Lukasz gives his in-depth hands on impressions of EA's new tennis game. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=18275 Out of all the games at the EA New York City event, Grand Slam Tennis was the most impressive. I was literally blown away and pleasantly surprised by how fun this game is. While the graphics aren't in the same realistic vein of other EA Sports games, the graphics and art style look great and are very appealing.
Before we played the game, the EA representative demonstrated the difference between playing it with a normal Wii Remote versus playing it with Wii MotionPlus. While the Nunchuk can be used for analog character movement, he didn't show this. The game plays fine with the Wii Remote only, as the characters automatically chase after the ball in a realistic fashion. If players need to override the automatic movement, or position the character closer to the net, they can do so with the D-pad. The game plays perfectly fine with or without Wii MotionPlus; without it, there are button modifiers to perform a lob with the A button, or a drop shot with the B button. With Wii MotionPlus equipped, lobs and drop shots can be performed by motion control (the button modifiers are also present if you have a Wii MotionPlus attached to the Wii Remote, should players prefer to use them instead). I noticed during the presentation that MotionPlus adds accurate racket rotation, and the motion control precision is better in general. One very interesting note regarding Wii MotionPlus is that the game calibrates the peripheral during load times, setting itself seamlessly before and after matches. Outside of the loading screens it also mentions that it's calibrating the peripheral, but the calibration process is transparent and happens in the background.
After the demonstration, the EA representative let News Editor Neal Ronaghan and I play some versus matches. We were both impressed by how the game controls, even without the Nunchuk. The players chased after the ball realistically, and I never felt that I was handicapped without a Nunchuk. Whenever I needed the character to go closer to the net I simply pressed up on the D-pad, and if I wanted the character further away from the net I pressed down on the D-pad.
We were then able to test the game with Wii MotionPlus. Since the representative only had one Wii MotionPlus controller, we had to alternate using the peripheral. I originally was afraid that we would be handicapped because one player had the peripheral and the other didn't, but to my surprise, there was no handicap at all. I was able to beat Neal even though he had the peripheral, and Neal was able to beat me when I had the peripheral. While it may sound a little discouraging that Wii MotionPlus yields no major gameplay advantage, I have to commend the developers for reaching out to a broad audience without alienating or segmenting the user base in any way, while retaining a great balance.
The representative also commented that the game treats each player equally on and offline. If a player has the peripheral, their opponents will be able to see the differences visually in their subtle racket movement or the player's position on the court. They will also see an enhanced freedom of movement if they have a Nunchuk attached.
The game was very engaging, and I can say that I enjoyed Grand Slam Tennis more than Tiger Woods 10. IÂ’m generally not a huge fan of EA Sports games, but I can definitely say that this is one EA Sports title that I want to buy.
Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Grand Slam Tennis (Read 1721 times)
