Genre: Sports
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sumo Digital
Release Date: March 18, 2008

If there's one thing we can learn from Nintendo, it's that mascot-themed games are normally a cash bonanza. The Super Smash Bros. series, along with Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, and all the other Mario Sports games have proven that fans love to shell out to see their favorite characters go at one another in nearly every arena. Sega has attempted to cash in on this craze by releasing Sega Superstars Tennis, but unfortunately, this game's faults go far beyond the tennis court.

The main draw of Sega Superstars Tennis is meant to be the roster. With 16 characters representing a wide variety of franchises, this one is meant to push your nostalgia button. One thing Sega forgot, though, is that most of its mascots are nowhere near as beloved as their Nintendo counterparts. Sure, the game features Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, and Dr. Robotnick (I refuse to call him Dr. Eggman), but that's where the familiar faces end. While some may recognize characters like Ulala from Space Channel 5 or Beat from Jet Set Radio, they just don't have the name recognition of characters like Donkey Kong, Pikachu and Yoshi. With a quarter of the roster already made up of characters from the Sonic series, Sega would have likely been just as well served by making Sonic Tennis and not even bothering with including the others.

Those who are familiar with Sumo Digital will remember that they were the studio behind Virtua Tennis 3. Those curious about whether or not that pedigree carries through will be left feeling satisfied, yet unfulfilled. The main draw of the title is the Superstar mode, in which the characters are subjected to a number of matches and minigames, with the goal of performing well and unlocking new characters, courts and music. The minigames are all nicely tuned into their namesake courses, with the Sonic course putting forth a number of ring-collecting challenges, while the House of the Dead court (here called Curien Mansion) tasks you with eliminating zombies by serving tennis balls at them.

These challenges are fun at first, but they grow stale rather quickly, due to the fact that the basic rules never change; the difficulty just ramps up. For example, in the House of the Dead levels, you must simply wipe out more and more zombies with less and less time in order to succeed. In the Sonic levels, you have to collect more rings and avoid more enemies than the level before. Therefore, what starts out as a fun and quirky challenge soon gets dragged down into the realm of droll and boring.

Aside from the Superstars mode, there are also your standard singles and doubles matches, as well as a short tournament mode that can be knocked out in around 15 minutes. There's really not a lot to do outside of the main Superstars mode, but if you are interested in jumping online and taking on challengers via Xbox Live, you'll be happy to know that the experience is very smooth.

The other question about the game, considering its developer pedigree, is how the actual gameplay will handle. Virtua Tennis fans will remember that shots were mapped to individual face buttons, allowing you maximum control over how and where you hit the ball. Sega Tennis Superstars scraps that system in favor of a direct rip-off of the original Mario Tennis, relegating full control to just two face buttons. The A button allows you to take a shot with topspin, while the X button provides you with the harder, more fiercely spinning shot. Lobs and drop shots are controlled by inputting a combination of the two, and the whole thing feels strangely like the mid-'90s all over again. Just a quick note to Sumo Digital: I've got all these buttons on my controller just begging to be pushed; you can at least expand things a little.

Each character also has a "Superstar move" which can be charged up during the match by making good shots. Unfortunately, most of these special moves walk the line between annoying and useless, and you'll find little use for them aside from yet another reason to swear at the CPU for making a seemingly worthless "Superstar move" into the very thing that ruins your game. Thankfully, this option can be turned off, and I recommend you do so right away.

That brings us to the most glaring issue of the game: inconsistent AI. It doesn't seem to matter what the difficulty setting is, as the CPU apparently randomly decides before every match whether you will win or lose. In some games, I would win in straight sets without my opponent ever scoring a point, while in other matches, I would face the exact same opponent who suddenly seemed to get an injection of athleticism. The most glaring instance of this balancing issue comes when you hit a shot that should be a surefire point, only to see your opponent sprint across courts at hypersonic speed and return a shot with such force that there's no way you can hit it. Then, later in that same match, you'll hit the exact same shot, and the CPU won't even bother to try and make it over. It's really a very obvious issue with the game, and I'm shocked that no one thought to take a closer look at it during QA and do a bit more tweaking.

Ultimately, Sega Superstars Tennis is the type of game that even nostalgia buffs will find difficult to love. The courts are fun, fanciful, and take you back to games that you forgot that you loved. The music is equally good, with tracks from classic games that are sure to bring the memories flooding back. The game is even fun at first, until you hit the curse of repetitive gameplay and inconsistent AI, which is where it all falls apart. Games are designed, first and foremost, to be fun and to keep you coming back for more. Sadly, this title is so frustrating that there will likely come a time when you are cheated out of a match, and you'll remove it from the disc tray, never to play it again. Even with its new discount price, this is a game for only the most hardcore Sega and tennis fans, and even those folks would likely be better served elsewhere. A lot like Anna Kournikova's career, this one starts out promising, but flames out pretty quickly.

Score: 6.5/10