Nintendo Wii Fanboy

The team behind the Wii version of Top Spin 3 was not exactly working in an enviable position. It seems a little funny to call a pack-in game a juggernaut, but that's exactly what Wii Sports is, and any game that sets out to deliver a realistic sports experience to Wii owners is up against that suprisingly excellent set of mini-games. Every tennis game, realistic or not, on the system is going to be compared -- probably unfavorably -- with a game that was free, and that's got to chafe.

Unfortunately, it looks like someone was all too aware of that inevitable comparison, and worried besides, as Top Spin 3 tries too hard to be too many things to too many people. Not only did PAM Development and 2K Sports strive to create a top notch tennis simulation, they also tried to make it easy to pick up and play ... and the two don't exactly go hand in hand when it comes to a deep sports game.

The "hitting balls with stuff" genre has really taken off on the Wii. We've enjoyed light entertainment and small-scaled intensity, but now tennis overlord Top Spin 3 is coming out to play. Will it be awesome? The pedigree of Top Spin lends us to think so, but check out these new screens in the gallery and judge for yourself.

There's no official listing of the available control options, but a hefty wager can be placed on some kind of swinging motion being included. All bets must be placed before June 20 when the game hits the stores.

Despite our enthusiasm (and the enthusiasm of Sega fanboys everywhere) over Sega Superstars Tennis, a release that drips with fan service, the game failed to inspire consumers to rush out and buy the game like they did with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games? Not enough Mario, perhaps? Or olympics?

Whatever the case, slow sales for the tennis title has given GameStop early cause to slash its prices for Sega Superstars Tennis across all platforms, and you can now buy the Wii game for as little as $19.99. It's a great bargain, considering the game was released only a month ago! You can order Sega Superstars Tennis through GameStop's online shop, but why not save a few bucks and pick it up at one of the retailer's local stores?


[Via GameStop circular]

As if the Wii needed any more advertising, a new joint venture between Nintendo and Highland Spring, a bottle water provider in the UK. Also, the promotion will feature tennis superstar Andy Murray, as well as the possibility for UK citizens to win a variety of prizes.

It will start in just over a month, in May of this year. One free Wii will be given away each week, with 32 finalists heading to Roehampton to meet Andy Murray. One lucky finalist will even get to test their abilities against him in a match of Wii Sports: Tennis.

You can enter via text message or by hitting up the official contest site right here.

Sega's decision to release Sega Superstars Tennis in March was a bold one: Many companies moved their releases out of the way of Nintendo's major offering -- and those games aren't competitive multiplayer games starring a cast of iconic video game company mascots from different games, battling on a variety of stages inspired by the games from whence the characters came.

No, we don't think Sega Superstars Tennis is a direct response to or an attempt to compete with Super Smash Bros. Brawl -- if it were, we wouldn't see Sonic in Nintendo's game. Sega Superstars Tennis is a smaller release, meant, we would guess, to bridge the gap between "casual gamers" and Sega superfans. Or, to be more cynical, to be a Virtua Tennis sequel without the likeness rights. Did Sega and Sumo Digital serve up an ace or a fault? Or is the game best analogized by some other tennis term? The reviews seem to range from the ecstatic to the nonplussed. Hit the post break for reviewers' opinions!

As huge fans of Nintendo, we often find ourselves being their harshest critics. One of the problems we've always had with the company was its lack of devotion to a competitive online arena, where gamers could do comparable things online with their Wii that the Xbox 360 and PS3 can do.

Why do we bring all of this up? Well, the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game will have the online play and it's missing from Nintendo platforms because of "time and development resource constraints." We just wonder what kind of constraints would allow them to include it into the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions and not in the Wii version? Hey, we're willing to wait a little longer so long as what we're getting is a complete product and not the table scraps left from the other versions of Sega Superstars Tennis. Sure, we get the best control method (presumably), but is it worth it?

Regardless, we're still excited for the game. We just wish we could enjoy the game with you.


[Via Go Nintendo]

Sega just served up more footage of Sega Superstars Tennis, and all the ingredients are in place for one of the most quintessentially Sega experiences in years: cartoon monkeys called Amigo, blue skies, Ulala, and Sonic's horrible voice. Playing tennis to a rousing rendition of Samba de Janeiro, even in videogame form, feels a bit weird, but we strongly suspect we won't care!

Past the break: footage of Ulala playing on home territory. The resolution of the video isn't the best, but we're sure she plays a shot through her legs, a la Martina Navratilova!

We haven't seen much Samba de Amigo related media for Sega's upcoming tennis game, aside from a handful of screenshots. Fortunately, the Samba stage looks to be pretty great, if we do say so ourselves. The above trailer may be super short, but the stage seems to have all the elements of "awesome," like a cheetah band, good music, and bra-wearing cacti. It's nice to see some fun characters make a return from the original Dreamcast game -- we're sure our favorite maraca-playing monkey would be lonely without them.

After the break, you can also check out the intro trailer for the Sonic's Green Hill Zone court.

Europe might not be able to Brawl with Sonic in March, but they can make the speedy blue hedgehog pick up a tennis racquet in Sega Superstars Tennis. Originally dated for March 28th, Eurogamer reports that the game won't take as long to hit European shores as we originally thought.

While the game's release was only bumped up eight days to March 20th, Europeans can rest assured that they're getting it only two days after us folks in America (compared to the usual gap, that's not so bad). Some of the staff at Nintendo Wii Fanboy are super hyped about this game for the Jet Set Radio references alone, so we hope those of you in Europe who feel the same way enjoy these good tidings. Unfortunately, once again you'll be forced to choose between motion controls and online play.

A lot of things happen at the Oscars, many predictable, and some unexpected, but there's one thing we don't usually expect to see: video games. It's a measure of just how out-of-control the Wii movement is that the console turned up at this year's awards as a joke unto itself that featured host Jon Stewart losing his dignity in a game of Wii Sports tennis to young songstress Jamia Simone Nash of nominated film August Rush.

It's not the first time the Comedy Central "anchors" have exploited the Wii for humorous effect, but the Daily Show's host seemed to need a little more practice with the sports simulation. Either that, or he just wasn't used to the enormous screen the game graced during the awards show. See for yourself in the video after the break.

Rarely has a single game been associated with a console as much as the Wii's pack-in, Wii Sports, has with the Wii. It's so strongly identified that "playing Wii" is often shorthand for "playing Wii Sports." With pretty much every Wii owner obsessed to a degree with Wii Sports tennis, do we need more tennis games? Is it a matter of a popular game creating a market, or are more tennis games on the Wii redundant?

Most of us who own Wiis also own Wii Sports by default. The game full of glorified demos turned out to be a gem, and even if everything had been nixed except for Wii Tennis, this blogger would have been happy with it.

That's why we're excited about Top Spin 3 for Wii. Although 2K didn't make note of motion controls for the Wii version in the press release, we'll assume the game will have them (2K would be daft not to take advantage of the Wiimote). After how fun Wii Tennis was, we could only imagine that a game completely devoted to tennis would be even better.

That's not to say that Top Spin won't face fierce competition (namely with Sega Superstars Tennis.) We think there's a market for both games, though. Some people will want to play with beloved Sega characters, while others might want to play with actual tennis stars. And, some folks might prefer a light-hearted title involving minigames, while others might want a true-blue tennis title. If Top Spin offers online play, that in itself might also be a draw for 2K's tennis over Sega's game, which lacks that vital feature.

Yet, we have to say that the list of playable pros is a little flat (where's recent Aussie Open champion, Novak Djokovic? And why is Rafael Nadal only playable in the PS3 version?). Of course, that's just us nitpicking, since we happen to be big tennis nerds.

Whatever you think of Sega's output since the Dreamcast bowed out of the industry, Sega titles have a history of containing outstanding minigames. Remember how you once skipped three days of university to ace every minigame in Crazy Taxi, or how you would turn down nights out with friends because you wanted to knock down giant skittles in Virtua Tennis? Well, probably not, because those are my memories, but you get the picture.

Anyway, Sega Superstars Tennis looks like it will resurrect this proud tradition of awesome minigames. They're full of very Sega-esque tasks, from collecting golden rings to fending off the living dead to guiding mice into rockets. All of which is enough to make us forgive the game's other imperfections, like the lack of online play, or NiGHTS' plainly ludicrous voice. Go past the break to see why we're looking forward to playing minigames on the Wii again!

Sega Superstars Tennis' joyful habit of meshing together franchises such as Jet Set Radio, Samba de Amigo, Space Channel 5, and OutRun has already left us smitten with the game, even though it's just tennis.

Indeed, our extreme fondness for the title meant it only hurt more to hear that this celebration of Sega awesomeness would not have online play in the Wii version. The sad news was casually revealed in an IGN preview of the title, though we had our suspicions back when the game was announced. We'd gladly exchange the one noteworthy perk of the Wii version -- multiple control schemes -- for a chance to face down fellow Beat fans from other continents.


[Via Go Nintendo]

We know that Sega Superstars Tennis is a tennis game with a bunch of Sega folks in it, but until now we haven't known much else. How would the Wii controls work? What kind of special powers can each character use? CVG sat down with Sumo Digital to discuss the Wii version and get some specifics.

First, and most important for distinguishing between the Wii and other versions, the controls. SST will in fact use a motion-based control setup. As Sumo describes it: "We take the Wii remote's speed and direction and use this to determine the shot you get. But of course, as with real tennis, the better your timing, the better the shot you'll do." With somewhat direct translation between movement and in-game response, this sounds much more Wii Sports and less Rockstar Table Tennis.

The developers also revealed some of the minigame options, which are unsurprisingly based on Sega classics, and can be played single- or multiplayer. They described a Space Harrier game in which the player hits tennis balls at the arcade game's enemies, and a Puyo Puyo game involving a wall of Puyos that must be cleared with tennis balls. In addition, new screenshots (in our gallery) reveal a House of the Dead zombie-killing minigame, and Sonic, Chu Chu Rocket, Super Monkey Ball and Jet Set Radio minigames that we don't quite understand. The screens don't depict the Wii version, but they illustrate new gameplay elements and that is important.

Finally, a couple of new characters were revealed, with an indication that some were still being kept under wraps. In addition to the ones we've seen, Shadow the Hedgehog, Reala from NiGHTS, and Gum from Jet Set Radio will be playable.