Virtua Tennis 3 was a mighty fine game, so a re-skinned version that focuses on what is arguably one of VT3's best qualities (the mini-games) should be a totally satisfying experience. To a degree, Sega Superstars Tennis fills this role nicely, but at the same time reveals some issues with the simplification that the cartoony art style brings to the classic tennis gameplay. While a pleasant diversion, there's just not much to keep you playing unless you are super tickled by the prospect of unlocking scads of classic Sega characters and their themed tennis venues.

Break Point/Beat

Fans of the Sega brand will undoubtedly rejoice in the inclusion of some favorites in the roster of Sega Superstars Tennis. Of course, Sonic and Ulala are present as well as Monkey Ball-dwelling AiAi, Tails, Sonic's ersatz girlfriend Amy... the list goes on and on. Even Sonic's arch-rival Doctor Eggman wants in on the volleying action. It's surprising to see so many familiar faces in the roster... who knew there were this many recognizable Sega characters to begin with?

Each of these characters has their own themed court, decked out in a similar fashion to the levels of the games in which they appear. There are a few extra games that get some attention as well, like the Curien Mansion from House of the Dead. But, unless you were playing Virtua Tennis 3 and found yourself wishing that there were more blue hedgehogs in it, the copious cameos are not going to be Sega Superstars Tennis's primary draw.


Everything but Tennis

The main game mode is called Superstars and offers a variety of game-themed "planets" that are basically just collections of mini-games that ramp up in difficulty, typically building upon skills that you can apply to the actual tennis-playing portion of the game. Some of these, like the zombie-smashing Curien Mansion mini-games, can be extraordinarily fun, while others become repetitive very quickly (as occurs with the various permutations of Planet Sonic's ring-collection mini-games). What is unfortunate is that if you want to unlock all of the characters and courts (which are ostensibly the key elements of the game), you'll have to slog through all of the mini-games whether you like them or not.

Granted, the game plays almost exactly like Virtua Tennis 3 with shots being broken down into slices, lobs and smashes, so the other modes that focus specifically on simulating tennis (with the added bonus of enabling you to use character-specific special moves) are roughly as rewarding as they were in that game. Still, the special moves don't really provide a compelling reason to play this instead of Virtua Tennis 3 and the lack of the innovative character progression system that VT3 introduced makes Sega Superstars Tennis feel like a childish snippet of fluff fan service.

The final clinchers are the horribly repetitive vocal cues and the frequent loading times. Characters say the same thing over and over again to the point that you'll regret winning points simply because you have heard Ulala's celebratory "Yeah!" a few too many times. While not excruciating, the load times pop up whenever you enter a match or mini-game make things drag a bit when attempting marathon sessions in the hopes of unlocking Gilius, the dwarf from Golden Axe.

Sega Superstars Tennis isn't a bad game, it's just that it offers little to differentiate it from Virtua Tennis 3 outside of the inclusion of classic Sega characters. The controls may have been simplified a bit, but this essentially boils the tennis experience down to a war of attrition where victory is decided by how long you are willing to volley the ball back and forth. It's hardly a compelling reason to shell out more cash for a game that falls short of the pre-existing VT3.