 – plus some of the most unusual courts and outrageous settings ever imagined in a rousing match of tennis. Developed by Sumo Digital (the team behind the enjoyable Virtua Tennis 3), this title features a toal of 15 playable characters (and a host of SEGA icons cheering on from courtside), each with their own over-the-top tennis skills. Courts are SEGA-themed too, with Green Hill Zone and Samba de Amigo’s Carnival Park.

Genre: Sports

Publisher: SEGA

Developer: Sumo Digital

Online Play:

Local Play:

March 19, 2008 –
Since its earliest days of arcade glory, SEGA has woven itself inextricably into gaming history. With the introduction of the Genesis in the waning years of the 1980s, the scrappy company provided an alternative to the cutesy, ultra-nice console characters popularized by Nintendo.

Like any underdog worth its salt, SEGA has gathered in its wake an army of diehard fans who can’t get enough Sonic the Hedgehog, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5 and even the original SEGA mascot, Alex Kidd himself. If you count yourself among the Sega faithful, you’ll find a lot to like in SEGA Superstars Tennis, the latest title from Sumo Digital, the UK-based Foundation 9 studio responsible for developing past Sega properties like Virtua Tennis 3 and OutRun 2006.

But even — and maybe especially — hardcore SEGA aficionados will probably find SEGA Superstars Tennis disappointing. Although there are 16 SEGA characters to be found within its mini-games, bracketed tournaments and, yes, even more mini-games, Superstars stops short of delivering either a top-notch tennis party game or an all-out Sega fan-fest.

SSST starts you off with eight playable characters from the SEGA universe: Sonic, Tails and Dr. Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series; AiAi from Super Monkey Ball; NiGHTS; Ulala from Space Channel 5; Beat from Jet Set Radio; and Amigo from Samba de Amigo.

You can use this motley crew to jump into quick-play tennis matches, either locally or online, or you can start whittling away at the mini-games that form the backbone of SEGA Superstars Tennis. Although there is a short tournament mode (I plowed through it in less than 30 minutes), there is no career mode as there would be in a standard tennis game.

Most of your time will be spent playing mini-games in a variety of different SEGA-themed areas. Here, you’ll unlock new characters — like Gilius the non-textured Golden Axe dwarf, Pudding from Space Channel 5 and Alex Kidd — and open new mini-game areas. At first, making your way through the loosely tennis-based games is fun, but many of the stages drag on and the countless variations on the same themes begin to drag quickly.

Some of the stages use their namesakes fairly well, challenging you to use your button-pressing skills to achieve objectives in a manner appropriate to the theme of the stage. In the Super Monkey Ball stage for example, you’re charged with knocking monkey balls through gates by serving tennis balls at them.

Tennis at its zaniest.

A few of the stages are standouts that I found especially fun, at least at first. There’s a PuyoPop Fever area that requires you to clear Puyos within a given time period, and the House of the Dead stage (although curiously named “Curien Mansion” instead) lets you serve tennis balls at shuffling zombies.

But some mini-game stages are either extremely dull (Jet Set Radio), or completely irrelevant. The Golden Axe stage doesn’t take place in Yuria at all but rather recycles the zombie-infested tennis court behind the Curien Mansion. The Space Harrier stage could have been the best part of SSST but is plagued by targeting problems and other strange choices.

Although some of these stages, available in a menu called Planet Superstars, are made up entirely of mini-games, others are straight three-match tennis tournaments or individual singles and doubles matches. If plowing through a mountain of repetitive mini-games on goofy tennis courts sounds like your thing and you’ve been dying for an opportunity to apply Virtua Tennis-style gameplay to a SEGA-themed party game, don’t get your wallet out just yet.

• 1
• 2
• Next
  

March 19, 2008 –
Since its earliest days of arcade glory, SEGA has woven itself inextricably into gaming history. With the introduction of the Genesis in the waning years of the 1980s, the scrappy company provided an alternative to the cutesy, ultra-nice console characters popularized by Nintendo.

Like any underdog worth its salt, SEGA has gathered in its wake an army of diehard fans who can’t get enough Sonic the Hedgehog, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5 and even the original SEGA mascot, Alex Kidd himself. If you count yourself among the Sega faithful, you’ll find a lot to like in SEGA Superstars Tennis, the latest title from Sumo Digital, the UK-based Foundation 9 studio responsible for developing past Sega properties like Virtua Tennis 3 and OutRun 2006.

But even — and maybe especially — hardcore SEGA aficionados will probably find SEGA Superstars Tennis disappointing. Although there are 16 SEGA characters to be found within its mini-games, bracketed tournaments and, yes, even more mini-games, Superstars stops short of delivering either a top-notch tennis party game or an all-out Sega fan-fest.

SSST starts you off with eight playable characters from the SEGA universe: Sonic, Tails and Dr. Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series; AiAi from Super Monkey Ball; NiGHTS; Ulala from Space Channel 5; Beat from Jet Set Radio; and Amigo from Samba de Amigo.

You can use this motley crew to jump into quick-play tennis matches, either locally or online, or you can start whittling away at the mini-games that form the backbone of SEGA Superstars Tennis. Although there is a short tournament mode (I plowed through it in less than 30 minutes), there is no career mode as there would be in a standard tennis game.

Most of your time will be spent playing mini-games in a variety of different SEGA-themed areas. Here, you’ll unlock new characters — like Gilius the non-textured Golden Axe dwarf, Pudding from Space Channel 5 and Alex Kidd — and open new mini-game areas. At first, making your way through the loosely tennis-based games is fun, but many of the stages drag on and the countless variations on the same themes begin to drag quickly.

Some of the stages use their namesakes fairly well, challenging you to use your button-pressing skills to achieve objectives in a manner appropriate to the theme of the stage. In the Super Monkey Ball stage for example, you’re charged with knocking monkey balls through gates by serving tennis balls at them.

Tennis at its zaniest.

A few of the stages are standouts that I found especially fun, at least at first. There’s a PuyoPop Fever area that requires you to clear Puyos within a given time period, and the House of the Dead stage (although curiously named “Curien Mansion” instead) lets you serve tennis balls at shuffling zombies.

But some mini-game stages are either extremely dull (Jet Set Radio), or completely irrelevant. The Golden Axe stage doesn’t take place in Yuria at all but rather recycles the zombie-infested tennis court behind the Curien Mansion. The Space Harrier stage could have been the best part of SSST but is plagued by targeting problems and other strange choices.

Although some of these stages, available in a menu called Planet Superstars, are made up entirely of mini-games, others are straight three-match tennis tournaments or individual singles and doubles matches. If plowing through a mountain of repetitive mini-games on goofy tennis courts sounds like your thing and you’ve been dying for an opportunity to apply Virtua Tennis-style gameplay to a SEGA-themed party game, don’t get your wallet out just yet.

• 1
• 2
• Next
  

March 19, 2008 –
Since its earliest days of arcade glory, SEGA has woven itself inextricably into gaming history. With the introduction of the Genesis in the waning years of the 1980s, the scrappy company provided an alternative to the cutesy, ultra-nice console characters popularized by Nintendo.

Like any underdog worth its salt, SEGA has gathered in its wake an army of diehard fans who can’t get enough Sonic the Hedgehog, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5 and even the original SEGA mascot, Alex Kidd himself. If you count yourself among the Sega faithful, you’ll find a lot to like in SEGA Superstars Tennis, the latest title from Sumo Digital, the UK-based Foundation 9 studio responsible for developing past Sega properties like Virtua Tennis 3 and OutRun 2006.

But even — and maybe especially — hardcore SEGA aficionados will probably find SEGA Superstars Tennis disappointing. Although there are 16 SEGA characters to be found within its mini-games, bracketed tournaments and, yes, even more mini-games, Superstars stops short of delivering either a top-notch tennis party game or an all-out Sega fan-fest.

SSST starts you off with eight playable characters from the SEGA universe: Sonic, Tails and Dr. Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series; AiAi from Super Monkey Ball; NiGHTS; Ulala from Space Channel 5; Beat from Jet Set Radio; and Amigo from Samba de Amigo.

You can use this motley crew to jump into quick-play tennis matches, either locally or online, or you can start whittling away at the mini-games that form the backbone of SEGA Superstars Tennis. Although there is a short tournament mode (I plowed through it in less than 30 minutes), there is no career mode as there would be in a standard tennis game.

Most of your time will be spent playing mini-games in a variety of different SEGA-themed areas. Here, you’ll unlock new characters — like Gilius the non-textured Golden Axe dwarf, Pudding from Space Channel 5 and Alex Kidd — and open new mini-game areas. At first, making your way through the loosely tennis-based games is fun, but many of the stages drag on and the countless variations on the same themes begin to drag quickly.

Some of the stages use their namesakes fairly well, challenging you to use your button-pressing skills to achieve objectives in a manner appropriate to the theme of the stage. In the Super Monkey Ball stage for example, you’re charged with knocking monkey balls through gates by serving tennis balls at them.

Tennis at its zaniest.

A few of the stages are standouts that I found especially fun, at least at first. There’s a PuyoPop Fever area that requires you to clear Puyos within a given time period, and the House of the Dead stage (although curiously named “Curien Mansion” instead) lets you serve tennis balls at shuffling zombies.

But some mini-game stages are either extremely dull (Jet Set Radio), or completely irrelevant. The Golden Axe stage doesn’t take place in Yuria at all but rather recycles the zombie-infested tennis court behind the Curien Mansion. The Space Harrier stage could have been the best part of SSST but is plagued by targeting problems and other strange choices.

Although some of these stages, available in a menu called Planet Superstars, are made up entirely of mini-games, others are straight three-match tennis tournaments or individual singles and doubles matches. If plowing through a mountain of repetitive mini-games on goofy tennis courts sounds like your thing and you’ve been dying for an opportunity to apply Virtua Tennis-style gameplay to a SEGA-themed party game, don’t get your wallet out just yet.

• 1
• 2
• Next
  

March 19, 2008 –
Since its earliest days of arcade glory, SEGA has woven itself inextricably into gaming history. With the introduction of the Genesis in the waning years of the 1980s, the scrappy company provided an alternative to the cutesy, ultra-nice console characters popularized by Nintendo.

Like any underdog worth its salt, SEGA has gathered in its wake an army of diehard fans who can’t get enough Sonic the Hedgehog, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5 and even the original SEGA mascot, Alex Kidd himself. If you count yourself among the Sega faithful, you’ll find a lot to like in SEGA Superstars Tennis, the latest title from Sumo Digital, the UK-based Foundation 9 studio responsible for developing past Sega properties like Virtua Tennis 3 and OutRun 2006.

But even — and maybe especially — hardcore SEGA aficionados will probably find SEGA Superstars Tennis disappointing. Although there are 16 SEGA characters to be found within its mini-games, bracketed tournaments and, yes, even more mini-games, Superstars stops short of delivering either a top-notch tennis party game or an all-out Sega fan-fest.

SSST starts you off with eight playable characters from the SEGA universe: Sonic, Tails and Dr. Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series; AiAi from Super Monkey Ball; NiGHTS; Ulala from Space Channel 5; Beat from Jet Set Radio; and Amigo from Samba de Amigo.

You can use this motley crew to jump into quick-play tennis matches, either locally or online, or you can start whittling away at the mini-games that form the backbone of SEGA Superstars Tennis. Although there is a short tournament mode (I plowed through it in less than 30 minutes), there is no career mode as there would be in a standard tennis game.

Most of your time will be spent playing mini-games in a variety of different SEGA-themed areas. Here, you’ll unlock new characters — like Gilius the non-textured Golden Axe dwarf, Pudding from Space Channel 5 and Alex Kidd — and open new mini-game areas. At first, making your way through the loosely tennis-based games is fun, but many of the stages drag on and the countless variations on the same themes begin to drag quickly.

Some of the stages use their namesakes fairly well, challenging you to use your button-pressing skills to achieve objectives in a manner appropriate to the theme of the stage. In the Super Monkey Ball stage for example, you’re charged with knocking monkey balls through gates by serving tennis balls at them.

Tennis at its zaniest.

A few of the stages are standouts that I found especially fun, at least at first. There’s a PuyoPop Fever area that requires you to clear Puyos within a given time period, and the House of the Dead stage (although curiously named “Curien Mansion” instead) lets you serve tennis balls at shuffling zombies.

But some mini-game stages are either extremely dull (Jet Set Radio), or completely irrelevant. The Golden Axe stage doesn’t take place in Yuria at all but rather recycles the zombie-infested tennis court behind the Curien Mansion. The Space Harrier stage could have been the best part of SSST but is plagued by targeting problems and other strange choices.

Although some of these stages, available in a menu called Planet Superstars, are made up entirely of mini-games, others are straight three-match tennis tournaments or individual singles and doubles matches. If plowing through a mountain of repetitive mini-games on goofy tennis courts sounds like your thing and you’ve been dying for an opportunity to apply Virtua Tennis-style gameplay to a SEGA-themed party game, don’t get your wallet out just yet.

• 1
• 2
• Next
  

March 19, 2008 –
Since its earliest days of arcade glory, SEGA has woven itself inextricably into gaming history. With the introduction of the Genesis in the waning years of the 1980s, the scrappy company provided an alternative to the cutesy, ultra-nice console characters popularized by Nintendo.

Like any underdog worth its salt, SEGA has gathered in its wake an army of diehard fans who can’t get enough Sonic the Hedgehog, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5 and even the original SEGA mascot, Alex Kidd himself. If you count yourself among the Sega faithful, you’ll find a lot to like in SEGA Superstars Tennis, the latest title from Sumo Digital, the UK-based Foundation 9 studio responsible for developing past Sega properties like Virtua Tennis 3 and OutRun 2006.

But even — and maybe especially — hardcore SEGA aficionados will probably find SEGA Superstars Tennis disappointing. Although there are 16 SEGA characters to be found within its mini-games, bracketed tournaments and, yes, even more mini-games, Superstars stops short of delivering either a top-notch tennis party game or an all-out Sega fan-fest.

SSST starts you off with eight playable characters from the SEGA universe: Sonic, Tails and Dr. Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series; AiAi from Super Monkey Ball; NiGHTS; Ulala from Space Channel 5; Beat from Jet Set Radio; and Amigo from Samba de Amigo.

You can use this motley crew to jump into quick-play tennis matches, either locally or online, or you can start whittling away at the mini-games that form the backbone of SEGA Superstars Tennis. Although there is a short tournament mode (I plowed through it in less than 30 minutes), there is no career mode as there would be in a standard tennis game.

Most of your time will be spent playing mini-games in a variety of different SEGA-themed areas. Here, you’ll unlock new characters — like Gilius the non-textured Golden Axe dwarf, Pudding from Space Channel 5 and Alex Kidd — and open new mini-game areas. At first, making your way through the loosely tennis-based games is fun, but many of the stages drag on and the countless variations on the same themes begin to drag quickly.

Some of the stages use their namesakes fairly well, challenging you to use your button-pressing skills to achieve objectives in a manner appropriate to the theme of the stage. In the Super Monkey Ball stage for example, you’re charged with knocking monkey balls through gates by serving tennis balls at them.

Tennis at its zaniest.

A few of the stages are standouts that I found especially fun, at least at first. There’s a PuyoPop Fever area that requires you to clear Puyos within a given time period, and the House of the Dead stage (although curiously named “Curien Mansion” instead) lets you serve tennis balls at shuffling zombies.

But some mini-game stages are either extremely dull (Jet Set Radio), or completely irrelevant. The Golden Axe stage doesn’t take place in Yuria at all but rather recycles the zombie-infested tennis court behind the Curien Mansion. The Space Harrier stage could have been the best part of SSST but is plagued by targeting problems and other strange choices.

Although some of these stages, available in a menu called Planet Superstars, are made up entirely of mini-games, others are straight three-match tennis tournaments or individual singles and doubles matches. If plowing through a mountain of repetitive mini-games on goofy tennis courts sounds like your thing and you’ve been dying for an opportunity to apply Virtua Tennis-style gameplay to a SEGA-themed party game, don’t get your wallet out just yet.

• 1
• 2
• Next
  

March 19, 2008 –
Since its earliest days of arcade glory, SEGA has woven itself inextricably into gaming history. With the introduction of the Genesis in the waning years of the 1980s, the scrappy company provided an alternative to the cutesy, ultra-nice console characters popularized by Nintendo.

Like any underdog worth its salt, SEGA has gathered in its wake an army of diehard fans who can’t get enough Sonic the Hedgehog, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5 and even the original SEGA mascot, Alex Kidd himself. If you count yourself among the Sega faithful, you’ll find a lot to like in SEGA Superstars Tennis, the latest title from Sumo Digital, the UK-based Foundation 9 studio responsible for developing past Sega properties like Virtua Tennis 3 and OutRun 2006.

But even — and maybe especially — hardcore SEGA aficionados will probably find SEGA Superstars Tennis disappointing. Although there are 16 SEGA characters to be found within its mini-games, bracketed tournaments and, yes, even more mini-games, Superstars stops short of delivering either a top-notch tennis party game or an all-out Sega fan-fest.

SSST starts you off with eight playable characters from the SEGA universe: Sonic, Tails and Dr. Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series; AiAi from Super Monkey Ball; NiGHTS; Ulala from Space Channel 5; Beat from Jet Set Radio; and Amigo from Samba de Amigo.

You can use this motley crew to jump into quick-play tennis matches, either locally or online, or you can start whittling away at the mini-games that form the backbone of SEGA Superstars Tennis. Although there is a short tournament mode (I plowed through it in less than 30 minutes), there is no career mode as there would be in a standard tennis game.

Most of your time will be spent playing mini-games in a variety of different SEGA-themed areas. Here, you’ll unlock new characters — like Gilius the non-textured Golden Axe dwarf, Pudding from Space Channel 5 and Alex Kidd — and open new mini-game areas. At first, making your way through the loosely tennis-based games is fun, but many of the stages drag on and the countless variations on the same themes begin to drag quickly.

Some of the stages use their namesakes fairly well, challenging you to use your button-pressing skills to achieve objectives in a manner appropriate to the theme of the stage. In the Super Monkey Ball stage for example, you’re charged with knocking monkey balls through gates by serving tennis balls at them.

Tennis at its zaniest.

A few of the stages are standouts that I found especially fun, at least at first. There’s a PuyoPop Fever area that requires you to clear Puyos within a given time period, and the House of the Dead stage (although curiously named “Curien Mansion” instead) lets you serve tennis balls at shuffling zombies.

But some mini-game stages are either extremely dull (Jet Set Radio), or completely irrelevant. The Golden Axe stage doesn’t take place in Yuria at all but rather recycles the zombie-infested tennis court behind the Curien Mansion. The Space Harrier stage could have been the best part of SSST but is plagued by targeting problems and other strange choices.

Although some of these stages, available in a menu called Planet Superstars, are made up entirely of mini-games, others are straight three-match tennis tournaments or individual singles and doubles matches. If plowing through a mountain of repetitive mini-games on goofy tennis courts sounds like your thing and you’ve been dying for an opportunity to apply Virtua Tennis-style gameplay to a SEGA-themed party game, don’t get your wallet out just yet.

• 1
• 2
• Next