Hot Shots Tennis (Sony PSP)

This is one of the few games that I bought right away after trying the demo. The gameplay is awesome, it's really easy to get a grip of the controls. The graphics is the best part, you'll have so many different characters and tennis courts to unlock. You can buy accessories as you earn points after winning matches. The game has multiple modes you can play in. And if your friends have the same game, you can play together thru ad hoc up to 4 people. After playing a bunch of rated Teen or Mature games, it's really fun to enjoy this relaxing game.

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I love watching tennis on TV and have many tennis games, for the GBA, the Nintendo DS and the PSP. But with this game it's the first time that I could actually win a match, tho just barely. I, too, didn't like the idea of there being no training sessions, but you can also use the exhibition matches for that. I'm glad I bought this game. The last tennis game I bought was Mario Tennis for the GBA (I love Mario, and Yoshi!), but they're pretty rough on you when you mess up a tennis practice.

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I've been a huge fan of the Hot Shots Golf franchise on PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP systems. Having played every single HSG game, I'm very familiar with the theme and the unlock structure of these games. Hot Shots Tennis follows a very similar structure since they are created by the same producer (Clap Hanz). There is one big exception -- Story mode. The single-player campaign mode is structured around a story of a world-travelling tennis star (you) visiting various locales and meeting different players. The story itself is comical and generally trivial, but it does provide a fresh presentation that enhances the overall feel of the game. Through the Story mode, you encounter opportunities to play both singles and doubles matches against AI players presented mostly at random, which I think is great. There is a slight 'sandbox' feel to this setup as well; within each location, you can roam/explore the map, find hidden bonuses, and choose which AI character to play a match against. At times you are given side quests that are not related to tennis at all, but provides interesting diversions from the 'tennis' aspect of the game.

As for the gameplay itself, the physics of striking a tennis ball is handled extremely well for both singles and doubles matches. In comparison to Virtual Tennis: World Tour on the PSP (which I've played and completed years ago), there is a much higher variety of possible outcomes when you try to hit the ball. The same goes for the AI as well. The controls are handled well, and the AI is not as 'cheap' as VT:WT, meaning the AI player does not consistently return 90% of your shots, is not able to cover the entire court with ease, and does not smash every single lob you hit as VT:WT seemed to do. One minor thing that is inferior to VT:WT is that there are NO mini-games to build your skills; all skills must be earned by playing matches with the AI, which is not really a big deal I don't think. One comment about the partner AI in doubles match - the AI is superb, moving around the court and covering open areas as you might expect in a real match. I was quite impressed that the AI seemed to know exactly when to move to the net or return to the baseline in different situations.

After trying the demo, I was not sure what to expect but I took a chance, and I am thoroughly impressed by this game now after playing about 5 hours total. One note about the game format -- the full game can be downloaded from PS store for the same price ($19.99) as the UMD version, but it requires 1.1GB of space in your memory stick. I opted for the disc version since I did not want to purchase another MS just for this game. Also, I was pleasantly surprised that the UMD includes an option to install a ~40MB file to memory that reduces disc reads significantly as compared to many other PSP UMD games I've played; as a result, the load times are very short.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this game to any fan of tennis or even Hot Shots Golf. If you have doubts, download the demo from the PlayStation store first. You will be hard-pressed to find another game as entertaining as this on the PSP!

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