Previous Next

With Wimbledon fresh in people's minds, what better time to release On-Court Tennis. And since sports simulations are all the rage at the moment, this should go down well.

There are plenty of variations built into the game. You can play on grass, hard or clay courts. Then there are four styles of play represented by John Ringler, Bjorn Urgin, Jimmy Orr and Ivan Messier. Each has his own particular strengths — Ivan has a great service, John's best shot is his backhand, and so on. You pick two of these four, either for a two player or player versus computer game, of one, three or five sets.

However good a server you have picked, it's still up to you and the joystick if it goes in. The ball is tossed automatically and moving the joystick triggers the swing. The direction you move it decides which direction it goes, and holding the fire button down adds power to the shot. That I found easy, but the rally is a much more complicated affair.

> The player automatically runs towards the ball and moving the joystick triggers the swing. But this time, the direction decides the type of shot, a top-spin, slice, lob or ordinary shot. Fire gives a drop-shot. This takes a lot of practice, and bears even less relationship to tennis, than wiggling a joystick from side to side does to running. The graphics are excellent, there's a nice musical interlude between games and the accompanying instructions are detailed. Nevertheless, although I was impressed, I was far from addicted.

B.J.