Tennis (Game Boy)

[jon]

And here's my 2nd and last tennis post. This game is really fun. The 4 skill levels really ramp up and it's taken me nearly a week of playing a lot to finally soundly beat level 4. This one is great.

[jon]

I just beat it on the hardest level (best of 3 sets) without losing a point it’s best of 3. This along with the first 2 Supee Mario Land’s are smashing games. I’m looking forward to discovering other Gameboy games preferable from ‘89-‘90

[TheEagleXIII]

I remember playing this a lot as a kid but can't remember what difficulty I ever went up to. Thinking back, it's a shame there was no tournament mode or anything. But I guess back then just playing a single game was enough entertainment, especially as the gameplay was so solid for the time.

I really need to go hunt out my old Game Boy.

[jon]

I remember playing this a lot as a kid but can't remember what difficulty I ever went up to. Thinking back, it's a shame there was no tournament mode or anything. But I guess back then just playing a single game was enough entertainment, especially as the gameplay was so solid for the time.

I really need to go hunt out my old Game Boy.

The 4 skill levels ramp up. On each level the player and the computer hit the ball harder and harder. So on level 4 you can hit it a lot harder than 1-3. The overheads are great. I was glad there were tiebreakers. The first time a set got to 6-6 I was hoping there would be a tiebreaker and there was. And it stayed to the rules too. It was really fun because I hadn't yet gotten really good at the game. One thing that's great is that when you load up the game, within seconds you're on the court playing. It's great playing games like that.

[goldenband]

Definitely the best of the three tennis games on the monochrome Game Boy. It offers a stiff challenge, especially on Level 4, until you find a pattern that consistently works. In my case, that was (1) serve out wide, (2) hang back for just a moment to make sure the CPU doesn't lob you, (3) put away a sharply angled volley at the net.

I never did get the hang of managing the CPU's lobs -- no matter what I did, my player would almost always either flail away haplessly or hit them into the net.

By the way, there's a weird bug in the game where you can drop the ball when you're serving and get credit for an ace! I've never tried it, but the TAS does it every time.

As for the other two, Top Rank Tennis is decent (but using the Select button for gameplay isn't such a great idea), while Jimmy Connors Tennis is painfully slow and repetitive.

[jon]

Definitely the best of the three tennis games on the monochrome Game Boy. It offers a stiff challenge, especially on Level 4, until you find a pattern that consistently works. In my case, that was (1) serve out wide, (2) hang back for just a moment to make sure the CPU doesn't lob you, (3) put away a sharply angled volley at the net.

I never did get the hang of managing the CPU's lobs -- no matter what I did, my player would almost always either flail away haplessly or hit them into the net.

By the way, there's a weird bug in the game where you can drop the ball when you're serving and get credit for an ace! I've never tried it, but the TAS does it every time.

As for the other two, Top Rank Tennis is decent (but using the Select button for gameplay isn't such a great idea), while Jimmy Connors Tennis is painfully slow and repetitive.

I also had trouble with the lobs and still do most matches. I agree about serving wide. When I'm playing really well I have a few times gone matches without losing a point on serve. But there's always a few points on serve when things get really dicey. I got lucky the match I didn't lose a point. The worst is when the computer gets a lob past you and you have to lob it back from behind the baseline. But he didn't hit it back. There's a glitch where if you lob from behind the baseline in desperation always, sometimes it'll bounce twice without the computer hitting it. He netted the return that time, which he also does at times when returning those desperation lobs.
I had a lot of trouble with lobs. I still do, but I started a strategy that works now. When he lobs it, I lob it back to the back left of the court. Sometimes he'll lob it back and I keep lobbing it back left. At a certain point he'll do what he usually does, hitting hard ground strokes. I've learned how to get into pretty good position to return it. That works a lot. I did beat it once without losing a point. But almost every match I lose a lot of points, probably around 8-10. I still will lose 1 game in a match every so often. It's basically always on the computer's serve. That's one thing that's realistic, is losing on his serve. It's a very realistic game. I always felt Nintendo's 8 bit sports games were good at being realistic with the technology they had at the time.

[VideoGameCritic]

This game is outstanding. Perhaps the best pure tennis game I've played.

[jon]

It's remarkable. I take it too seriously and the computer always wins too many points to drive me crazy. But afterwards, I kind of respect the computer. I memorized basically all the movements, and still lose a lot of points most matches. The viewpoint is great. And it's from early in the Gameboy's run which seems a lot more interesting than well into the 90's.

[jon]

I haven’t played Virtua Tennis in a long time, but I really think this is the best tennis game of all time. I also think it’s one of the best video games of all time. There’s so many little things I learned over the months to improve.
One thing that’s amazing is after a great long rally the fans will cheer. They only do that after games or when there’s a long rally which is amazing. It’s such a thrill when the computer lobs it really high into the air and then hitting an overhead smash winner. If there are more games like this and Super Mario Land on the Game Boy I need to find out.
I tried Operation C. It’s really good but the limited continues drives me crazy. I’m sure I’ll figure out codes to eventually use.