PixlBit

Grand Slam Tennis began life exclusively on the Nintendo Wii. While versions were planned for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, they were delayed indefinitely, giving players the choice of only the cartoonish, less realistic version of the game. This year, EA has taken it to a new level with Grand Slam Tennis 2, which offers a much more serious game, complete with a new presentation and control scheme.

In part of achieving a more realistic tennis title, EA has done their due diligence in licensing players to appear in the game. Nearly everyone notable is available, allowing players to choose from the likes of Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, and star, John McEnroe. In fact, John McEnroe is the co-commentator in the game during match play. All of these athletes have been expertly created in digital form – their play style, tendencies, and movements are all spot on. The game's excellent animation helps showcase these subtleties. There are very few instances where the tennis stars will make unnatural movement towards the ball. Clean hits and proper and consistent speed help make for a pleasant experience.

Despite its clean outward appearance, Grand Slam Tennis 2's gameplay isn't quite there. That's not to say that it's particularly bad, but it has trouble stacking up to some of the competing tennis games on the market today. This is due in large part to the new control scheme that requires players to use the right analog stick to serve and hit the ball – Total Racket Control. Though EA Sports has made a huge push for total control features in all of their new sports games this year, here it doesn't seem like it was the right decision.

You push forward for flat shots, pull back for slices and flick forward for top-spin. Along with all of this, the direction you push them in determines the direction of the ball. Learning to use these controls well enough takes hours of training. A training academy, guided by John McEnroe, takes you through each motion, one step at a time. McEnroe is a harsh trainer, tasking you with hitting the ball perfect, from the proper position. Needless to say, you'll mess up quite frequently, but this strict training becomes useful as it will allow you to make better slices and stronger hits during match play.

After learning the controls, it becomes apparent that it's almost impossible to hit the ball out of play during a match. It seems that as long as you make contact, the ball will almost always stay within the boundaries of the court. As such, it makes the total racquet control training feel like a waste.

Given the various types of hits in a tennis game, the Total Control option doesn't feel like the right choice. It has worked great in EA's other series, but here, it makes the game somewhat difficult to enjoy. Often, I found my player swinging either way too late or way too early, which provided the bulk of my frustration. Thankfully, you can take use of a button to hit the ball, subverting the intended control scheme – I found myself using it more and more because I could more accurately hit the ball.

Another problem I found is that sometimes your player will automatically move for the ball, which slightly diminishes the Total Control features, as you clearly don't have total control when this happens.

Despite the less traditional controls, Grand Slam Tennis 2 maintains the basic singles and doubles exhibition mode, along with a career mode. With no modes out of the ordinary, it's mostly a dry experience. Career Mode tournaments are long and boring, and the repetitive commentary from the announcer makes the experience feel even drier. A bit more creativity, like what's seen in Virtua Tennis and Mario Tennis would've gone a long way.

Grand Slam Tennis 2 in spite of its numerous flaws is still fun to play in small doses. At its budget price, it's not a terrible purchase, but you'd be better off spending the extra cash and grabbing the latest version of Top Spin.