I picked up Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger 10 yesterday.
I cannot even begin to express how disappointed I am with WMP in GST. As a tennis player, I’ve been looking forward to this game since it was first announced with WMP support. Finally, I thought, we’d have a truer representation of actual swing mechanics and the subsequent on-screen animation. Wrong. It’s inconsistent, buggy, and flat out frustrating.
I put a good hour into hitting balls against the ball machine trying all sorts of ground strokes. By the end, I had given up and was just trying to consistently get the right spins! It’s that bad! This is something I can do with a real tennis racket in my sleep, however with this game it feels completely random. The most extreme attempts to generate topspin by angling the racket “face” forward and swing low to high would often still end up on-screen as slice. Sometimes pulling the racket back to begin a forehand stroke led to the on-screen character setting up for a backhand. Sometimes it performed a quick forehand stroke, completely whiffing early. Sometimes it did nothing. It led me on more than one occasion to wonder if my WMP was broken. Calibrating the WMP changed nothing and judging by what I’ve seen so far in Tiger 10 it’s working just fine.
After getting thoroughly disappointed by the WMP, I tried the game with the standard Wiimote. Lo and behold, it’s easier to more consistently get the correct topspin and slice than it is with the WMP! It’s not tennis, but it’s not just pure randomness.
Honestly, outside of Resort which I’ll play with my kids, I am just giving up on the Wii. Major letdown.
I can’t find a single review of Virtua Tennis 09 anywhere. From what I am reading, GS is a let down, especially compared with Tiger. I was going to pick up Prototype, but it’s looking pretty lack luster.
**Edit…found this…
"1. Online play - This is the big one - AWFUL! It’s so laggy it’s not worth playing. Considering this is the big difference over VT3 I can’t believe Sega got it so WRONG. Hello!!??? Developers??? I’ve played people all around the world with Fifa09 - no lag, even during ‘BE A PRO’ mode where it’s 10 v10!!!
The serve glitch returns! - It’s obvious VT2009 was not built from the ground up, the menu sounds are a dead give away. If you played VT3 you would know about the huge glitch - always having to serve at the top when playing a two player game during a tie break. It would stop rotating.
Well true to form VT2009 has the same problem… regardless if you select ‘random’ or ‘server at the bottom’ the server is still at the top!
Store glitches - Numerous glitches in the store, too many to mention.
Game freezes - mid game, need to restart system
Point doesn’t end - two player game, 1v1, you hit a winner and nothing happens!! The ball just sits there against the back wall near one of the ball boys. The players are free to run around the court but the ball is no longer in play. Huge glitch - No choice but to exit game and start again."
Can’t speak for the bugs and such since I haven’t played the game, but the game obviously wasn’t what you were looking for. Your tennis skills shouldn’t translate because it’s a video game and not a straight up simulation. You’d probably have more fun actually learning the game rather than trying to play real tennis with it.
It seems the Wii was just not for you. Expecting simulations and real life controls out of a gaming system was never what Nintendo was going for. Plus, why would you want to play an almost exact replication of a sport in a video game when you can do said sport in real life?
Hopefully if the basketball mechanic in this works well that could be the answer EA is looking for to get basketball correct. I didn’t know there was an Airplane game in this either…that could lead to other things as well…I don’t even have to mention what I’m thinking of for that. That sword section at the end with the guy whopping people on the bridge looks fun…and they also brought back wii bowling. So I’m guessing this is going to be Wii sports with better controls and like several other new games. If Nintendo wanted to be cool they’d start switching out the old Wii sports in their box and put this one in instead.
Your last question is a bit ridiculous so I’m not even going to address that. However, regarding expecting a simulation, have you seen the EA marketing material? Phrases such as “1:1 mapping” and “intuitive realistic experience” and “superior racket control” are common. Clearly, EA and Nintendo would like prospective buyers to think that the experience is close to the real thing. It is not, however, and it’s not even close.
For fun, I just took a look now at ea.com. Here’s what they have to say about the WMP integration:
I take issue with every single point. It actually feels better and more consistent using a stock Wii Remote. WMP is a complete failure in this game, which is a shame because it seems to work pretty well in Tiger 10. Then again, I’m a tennis player and not a golfer.
I wasn’t looking for perfection in this game, or even something close to that. I was looking for a game that basically resembles the game mechanics of tennis and this one does not. Quite honestly, I’d rather play Top Spin 3 on the Xbox 360.
I tend to think that this might be EA’s issue. I hate to fanboy myself out, but before the WiiMotionPlus, no golf game on the Wii has felt better than Nintendo’s Golf game on Wii Sports, thus third parties generally tend to do a “below the Nintendo standard” job on creating simulated controls.
And just because a company did it first, doesnt mean they did it the best. I am sure later down the line, someone else will make a better WMP controlled Tennis game.
Actually…the tiger woods games had been getting progressively better and better before WMP. With WMP on it…it just became the punctuation on an already solid game. And the golf game with Wii sports wasn’t all it was cracked up to be IMO but I’m not a golfer.
apparently game sales are struggling but eh…we’re in the middle of the summer…not too surprising. DS and Wii are tag teaming the top spots again followed by 360, PS3, PS2, and lastly PSP. Jesus…DS is doing better than Wii, PS3 and 360 combined.
On the Software Side…5 of the top 10 titles are taken over by a Wii game. Why the hell is Wii Play in the top 10 again? I don’t see anybody coming into my store and buying that game lol. Top game is UFC on the 360 beating out Wii Fit, EA Active, UFC for PS3, inFamous, Pokemon Platinum, Mario Kart Wii, Punch-Out!!!, X-men Origins for 360, and Wii Play in that order.
Arc Rise got 4th spot and just about everything on this list is either on the Wii or DS with the exception of 2 psp titles and Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires for the PS3. Kingdom Hearts for the DS is rolling over every damn thing though.
Hardware sees the list as DSi, PSP, Wii, PS3, 360, and Ds Lite.
7.8 has flaws but said it’s still solid and there was a second take where another reviewer disagreed on this guys point about having it set up like RE4 and suggested it should be an 8.
I’m going to wait a bit before deciding on whether to put Grand Slam up on the list of decent games or not since I’ve only heard one person so far dislike it.
I got another question Warp2. Is the game at least better than Wii Sports Tennis?
Check that shit out. It’s pretty close to a less complex, goofier, 2D Warcraft 3. As in, a side scrolling RTS. Three races, each actually distinctively different, with a nice variety of unique spells. You cast the spells with the cursor, as the units themselves get to moving forward and attacking by themselves upon creation. Destroy your opponent’s base, eliminating their units and towers along the way. Battles get very chaotic. Viking = human/orc. Aztec = undead. Chinese = Nightelf, almost, to further the WC3 comparison. It has a nice light-hearted campaign for each race, fun “challenge” modes (kind of well-made flash game-ish, strangely) and full-fledged, pick a race and map 2 player multiplayer. Controls well and has vibrant cartoony graphics. Looks smooth on my 32 inch LCD with component cables.
1000 Wii points. $10. TEN DOLLARS. Get it!
I want a more fleshed out DS version with online multiplayer.
you know that feature a while back that Miyamoto was talking about where the game will play for you through harder parts if you will it too? it’s going to be in this game. I don’t know exactly what to think about it but as long as the pansy/easy button is optional and he’s actually making stages that you may even consider using it then that’s fine.
I understand that this is early development footage, but that game looks lame as hell. Punch Out is great and all, but with a game like this, I would think that they would have more freedom to move about the arena. Hit detection looks pretty bad as you never know when you are close enough to hit the opponent, thus will encourage “waggling” just so that you can get in the first hit.
Got Let’s Tap today… Unfortunately, the game came with no box, but it is 30 bucks. Been playing the Rhythm Tap mini-game… fun stuff even though it is basically Taiko Drum Master with no drums. Gotta mess with the other mini-games like that running one later.
indeed it does look pretty lame as hell. No reason to try to sugarcoat it. High Voltage seems to be putting a lot of time and effort into their projects plus they also seem to listen to fans. There’s a good chance that what we’re seeing right now could end up being a good game as the final product which is why I think it’s worth it to keep an eye on it. However until that time comes I’m going to remove it from the front page list.
Yeah, I am hoping that is just because its a super early build, because that looks a lot more limiting then the Bushido Blade inspired realistic combat that was mentioned when the game was first revealed. They have until some time next year or whenever they manage to get a publisher for it, and with the Wii Motion Plus, hopefully they will be able to have more freedom in attacks beyond the simple stuff but time will tell.
NMH2 is gonna be that crack. Suda 51 is doing the sequel right by using the 3 B’s. Bigger, Badder and Better. I can’t wait for more info about this right here.