With Wimbledon 2011 reaching its apex, Cubed3 looks at Nintendo’s cunningly timed Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console release of Game Boy Tennis. Does it hold up in today’s market place, though?
Game Boy Tennis is a basic take on the sport that dominates televisions during British summer time. There are no fancy extras: no RPG mode alá Mario Power Tennis, no Virtua Tennis-style mini-games. All that is contained is a digital representation of the racquet sport, the players fighting for supremacy in best of three set matches over four difficulty levels.
Players rally across the court, with the A and B buttons allowing for a mix of shot types to best your opponent. Mario acts as umpire in a typical Nintendo touch, calling you ‘out’ at every possible opportunity – a common occurrence, as Tennis is not an easy game, set and match until you have learnt how it operates.
In fact, some may find Tennis too slow and harsh in this age of relatively relaxed timing windows propagated in part by Wii Sports. Characters run quite slowly, movement is halted dead when the racquet is swung and, unless you get your shot targeting just right, you’ll find yourself feeling the same way Andy Murray does most of the times he plays against Nadal. Push past the initial difficulty, however, and Tennis reveals itself to still be a mildly addictive affair. Match yourself to the game’s pace, master shot direction and accept that the CPU is a cheating little cretin that will occasionally play a near-impossible shot, and there’s some fun to be had here.
Unfortunately, though, the 3DS Virtual Console release of Tennis feels like half a game in some respects, as the multiplayer option has been removed; originally enabled by the Game Boy Link Cable, Nintendo have not updated this to use 3DS’ wireless functionality instead, which would have added far more value to this download. What you’re left with is the chance to do racquet-battle with a single CPU player over four difficulty levels; nothing more, nothing less.
