Next Generation Tennis 2003

Published by Wanadoo
Developed by Carapace
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Released - Out Now
Price : £29.99

Despite all efforts we still haven't had a brilliant Tennis game on the PC. Virtua Tennis was ported from the Dreamcast early last year and whilst the gameplay was very good, the graphics were horrible and it looked like it was running on an emulator. About a week ago now we looked at Perfect Ace Pro Tournament Tennis, which by all accounts was another disappointment. Will Next Generation Tennis 2003 fare any better? Let's find out.

The gameplay options are familiar to anyone who has played a tennis game before. The modes on offer are Arcade, Exhibition, Career, Tournament, Endurance and Tutorial. Arcade is basically a knockout challenge where you have to win 4 matches in a row. Exhibition lets you create a one off game for up to 4 players. Career mode is basically a weak copy of the career mode found in Virtua Tennis. You get to earn money, practice your skills and compete in one of four championships. You can also unlock additional courses and other bonuses such as different coloured balls and new outfits. Tournament enables you to setup tournaments for up to 4 players. Endurance is exactly that and enables you to see how many opponents you can beat in succession. Tutorial really isn't a tutorial at all. Basically it's just a series of challenges for you to complete.

There are real tennis players to be found in NGT but they are hardly household names. Marat Safin, Alex Corretja, Chanda Rubin and Justine Henin are some of those included and none of them will make you want to own the game.

You can perform four types of shot. There's topspin, lob, flat shot and slice. I'm not totally sure that the ball physics are realistic, as the ball seems to move around with too much ease and the shots feel too easy to perform. The spin shots are also much exaggerated and the ball bends like a banana far too easily. Still it can make for some humorous multiplayer games.

Whilst the gameplay is generally OK there is one crushing fault with the game that prevents it from being a worthwhile purchase. Actually we should have said a crushing double fault. You see while double faults are an occurrence in real tennis they are nowhere near as frequent as they are in NGT 2003. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've won games without even touching the ball. This has happened quite frequently, even on the higher difficulties. Whilst this is a problem that could be fixed on the PC version, via a patch, it would spell disaster if it was present on the PlayStation 2 or Xbox versions. As it stands it completely ruins the game.

NGT 2003 is definitely the best looking PC game on the PC to date. A full range of graphical niceties are available such as anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing (either full or edge) etc. The crowds are still 2D but it's good to see them move. Whilst the game looks great the same cannot be said for the animation, which appears a little wooden at times. This isn't really a problem though and can easily be overlooked.

As you would expect with a sports title there are no real problems for deaf gamers with NGT 2003. The verbal info from the umpire isn't subtitled but when the ball is out or a fault is committed, it is shown in text. All the information outside of the matches is given in text. The manual covers all the relevant information in a short and to the point method too, which is all that's necessary in game such as this.

Next Generation Tennis 2003 is a tennis game that could have been so much better had silly things been put right. Why are there so many double faults? Why when you knock a player out of a competition do you face them in a later round? Why have the controls and physics been over simplified? Had these problems been put right then we might have had a game to beat Virtua Tennis but as it stands, it's severely disappointing.

Overall Game Rating: 5.0/10
Far too many double faults and other silly mistakes prevent this from actually being a worthwhile tennis game.

Deaf Gamers comment:
The umpire isn't subtitled but aside from that there are no problems.