AO Tennis 2

AO Tennis 2 feels like a sports sim built first and foremost to correct its predecessor's mistakes, and that's a directive that pays off for tennis fans.

AO Tennis 2 is a bright, likeable tennis sim with bags of room to grow, and as it stands is easily the best tennis game of this generation.

There’s not a great deal of competition out there when it comes to tennis games on current-gen consoles, but it’s safe to say AO Tennis 2 is one of the better options. If you can forgive its overly-long load times and mediocre graphics, it’ll provide you with plenty of options for a solid game of tennis – which is really all we can ask for, isn’t it?

In my experience, AO Tennis 2 doesn't do justice to tennis either, even though I wouldn't exactly give tennis itself a glowing review. Beyond my ability, it might be a game where the technicalities become second nature, where I don't get hung up on fiddly execution, and where repetitive struggles are replaced with cunning strategy. I've seen glimpses of that, I think. But the road there is too fru...

A solid, but still returnable, second serve that could use a little more mechanical tinkering.

AO Tennis 2 could have been named Nick Kyrgios: The Game and we doubt anyone would have batted an eyelid. The controversial Australian superstar is a compatriot of developer Big Ant, and has clearly inadvertently influenced the studio’s sophomore Australian Open tie-in. With a morality system allowing you to react positively or negatively to every point, as well as the World Number 30’s now-tradem...

While the original AO Tennis may have launched with enough squandered potential to make even Nick Kyrgios shake his head, AO Tennis 2 has taken a major stride forward to more closely resemble an Ash Barty-style all-rounder. It could yet benefit from more balancing and bug fixing post-release, but as it stands AO Tennis 2 is the best videogame simulation of the sport in years.

Let's be honest about AO Tennis. When it was released, it wasn't exactly a good game. Big Ant Studios, developers of Cricket 19, have certainly improved in their Cricket games output over time. AO Tennis 2 is only their second game covering Tennis so following the first release and the improvements made after launch, have Big Ant Studios learned from and improved on their previous outing?

These are dark times for tennis video games. When was the last time we got an actually decent tennis game on a console? Tennis World Tour was terrible. Mario Tennis has fallen from grace with its awful Wii U iteration and its underwhelming Switch version. The less I talk about that terrible shovelware tennis title for Switch, the better. Finally, there was AO International Tennis, a game with a lo...

When AO Tennis launched two years ago, it quite plainly suffered from being rushed out in an attempt to capitalise on the Australian Open tournament itself which happens every January. What Aussie’s received could politely be referred to as a double fault, with jarring gameplay and matches that didn’t flow very well, among other problems. Local developer Big Ant seemingly had their heart in the ri...

Flow is important in tennis, but it’s hard to get in the groove in AO Tennis 2. Rough spots in the gameplay, including wonky animations and that dreaded feeling that some outcomes are pre-determined, undermine a game that nevertheless includes an admirable career mode. It’s not a loss in straight sets, but it’s a defeat nevertheless.

AO Tennis 2 can be a hell of a lot of fun, but if you’re easily annoyed by some inconsistent controls and a steep learning curve, you’re better off avoiding this one.