Amiga Power


International 3D Tennis
By GBH
Amiga 500

 
Published in Amiga Power #17

International 3D Tennis

What do you get if you cross a flight simulator with two tennis rackets and a ball? Depending on who you talk to, either a gimmicky, ungainly mess or one of the more innovative tennis games around. I'd probably put myself in the latter camp, with one or two reservations.

The use of polygon rather than sprite-based graphics means fluid animation and the possibility of seeing the action from a range of different viewpoints. It works a treat, despite looking a bit like one of those strange cartoons on Channel 4. Those reservations I mentioned? It seems stupid that with all those preset camera angles there isn't one that guarantees you're playing with your back to the camera - it's pretty tricky the other way round. (There is a way of manually adjusting the viewpoint, but you have to redo it every time the players change ends. Tsk.) The other snag is that the whole game runs at just ever so slightly below a comfortable speed.

It plays a mean game of tennis, though. At first, even hitting the ball at all seems an impossible task, but stick with it and you'll be coming up with top-spin half volleys with your eyes closed. The sound effects are fab too. Definitely worth considering.

The Bottom Line

A bit slow, and it could be accused of being more of a technical showpiece than a proper game. But it really is damned clever.

Jonathan Davies

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