Smash Court Tennis 3

SCORE: 86

Smash Court Tennis 3 has a lot of things going for it, as long as you the reader know what you are getting yourself into. This Playstation Portable game is a wonderful tennis simulation. If you walked onto a tennis court you would not start to dominate the professional players. Namco Bandai has done an excellent job in teaching gamers humility. Winning is possible, but it takes a lot of training and hard work. They also included some interesting arcade style mini games with Pac-man being the ball, and a Galaga based one as well.

The graphics in Smash Court Tennis 3 really shine. This PSP game looks really good. The facial shots of the players, along with the courts shine. The one area in the graphics that was out of place was the people in the stands. They look like cardboard cut outs that are blowing around in the wind. The female characters dress as they do in real life, however this was never emphasized. The animation would also occasionally have a choppiness here or there.

Namco Bandai also spent extra time getting the tennis sounds down. The squeaks of the tennis shoes, and the bounce of the ball work amazingly well. The announcers all have very nice accents from their country of origin.

If you can handle a challenging tennis game then Smash Court Tennis 3 is right up your alley. I would enjoy watching the computer character run me all over the court to learn from them. There are plenty of different modes, and mini games to keep the tennis sports gamer busy for a fairly decent amount of time. In my humble opinion this game is worth your hard earned dollars.

I found a few issues with the gameplay in Smash Court Tennis 3 though. There were times that I hit a certain button thinking I had missed the ball, and somehow I returned it. The button layout makes me feel like an octopus trying to do everything in order to win. The computer controlled characters react very intelligently in most circumstances. The game is still playable, especially if you do not try to use all the different kinds of shots.

The mild violence comes into play from the mini games, and is rather cartoonish and mild. Losing players showed their dismay, but thankfully never to the point of embarrassing themselves of me. I would like to see some more sequels to this franchise especially if the few issues are addressed. Overall it is a safe game for most of the family.
- Frank

Graphics: 87%
Sound: 91%
Replay/Extras: 89%
Gameplay: 79%
Family Friendly Factor: 84%
System: Playstation Portable
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Rating: 'E' for Everyone
{Mild Violence}

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