Previous Next

Tennis is definitely upon us, what with Wimbledon just having finished and the footie season over. So why not hunt out your racquet and trainers and get yourself down to the nearest tennis court? Well, it all sounds a little too much like hard work, doesn't it? Alternatively, if the nearest to exercise you get is lifting a pint to your mouth then Jimmy Connor's Great Courts 2 could be your class of Robinsons.

It's probably best to ease yourself in gently with a bit of practice with the Ball Machine. This is essential to familiarise yourself with the controls and get to grips with the different strokes. It's not too complicated at this stage - your ST controls your player's movements and you control the shots. You can program the machine to vary the speed and frequency of the balls and you can also move the machine in front of or behind the net.

Once you've become a little more confident you can progress to a friendly match. Here you are in complete control of your player. You can choose to play against an ST-controlled opponent or rope in a friend which is a lot more fun.

Serving is achieved by holding down the Fire button, aiming your ball in a ring in the opponent's court and releasing the fire button when you've positioned the ring. Your player's movements correspond exactly to the movements correspond exactly to the movements of your joystick. To return the ball, get in position, hold down the Fire button and release it when the ball comes towards you. When you press the Fire button your player's movement is interrupted. You need good co-ordination and joystick skills to get your player in position quickly to return the ball. It takes a while to get the hang of it as the pace of the games is pretty fast.

After you've mastered the movements and strokes it's time to reap the rewards and earn some mega bucks in the tournament. You have to set up the tournament fixtures by selecting the competitions that you want to play in. You can also choose whether you want to play doubles or singles. Each tournament shows how much prize money is available which indicates the difficulty level of the match.

The Preference Menu consists of two sub-menus: The Court and The Player. The Court Menu enables you to choose which court you want to play on, whether to play singles, doubles or play in "dirty mode" - a three-player game described as "a new challenge for champions". The Player Menu enables you to modify your player's characteristics.

Each player can be controlled by four modes: Computer, Junior Average and Character. In Computer Mode your player is completely controlled by your ST. In the Junior Mode your ST controls your player's movements and you control the strokes. In Average and Character Modes, you have complete control over your player's movements and shots. The sprites are reasonably well animated, though they're not very detailed. Sadly, there isn't a Jimmy Connors sprite, nor are there any other big tennis names for that matter. But you can play Lother Schmitt or Thomas Hertzler. So that's alright then. There is a little sampled speech - the umpire speaks in a bad French accent and the crowd produce a small burst of applause when a set is finished. The ball makes a squelchy wellies-stuck-in-mud sound, not terribly realistic. Perhaps this is the place for you to insert your own sounds here; a few of Conner's grunts, the odd expletive or maybe a McEnroe-style argument with the umpire.

If you enjoy sport sims, you'll love Jimmy Connor's Tennis. If you don't then you'll probably find its appeal a little limited. It's fun for a while providing you play a game with a friend, but it soon gets boring. It's certainly not to be played on your own unless, of course, you haven't got any friends then you'll have to play against the computer. Tennis is a fine traditional English game so keep up the fine English tradition that it is and play a "proper" game instead. It's a lot more fun and it's really rather good for you.

1. Mildly entertaining, provided you play with a friend.
2. It's something to do on a rainy day.

1. The controls don't capture the real 'feel' of the game.
2. It's really rather dull.