I grew up playing tennis, and for a while, I think I was pretty good. I went to tennis camp from ages 10 to 14, and competed in a bunch of tournaments against fellow campers. I never won, mind you, but I will always remember beating one of the better players one year. It was my shining moment as a player.
Growing up, I watched all the tournaments with my mom, and we even went to the Canadian Open a few times. I put my racket down a long time ago, and I’ve stopped following the sport for the most part, but I can tell you that I’ve played a lot of tennis games over the last few years. When it comes to pure fun without a hint of realism, Mario Tennis has always been aces. However, if you’re looking for a tennis game that emulates the real world, I can say with no pause or hyperbole that Matchpoint – Tennis Championships is by far the most fun I’ve ever played.
In some ways, this isn’t the sort of game I though I’d enjoy, because the crux of it is creating your own character to rise up through the rankings of the tennis world. I’ve never been one to get into creating myself or any character for any game, but it takes little time and even less thought to create a player in Matchpoint – Tennis Championships, which means after doing some training you can get right into the game.
The fact that you can figure out the controls and jump into things is a HUGE selling point for me when it comes to Matchpoint – Tennis Championships, and it should be for any tennis fans out there. I’ve played other recent titles where the control was so complex that it wasn’t fun to even train. This game has controls that make sense and are reasonably simple to figure out.
With controls easy and game play smooth, the crux of the game is taking your player (in my case, Andy Burns) through the world of tennis, playing in qualifying matches of tournaments as you aim to raise your ranking and improve your abilites on your way to becoming the best of the world. There are a lot of made up AI players who you actually feel are playing against you, along with some familiar faces to tennis fans including Nick Kyrgios, Kei Nishikori, and Amanda Anisimova.
To reaffirm, Matchpoint – Tennis Championships is, for me as a gamer, the most enjoyable tennis sim I have ever played. If you’re a casual gamer or tennis fan, this is the game to get. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
