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Genre: Sports Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: EA Canada Players: 1-4

By Keith B (29th Jun 2009)

On a rare occasion, realism is a double edged sword, although to be fair it is a damned rare occasion. You never hear fans of Operation Flashpoint complaining that it was just too hard to play, or Forza 2 racers whinging about the car tweaking you can do. I wouldn’t imagine either of those player sets will bump into Grand Slam Tennis, but that’s beside the point.

As EA’s first foray into the tennis world in well over a decade, it certainly does all the right things. It’s the first tennis game to feature all four grand slams which is a feat in itself, and couple that with a massive roster of both current and former stars and there’s little more a tennis fan could ask for. The authenticity doesn’t end with the player names on the box and roster, they’re well represented digitally. They look like they should if retaining some of the goofiness that Wii characters tend to have, and actually sound brilliant. Sharapova screams as she does and Nadal sends forth aaahhh’s just like real life. The only down side to the audio is that the voiceover work is intensely repetitive when playing another human, although “That’s a complete air shot” was probably said so much because we were playing awful.

Swinging your Wiimote around the room to a virtual game of tennis is exactly the sort of pastime the Wii was designed for, and as such it’s one of the better ways to spend your afternoon. The much-publicised difficulty curve is something to pay attention to though, because while needing to get good at a game to succeed is hardly a real criticism, there’s a little more to it than that.

As the first game to utilise the Motion Plus accessory for the Wii, it takes some getting used to. Consider though that motion controllers have been the talk of the town this month, and while Sony and Microsoft spend their time telling us what it will all be like next year, Nintendo have delivered a serious update to its motion sensing technology.

The basic idea is this: You clip on the bauble thing onto the end of the remote, and are now able to play a much wider variety of shots including slices, top spin, and anything else you can think of. In theory it is, again, the perfect evolution of the Wiimote that should engage gamers on a far higher level and, in return, provide greater rewards for smart play. In reality, while it certainly works well, it requires massive practice to get proficient in it and the game doesn’t do enough to help you along.

A simple tutorial would have helped, but alas, it’s not there. You do get the option to return balls from a machine but it never does anything to help you learn the new range of controls at your fingertips. A small aid of an arrow across the top of the net, indicating where your ball will pass, is unhelpful because the nature of swinging your entire arm doesn’t allow you that sort of timing.



When I said the learning curve was sharp, I meant it. Even on the easiest of settings the AI will return picture perfect balls to your shots as you struggle to both return and couple that with keeping the ball in play. The ruthlessness of the simple modes is such that it never encourages you to play on, always making you feel like the stupid kid in school who was picked last for gym.

Using the A and B buttons to execute lobs or a drop shot respectively is one of the little nuances you have to learn, and while those shot may not technically be motion sensing, they’re seamless to pull off and work well.

Movement too plays a large part in the aforementioned curve. If you’re using the nunchuck too then you have some control over things, but often the computer will place you into situations you wouldn’t expect, like making you backhand a return despite being on the right side to return a forehand shot. These technical moments make it rage-inducing at times.

You can, of course, choose not to go the Motion Plus route and that removes just about all the complaints above, making it play more like Wii Sports tennis. It certainly makes it instantly accessible and might be better for the kids, but really, if that’s the way you’re looking at it then you’re missing the point.



The Wiimote is designed to let you feel like you’re playing the game, so you need to let it. You also need to spend a lot of time learning the ropes, because you didn’t buy Grand Slam Tennis for it to play like Wii Sports. It may be tough to master it but master it you can, and to be fair the Motion Plus does a remarkably good job of recreating what you want when you know how to use it.

The single player career is as you would expect, allowing you to play across all four grand slams with some interesting challenges thrown in between – doubles matches and so forth that unlock new clothing or occasionally a new skill. It does what it should but like most sports games, nothing beats beating a human.

Throw in a roster that’s as good as any tennis game on any platform, the first time any game has had all four grand slams stuck in it, the potential to become a genuinely good player with practice and this is as tennis should be. Not a bad first game for the Wii Motion Plus add-on, so we’re hopeful for the future of the accessory.

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