Game Info
Game Name: Super Tennis
Developer(s): Tose/Tonkin House
Publisher(s): Nintendo of America
Platform(s): SNES/Switch
Genre(s): Sports
Release Date(s): August 30, 1991 (Japan)/November 1991 (US)
ESRB Rating: Not Rated
Play on the grass
Hit the courts and serve up some aces! As a tennis pro, you travel the world, play in elite tennis tournament, or buddy-up with a partner. You’ll have to master your backhand, top-spin, lob, back-spin, and serve if you want to keep winning. Plus, it isn’t all hard courts…clay and grass could provide a unique challenge if you want to claim the number one in the world!
Super Tennis (スーパーテニス ワールドサーキット or Super Tennis World Circuit) is a Super Nintendo game that part of Nintendo’s launch for the Super NES. The game was released to critical acclaim and has been rereleased multiple times on later systems.
I remember getting Super Tennis when our local Children’s Palace was going out of business after years of battling with Toys R Us. The Children’s Palace became the town’s first Best Buy…that gives some perspective. It was a time when you played whatever video game you could get, and you played them into the ground. I loved Super Tennis and came to master the game.
Enter one of the multiple tournaments
The game has a decent feel for a video game tennis game. The computer doesn’t always play it safe (it often hits the balls out) and even double faults on serves. This is a nice change especially compared to today’s tennis games where it feels that you just have to keep going until one of you breaks. Super Tennis feels a bit more random and error driven. Hitting the ball out of bounds is very easy so you have to get the controls down to play efficiently (though I will say it can be easy to ace a serve once you “feel” where you need to be).
The format of the game is also nice. You can do the standard quick play and play in doubles. The game’s real meat is the circuit tournament which has you playing against the other computer players with one of the multiple men or women characters. The characters aren’t as finessed as something like Mario Tennis (where one person is a heavy hitter or good at lobs etc), but it does provide some variety to gameplay.
Get the Ace!
The graphics are…Super Nintendo graphics. Mode 7 was a big deal for the Super NES and it gave the games a 3D perspective. Largely, this was ignored in Super Tennis, but the opening sequence and some of the court changes did tap into the gameplay. This is a reason that Super Tennis holds up a bit better than some of the other Super NES titles. I have a hard time understanding what is going on in some of the heavy Mode 7 games (like Star Fox), but Super Tennis just feels like a tennis game (plus, you get fun sound effects and the snooty line judge called the shot…my favorite “Net”).
Super Tennis actually holds up pretty well in a retro sense of gaming. It is actually a bit trickier to master when compared to some of the more modern tennis games because it leaves more room open to player error. The game doesn’t go too complex that only tennis pros can play it, nor does it get too simply that it feels like you’re playing a glorified version of Pong. Super Tennis was part of the Switch’s Super NES launch titles on their downloadable console…so get your retro gaming on and check it out!
