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Ace Tennis OnlinePosted in Sports on 16 Nov 2008 |
 Reviewed by Steve Litchfield |
   (11 votes, average: 3.91 out of 5)  Loading ... |
Editor’s rating:  
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A tennis simulation really isn’t the first thing you’d imagine when thinking of handheld/iPhone gaming, yet the developers of Ace Tennis Online have done a terrific job in simplifying the controls so that anyone can play well without getting too frustrated. Moreover, they’ve done it within a world of (optional) online play, so that you can find human opponents, day or night, and challenge them to a match. The system’s not without a few frustrations, but after a few games of Ace Tennis Online you’ll be drawn into its simplified realism.
Although it’s tempting to look for a Nintendo Wii-style way of swinging your iPhone to simulate a tennis racket, this wouldn’t be practical for more reasons than I can count. Instead, your job is to guide your player around the court by dragging him around on the touch-screen. As long as he’s in roughly the right place then he’ll return the ball.
If this sounds a little too easy then consider that your opponent, assuming you opt (as most will do) for finding someone to play online, is human and thus won’t be producing perfectly straight shots back towards you – the angle/aim of each shot depends on how he/you tilt your iPhones. Tilting the device backwards or forwards produces a lob or drop shot, while tilting it to each side determines how far left or right your aim will be. It’s a very well thought out system that would work well when just playing against AI in the computer. Put it into practice against a real, live, human who’s perhaps had more practice than you at Ace Tennis Online’s controls and you’ll be struggling to scrape to Deuce.
Particularly impressive, from a ’simulation’ point of view, is that tactics which work well in the real world, such as working the ball from side to side and coming up to the net in order to ‘cut off an angle’, also work well in the game.
As with the developer’s other titles, there’s great support here too, from a chat system with the other player to online community news and discussion. Finding an opponent is almost instant and you even get to screen who you’re playing with, in terms of sex, nationality or similar game score. A global score table shows you how far you’ve got to go to reach the very top.
Frustrations include having to add ‘friends’ by typing in their nickname (i.e. you can’t yet just add the current opponent), to occasional display glitches where points end too soon, to sometimes getting waylaid by someone who just wants to ‘chat’ rather than play.
It’s tempting to also mention that your player doesn’t move fast enough around the court, but then a) this is probably intentional, to
reflect real world limitations and b) because yours truly isn’t fit enough and needs to stay off the chocolate biscuits….
