Super Tennis Blast (Nintendo Switch) Review

By Athanasios 23.07.2019

Review for Super Tennis Blast on Nintendo Switch

Unfinished Pixel previously made Super Volley Blast; a nice little indie game that was fun despite its minimalistic, non-innovative nature - but nothing more than that. Super Tennis Blast follows the developer's second try at creating such a title, but with another kind of sport. What's the result? A budget-friendly Mario Tennis, or something simply not worth your time?

The extremely simple, colourful cartoon look, gives some strong, mobile-oriented, indie game vibes. Thankfully, once in court, the action feels quite good, with tight and responsive controls, and with the occasional clunky movement being an easy to forgive, minor issue. So, no, a shovelware-esque, Appstore title Super Tennis Blast is not. Having said that, why choose this over any other tennis video game? Of course, no one expects this to be a realistic take on tennis like the Top Spin or Tennis Elbow series, but a more "game-y" kind of experience. Is it one? Sadly not as much as it should.

This is simply way too barebones, with no interesting power-ups, or anything else to spice things up a bit. Apart from a certain mode that lets one introduce all sorts of weird modifiers to a match, this is just tennis, and nothing more than that. It's also pretty easy to get bored while playing due to how the developer has, for some strange reason, removed all music, and didn't handle its creation with an arcade mindset. As a result every match is lifeless, and has a pretty slow pace, something that can bring you to sleep when in the relatively long, World Tour mode.

Screenshot for Super Tennis Blast on Nintendo Switch

That said, the actual process of playing is definitely enjoyable, mainly due to how everything controls. When you try to get in hitting position, pressing a button "locks" the character in place, and, depending on the type of button pressed, you can whack the ball in various ways, providing a subtle tactical aspect to what is otherwise a simple, casual-friendly game. One can also charge a shot to make it more effective, and most importantly, accurate, since you also have to aim with an invisible "cursor" before using your racket, with the risk of throwing the ball out of bounds.

...but all that don't excuse Super Tennis Blast from being so irritatingly minimal. There's definitely a nice variety in modes, which range from the previously mentioned "career" one, where you select a Mii-like avatar (you can also create your own), and try to increase his or her stats by winning matches, the whacky Blast mode where you play with modifiers, a bunch of mini-games, and, yes, the local, four-player co-op fun, which is probably the best thing this has to provide. In the end, though, while this doesn't really do anything wrong, it doesn't do anything particularly well either. It's just… good.

Screenshot for Super Tennis Blast on Nintendo Switch

Cubed3 Rating

6/10
Rated 6 out of 10

Good

There are hundreds of worse tennis games than Super Tennis Blast, but why really choose this over the few better ones. The gameplay is generally enjoyable, but a lack of something that could set it apart from the competition, and the overall feeling of repetitiveness you'll have to endure, make it a hard recommendation - at least at its current price. In other words: wait for a generous discount.

Developer

Unfinished Pixel

Publisher

Unfinished Pixel

Genre

Sport

Players

4

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  6/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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