Outside of Nintendo, few videogame companies have the depth and variety of characters worthy of putting together a company-driven title you would want to play. Sega is in that rare breed that can pull it off, gleefully milking the warm and fuzzies out of your childhood with Sega Superstars Tennis.
The game is really part arcade-style tennis and part tennis-based minigame collection. For the tennis portion, the game performs well enough. The tennis is light on realism and not as lightning-fast as you expect. It may oversimplify things, but matches turn into tense battles rather quickly. Each character gets their own skill that they are best at, which works well to make certain characters work better than others based on your style of play. The lone exception seems to be those with 'spin' as their skill, as it never seems to do much for them. It seems nearly impossible to nail a cross-court shot past a fleet-footed opponent like Sonic at times, but long rallies do boost your chances to see the explosive Superstar moves.
Each character starts the match with an empty star under them. As the match progresses, each time the character hits the ball, the star fills up a little. Eventually, when the star is full, you can unleash your character's Superstar move; which vary for each playable character. Some moves, like Amigo's 'make-your-opponent-dance' samba, are more effective than others are, though most seem to create enough confusion to present a challenge for your opponent. Unfortunately, your opponent has the same abilities, and never hesitates to use them.
The game offers single matches and tournaments both online and off, but the meat of the game comes in the Superstar mode. Inside, the game offers several classic Sega games as the backdrop for tennis action. Each game world has its own set of matches, tournaments, or minigames to play through. Completing the various challenges unlocks other characters, music, and game worlds to explore.
Many of the minigames are downright goofy, but it is hard to argue with the fun of knocking over zombies with tennis balls as Sonic's rotund arch-nemesis. The zombie filled minigame challenges of Curien Mansion are a blast, until the final offering where you face the seemingly impossible task of clearing a path for five humans to cross the court full of zombies. Some of the more inspired minigames, like the clever graffiti-coloring Jet Set Radio challenge, really stand out as personality-filled gems. The best of the bunch is easily Puyo Pop Fever's unique set of bubble-popping challenges. Sadly, not every game world offers these minigames; with lands like Outrun only offering up two tournaments and no minigames to participate in.
