Matchpoint – The tried and true Tennis Championship of an ambitious Top Spin emulator

Tennis games have always enjoyed excellent video game adaptations. Considering Pong as the first attempt to emulate the sport of Borg and Sampras, over the years there have been absolute quality simulations such as Super Tennis, Jimmy Connors Pro Tennis Tour or Top Rank Tennis. Even Super Mario doesn’t hesitate to grapple with the racket.

But after the glory of Top Spin 2 and Virtua Tennis 3, games that could seriously reproduce this sport disappeared from the market. He has tried Tennis World Tour and AO Tennis, which have only been controlled by Bigben Interactive in recent years, but results have been mixed.

For those of you waiting for SEGA or 2K to decide to revive their series from the ashes, Calypso Media and Torus Games will try to fill this gap with a product that tries to make reference to the giants of the past. A few days after publication Matchpoint – Tennis Championship tried and we are ready to tell you what we think.

Watching Top Spin

The authors’ intent seems pretty obvious, namely to try to encapsulate the qualities of a game like Top Spin in an experience that can count on an inevitably less impressive budget than the 2K series. Nevertheless, Torus Games He tried to do his homework as best he could and offered an experience entirely based on the PAM Development game.

so we have one button configuration pretty classic, the front ones are tied to a specific shot (straight, overhead, damped and lobe) and the dorsal ones give specific effects. It is noteworthy that the strength and direction of the blow affect the same accuracy, especially considering modern drifts.

In other words, Matchpoint – Tennis Championship puts the outcome of a shot on the player’s hands (and the athlete’s stats): too much force or too much angle will inevitably cause the ball to go out.

A selection that rewards players the most talented and this gives a stronger sense of progression throughout the single-player career: as we or our lower selves hone the skills, their shots will become increasingly powerful and precise, allowing for a greater number of strategies because it will be possible to try. Forcing a rally to displace an opponent.

Career

If you don’t want to use one of the preset tennis players, the developers made one. career mode to advance our athlete. This will unfold quite classically during a calendar where you have to choose one of the two suggested options: are you trying your luck in a Major or trying to win a minor tournament? Are you training for money or doing activities? Each choice will affect the growth path of our tennis player, from her stats to what she can wear.

From this perspective, though decently animated, polygonal models When viewed up close, they are rather ugly and poorly proportioned. On the other hand, the possibilities for aesthetic customizations are good.

In addition to career, it will be possible to challenge opponents online or combine matches locally. Therefore, it is minimal for such productions.

a budget question

The work therefore looks promising, but its limits budget and the studio experience looks set to emerge soon. We’re always talking about a preliminary version of the game, but for now, tennis players seem like infallible machines that can’t miss a shot, if not a few centimeters. It is true that the ball goes out and it does so often, but it always does so because of a wrong calculation of power, not because it was badly hit. This thing is especially noticeable against non-human opponents, real walls can repel any ball we send against them, especially at the start. Our tennis player, on the other hand, seems to be having a hard time keeping up with the frenzied rhythm of his opponents due to an accentuated inertia that slows down his movements.

No, there doesn’t seem to be even an optimal calculation. burnout and tennis players back and forth along the baseline with no rhythm missing or minimal sag.

Not only that: much more remarkable, couple, a discipline that is not exactly new to tennis. It’s true that there are some official tennis players then (there will be 16 at launch and new legends will come in time), but the ATP license and the main world tournaments license are missing. Also in this case are things that you can ignore, but are always nice.

cross play

One of the most valuable elements of Matchpoint – Tennis Championships is its nature. cross platform This will allow tennis players from all over the world to challenge their friends regardless of the platform used. The game we remember will be released to PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox, as well as via Game Pass, so it tries to involve as many gamers as possible to build a huge user base. to bring the competitive side of the game alive.

If you’re interested, the demo is available on Steam here.