Tennis World Tour 2

Remember earlier on this year, when I reviewed AO Tennis 2 and said that this game was the best tennis game of the entire generation? Well, it isn’t anymore. Coming from the same developer and publisher duo, Tennis World Tour 2 is now the best tennis game of the generation; a massive improvement over the embarrassment that was its predecessor. Why would a developer release two competing tennis gam...

Republished on Wednesday 28th July 2021: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of August's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows.

Tennis World Tour 2 is a solid all-round tennis game, and the inclusion of the wildcard system offers an additional and entertaining tactical layer to consider as you play. It's just a shame that some minor issues hold it back from being great.

On the whole, there are enough changes for the better to elevate Tennis World Tour 2 from being a sub-par to a decent tennis game. Graphically it’s still not going to wow players, and there’s still some work to be done on the animation and AI side if Tennis World Tour 3 ever comes to fruition, but Tennis World Tour 2 is at least now somewhat enjoyable. Throw in a considerable amount of extra conte...

Tennis World Tour 2 confuses me in more than a few ways. Before we even get to the game itself, which almost had me do a Djokovic through tossing my controller away in frustration, there's the perplexing aspect of its development and release. If you don't remember, the original Tennis World Tour was crap. After over a year of updates and a new Roland Garros edition, it finally reached the lofty he...

The sport of tennis has been intrinsically linked with the evolution of video games. From Higinbotham’s 1958 Tennis for Two to the critically acclaimed Virtua Tennis, the sport has had an array of renditions throughout the medium’s long history. After soaring to unprecedented heights in the 2000s, tennis games crashed into obscurity leaving smaller studios to pick up the pieces.

Tennis World Tour 2 has some good ideas on paper, but never gels into a cohesive whole.

Tennis World Tour 2 is a simulation style affair that demands much from its players but doesn't reciprocate with a game that's capable of matching their efforts. Flaky AI and a lack of basic player animations leads to core gameplay here that feels rough and unsatisfying for the most part. Matches often descend into a procession of double faults, there's absolutely zero net play, and no matter how ...

The original Tennis World Tour was unimpressive to say the least. Developed by Breakpoint, it simply didn’t feel like a great reflection of the sport, and so publisher Nacon changed to a different developer earlier this year, in the Aussie team Big Ant, to help steady the ship. This is a curious decision, mostly because Big Ant had already developed the pretty decent AO Tennis 2 back in January. I...

Tennis World Tour fails to nail the basics and lacks any frills for long term investment. Tennis fans should look elsewhere for their simulation needs.