Developer(s) EA Canada Platform(s) Wii | Publisher(s) Electronic Arts Genre(s) Sports | |
Release NA: June 8, 2009
AU: June 11, 2009
UK: June 12, 2009
JP: July 2, 2009
INT: June 26, 2009 Mode(s) Single Player, Multiplayer | ||
Grand Slam Tennis (EA SPORTS グランドスラム テニス) is a tennis video game, developed by EA Canada, and was initially released for the Wii on June 8, 2009. Versions for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were planned to be released Autumn 2009, but they have been "delayed indefinitely". Instead, a sequel, Grand Slam Tennis 2, was released exclusively for those consoles on February 2012.
Contents
Some features for the Wii version include online play, Wii MotionPlus functionality, pick up and play, a Grand Slam career mode, and all four Grand Slam locations, including Wimbledon. The Wii version was also the first title in Europe to be bundled with the Wii MotionPlus.
The in-game music was created by Paul van Dyk, who wrote and produced all the tracks in the game.
Players
Grand Slam Tennis features 23 total players, including 11 retired legends and 12 of today's top players at the time of the game's release.
Grand Slam Tennis also includes a "Create-A-Player" mode. In the "Create-A-Player" mode, players can create their own unique player for use in all modes of the game. The player can customize their created player with branded clothing, racquet styles, accessories and physical appearance. Up to nine players can be created at any one time. Pat Cash serves as the commentator even when he is playing in a match.
Venues
Grand Slam Tennis offers 12 different authentic stadiums from all four Grand Slam venues to play in, and is the first video game since Top Spin 2 to feature a licensed Wimbledon.
Modes
The game has numerous modes of play:
Play Now: This mode allows players to enter either a singles or doubles match. This mode is available for both single and multiplayer forms of play.The player is able to select their venue, and to choose settings such as set length, amount of sets, difficulty and the option of a tie-break.
Grand Slam: This mode allows players to embark on a career with their created player.The career involves travelling to each of the four Grand Slam tournaments and attempt to achieve the Grand Slam by winning every tournament. Each tournament begins with a warm-up match against a fellow fictional rookie of average ability. The player can then challenge a legend or current player to a match in an attempt to learn the players special ability, e.g. Rafael Nadal's forehand topspin, or Björn Borg's fitness. If the player is successful with their challenge, they may equip that special ability for use in future matches. The player can equip only one ability to start with, however as the player increases in skill, they will be able to equip multiple abilities at one time. Then the player will take part in a party style mini-game form of tennis along with fictional players, before starting the tournament. Every tournament starts at the round of 32 stage (round 3).
Party Mode: This is a collection of mini-games that are each a slightly altered form of tennis, with slight rule changes:
Online:
Multiplayer
The game has been praised by critics for its addictive online gameplay. No friend codes are needed to play online, however an EA account is required if you want to play the full online experience. Online consists of ranked or unranked matches where you can play anyone around the world. Ranked earns the player points when they beat someone and these points decide what overall ranking you are in the world. Unranked matches are friendly and don't earn any points for the player's online profile. It is good for people who are preparing to hit the leaderboards. When players win ranked matches they do not only win points for themselves but also for their country. There is a national leaderboard which shows which country has the best players.
Reception
Grand Slam Tennis has generally received average to positive reviews, with a Metacritic average of 78%. Official Nintendo Magazine UK gave it 90%, IGN and GameTrailers both listed an 8.5/10, while GameSpot was lower with a 6/10. Eurogamer dubbed it "beautifully intuitive", and IT Reviews called it a "surprisingly strong tennis game and an interesting evolution of the Wii controller too".