Smash Tennis

The controls of Smash Tennis work similar to other tennis games and especially Namco's previous tennis game World Court Tennis: the player moves the athlete over the court and presses buttons with the correct timing in order to win the match. This time there is no story mode, but a tournament mode instead. Here the goal is to win the Grand Slam by playing various tournament matches. However, a match only has a single set. There are 20 athletes (both male and female) to choose from which have different advantages and drawbacks. The exhibition matches are more free form: the player can choose the conditions of the match, especially the surface which influences the ball physics. Some of them are recreations of realistic tennis stadiums, others are fictional places like a strand or in front of a temple. Here there are optical gags built in, e.g. a mountaineer who falls down when hit with the ball. The "Whistle-Stop-Tour" allows to play against the same opponent on multiple surfaces.