Reviewed: August 18, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Global Star Software

Developer
Hypnotix

Released: July 8, 2003
Genre: Sports
Players: 1-4
ESRB: Mature

9
10
10
9
9.2

Supported Features

Xbox Live Features

A tennis game only makes sense. After all, there isn’t much difference between tennis and volleyball at the core programming level; at least as far as gameplay mechanics go. In fact, the overall presentation and control scheme reminded me of last year’s volleyball adventure.

Outlaw Tennis brings back all of your favorite characters from the golf and volleyball game and adds a few new surprises as well. There are 16 characters in all and just like before you can improve their game skills in a variety of clever mini-games that not only reward you will skill points, but also secretly teach you the subtle mechanics of how to play tennis on the Xbox.

There are a dozen tennis courts that take you from the frozen arctic icepack to the steamy deserts of Mexico to a domed gladiator arena ripped right from Mad Max. You can play on clay courts or the steel deck of an aircraft carrier or the luxurious grassy courts of a South American drug lord. If that’s not hot enough for you, you can take your game straight to hell with lava encrusted courts, or perhaps hardwood floors or the marble Persian palace floor is more to your liking.

Traditional tennis modes are available like singles, doubles, and even the unfair, but highly challenging Canadian Tennis where it’s you against two other players. All of those wacky variations are back including Hot Potato, Casino, Baseball, Football, Pinball, and even Ping-Pong.

Control is simple to learn and difficult to master. The various face buttons control the type of hit; either a flat return, spin return, high lob, or normal hit. You can put additional spin on the ball with the left trigger and turbo charge your hits with the right trigger.

The trick to playing Outlaw Tennis is no different than playing real tennis. You have to get the other guy running, either side to side or front to back. This means you need to master placing the ball exactly where you want it then anticipating where they are likely going to hit it back to you. This gets progressively harder as you advance through the tour and the competition gets wise to your tactics.

Once you hold down any of the hit buttons you start to power-up your return shot. The longer you hold the button the more powerful the stroke, but the tradeoff is that you cannot move while powering your shot. This means that if you are off to one side the other player can aim their shot to the opposite side of the court.

The computer AI is pretty good but also a bit predictable at times. I can almost always win 45-love whenever I am serving, at least in the first half of the game, just by serving shallow then rushing the net and hitting a strong deep shot to the opposite side. Works 98% of the time. Of course if you increase the difficulty these cheap tricks stop working almost immediately and you have quite a challenge ahead of you, almost an unfair challenge.

The game is laid out much like the previous Outlaw games. You are given a few of the characters and a few training exercises. You can build up one or more of these then take them to the Tour mode to unlock new games, courts, players, clothing, and additional training exercises. There is tons of clothing and accessory options in the game including wristbands, rackets, glasses, hats and complete outfits that are divided into tops and bottoms and shoes.

Each character goes through their own personal tour and when you finally win you unlock a character-specific victory movie. Much like the volleyball game, as you play with other characters you will unlock new training exercises. By restricting your access to these mini-games you cannot build-up a super tennis player too early in the game.

Obviously, the designers want you to take all characters through all the exercises to get maximum stat points and create the ultimate tennis pro, but I found it a bit repetitive to take characters I had already finished through new mini-games when I knew I would likely never play them again outside the occasional online match.

Games and matches can range from short to painfully long. There are a few games where you have to play 5 sets per match and each set is best of three so you could potentially play 15 games to win just one part of the tour. These are rare and the game does give you the option to suspend your game between each set.

If I had to pick any single element of this game that I don’t like it would have to be the fighting engine. Hypnotix got it right with the first golf game and has been going downhill ever since. In Outlaw Tennis you initiate a fight with the Y button then simply mash all four face buttons down at the same time as fast as you can. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to lose a fight unless you or your controller is severely damaged. It’s a brain-dead system that basically gives you 30 seconds of “hyper mode” once per set, assuming you choose to fight at all.

Of course the main appeal to any Outlaw game is the presentation and the insane cast of characters. This group just keeps getting bigger and better, as you will instantly see from the opening movie. My main complaint with the presentation is that the designers give you too much too soon. There is some sort of humorous mini-movie after every play and while there is a good selection of clips for each character, they are going to repeat very quickly since you see them whether you are playing them or the computer is. In the Canadian matches you will see movies for three characters at a time.

Each character only has one intro movie so you will start hitting the A button after the first or second time you have seen it, unless you want to admire your costume selection in action. Interesting enough, in several instances the designers have cleverly used the same animation routines but overlaid new dialogue, so even though Natasha has a gun pointed at her fan’s head, there are at least four different dialogues that play out to that scene.

Ultimately, you’ll probably do what I did. You’ll watch all the movies until you have heard and seen them all at least two or three times then you will start mashing the A button to skip them or the X button to skip them all (very nice feature). And when you are totally annoyed by all these interruptions you can switch the movies off entirely in the options and the gameplay will become so fast you won’t believe it.

The Arabian palace is gorgeous and looks like something stripped from Prince of Persia while the aircraft carrier has all sorts of fighter planes and deckhands for spectators. The large mesh dome creates a very Mad Max-like atmosphere with junked cars around the court. You really have to study each and every level to appreciate the details the artists put into these creations.

Of course the star of the show are the “stars” of the show. Sixteen insane characters, many with sidekicks that are just as crazy, all combine to make this the funniest Outlaw game to date. Character modeling is exquisite with smooth curves (more so on the ladies), gradient textures, and some of the most detailed clothing and accessories I have seen in a sports game. Various hairstyles, tattoos, and other options create a very diverse cast of characters and you are sure to have numerous favorites.

The animation is perfection, obviously mo-capped since there is a tennis pro mentioned in the credits. But tennis moves are only a part of this package. All of the characters bust out original dance moves during the opening movie and additional dancing and other entertaining animation awaits during the game. Early on, you will have as much fun watching this game as playing it.

Special effects abound including stunning lighting, weather effects including rain, snow, and fog, as well as realistic real-time shadows. There are also ball trails and fire effects when you turbo-charge your player. The hell level is particular disturbing with all of the fire and lava and the giant Satan lurking courtside.

The soundtrack is a mix of rock, punk, techno, and even some ethnic blends to fit with the “south of the border” and Arabian levels. There are at least 24 tracks and there wasn’t a single one I didn’t thoroughly enjoy, which is a first for me. Normally there is one song that will bug me, but not here.

I’ve logged about 20 hours into this game so far, so I have heard all of the songs multiple times and I am still not even remotely tempted to toggle on the custom soundtrack feature. The music is just THAT GOOD!

Steve Carrel (Daily Show, Anchorman), the former wry and witty announcer from the previous Outlaw games is gone and has been replaced with Steven Colbert, also from the Daily Show. At this rate we can expect Jon Steward to be making the calls for Outlaw Golf 3. Steven does just as good a job as Steve did delivering the hundreds of lines of wisecracking commentary and court and player introductions, all rich with sophomoric humor.

But again, much like the movies, you are going to hear everything there is to hear for each character the first two or three times you play them, then if you are smart, it’s off to the options to turn off the commentary and pick up the pace of the actual game. Just don’t turn it off until you have unlocked everyone and heard everything – there are some real gems in this game.

Naturally, the game of tennis is perfectly suited for multiplayer so you can take on up to 3 friends in one-on-one, doubles, or one-on-two Canadian rules. Obviously, playing against humans takes away any chance you have of using the computer AI against itself, so all those tricks and gimmicks you learned playing alone go right out the door.

There is also excellent support for Xbox Live play, although I couldn’t really find a lot of people playing the game on the few nights I went searching for some competition. I did get to play a few matches here and there and it all ran smoothly. Just make sure you have your character stats topped off because I can guarantee you the online competition already have.

I was moderately disappointed that there was no organized tournament structure or scoreboards, but then again, this game is only $20, so we can’t expect the same level of online support as the big games. There is also the promise of future content as there was in Outlaw Volleyball, but with the recent acquisition of Hypnotix by EA I’m not holding out for any new courts or characters anytime soon.

Don’t get me wrong. As far as I’m concerned Summer can make a pole-dancing appearance in every game I play from here until the end of days, but the wild and crazy cast just isn’t all that wild or crazy after three years and four games.

The best news is that Outlaw Tennis is, at its core, a fantastic tennis game, so when you eventually turn off all the “outlaw flavor” you still have a remarkably fun, challenging, and somewhat realistic tennis game to occupy countless gaming hours, both solo and online. And for only $20, you’ll feel like an Outlaw when you add this to your Xbox library.