Review – Matchpoint: Tennis Championships

The ball is (small) and round.

We are not directly spoiled with tennis games. The latest really good game (if we do not count Mario Tennis) was enough Top Spin 4 which came in 2011. I myself grew up with Super Tennis on the SNES and later Virtua Tennisbut I’ve also hit a lot of balls in Top Spinseries. Now is Matchpoint: Tennis Championship here, and the question is whether it’s a worthy challenger or a smash off the sidelines?

The first feeling is that it feels bar-scratched and underdeveloped, both in terms of menus and choices. It feels like a low budget title and does not create any further tennis craving when I start it. With that said, there are the basic functions where the current options are in the menu, with online options, multiplayer mode on the couch and a competent single-game campaign. The 16 players who are licensed are admittedly real, but far from particularly well-known, which feels boring. There are at least five ladies in the crowd so the representation between the sexes is there, even if it is uneven.

The singles game campaign hides more depth than it initially shows. I first have to create my own player (the choices for the appearance are unfortunately quite limited) and then I just have to line up in different tournaments and competitions. Between these, I can also train and level up my character’s different abilities, get new equipment and even hire different coaches depending on what I want to practice. Opponents also have weaknesses that can be revealed during the match. For example, one of my opponents was stressed by lying down. So the more I led, the more mistakes it made. The weaknesses appear as messages during the match when I manage to exploit them. This is a fun thing that makes computer gamers feel alive.

The game mechanics themselves take a while to learn. You have four types: neutral, topped, slice and lobe. Then you can modify them with triggers to create stop balls. What is new, however, is how I get to handle the placement of the balls. As usual, I hold down the button to decide how hard I hit, but while I do, I can also control a sight on the other side of the field – and that’s where the ball will land. This means that I have to keep track of my own player and a sight at the same time. Very confusing at first, but after a while the mechanics started to sit and then it works really well as I always have control over where I want to place the balls.

When I play with a friend on the same screen, both see each other’s sight. This means that the game becomes like a nail-biting game of chess as I have to keep track of his sight, my own and my own player. The matches are sweaty battles that constantly swing between defense and attack. To turn defense into attack and slowly start to be able to play out his opponent and then hit that last ball that he does not reach. It made both me and my partner several times stand up on the couch and shout straight out, both “YES !!” and “NEEEEJ !!” (so his girlfriend wondered what we were doing).

Unfortunately, there are things that lower the rating. The first is the bugs, I have encountered a lot of strange things, everything from the controls suddenly being mirrored to the matches not ending. How about leading 34-4 in the clip, and the match just continues? Then there is something “floaty” with the controls that makes it sometimes feel like the old man is living his own life, taking an extra step, going in the wrong direction and sometimes not hitting when I press the button. Both me and my friend experienced these bugs when we played against each other. The other big mistake is that you can not play doubles – a mode that should be present in all tennis games. The game is not directly nice either, especially up close, the characters feel like they come from one or two generations back. The movements on the pitch are at least smooth, which is always something and the game looks better from a distance.

Despite bugs and other things are Matchpoint: Tennis Championships fun to play thanks to the game mechanics. It is extra fun to drive against friends on the couch and here at home I can see that there will always be some matches “tennis” when we have game nights here in the future. As I said, the singles game campaign is also competent and with a few patches, we actually have a good tennis game here. And that said, regardless of the fact that the competition in the genre is not particularly fierce.

Footnote: Tested on Xbox Series. Released July 7 for PC, PS, Xbox and Switch.