EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis

Having become bored of playing Eliza and Sara on wii sports I thought I'd check out GST and see what all the hype is about wii motion plus. To my relief GST didn't disappoint.

I can sympathize with some of the reviews on here and after an hour and a half last night I would probably have written something similar. At first motion plus doesn't seem all that responsive and the ability to match movements 1:1 appears a bit of a bold claim. Instead of dismissing it though I read a few reviews and realised the first trick is to hold the remote correctly with the buttons facing the ceiling. This is different to how I played wii sports but makes the world of difference.

Secondly give yourself 10 mins against the ball machine and just practice hitting left and right instead of just returning the ball. The learning curve is steep but once it clicks it is very satisfying. When you get the hang of this you can actually control rallies and hit winners.

I think most gamers are used to picking up games and very quickly working out button combinations or shortcomings to allow quick progress. GST isn't like this.

my tip is to allow yourself to get immersed in the game. change the match settings to full 6 game sets and play a game of tennis and you'll soon see what EA have done is nothing short of brilliant.

The programming isn't perfect and sometimes the game does make mistakes with backhand and forehand positioning but just play through your shot. It might not be the exact shot you wanted but the game seems to compensate and at least it will return your shot allowing you to get into position for the next shot. Follow through is also key. If you're using motion plus a flick of the wrist no longer does the trick like in wii sports. Instead follow through and angle your shots and rotate your wrist to get top spin or slice and suddenly this game comes to life. Cross court winners or down the line passes are possible and they're very satisfying when you make them.

Due to the motion sensor glitches you can lose the odd easy point which is frustrating and over a 3 game set (default match length)you'll probably lose at first. But over a best of 3 sets you can come out on top.

grand slam mode builds you up with basic warm up short matches against legend or current tennis stars to learn different styles of play. For example McEnroe does come to the net forcing you to learn lobs and passes, while Serena Williams hits backcourt powershots so you have to learn to place your shots, stay in rallies and work the angles. After these warm ups you're into the tournament and thats when the fun really begins.

An hour and twenty later I've beaten Michael Stich 2-6 6-2 6-3 in the last 16 of the Australian Open with most games going to deuce. The satisfaction comes from deciding to serve and volley when facing break point and making it work along or from nailing that top spin cross court shot having played your opponent into a corner. This is all possible in GST and thats without using the nunchuk.

The graphics are cartoon like but work in hiding some of the programming faults and certainly doesnt detract from gameplay. Ultimately this isn't the sort of game that you can pick up and suddenly be the next Roger Federer. I'm pretty average at tennis in real life and I'm pretty average at this but GST has managed to bring the fun and energy of playing for real to your living room. After a 3 set match you'll be sweating and i'm sure my arm will ache but I'm already thinking about how to beat Leyton Hewitt in the next round and know that i'm weak on my backhand and have to work at it. That's ultimately the magic of the wii and motionplus because your weaknesses cant be corrected just by pressing a button you've got to learn how to actually play the shot.

Well done EA Sports and hopefully this will encourage people to stick with GST a little longer.

I bought this game a few weeks ago, and soon came to hate it.There weren't many reviews at the time, and they were pretty mixed.I wrote a really bad review (which wasn't published thankfully).I came back here and read the reviews again, and learned that you need to be holding the remote properly, i.e. with the A button facing the ceiling.It transformed my experience of the game, and I now think it's brilliant.My wife and I play almost every evening. It's about the most fun we've had from any game. Well done EA, and thank you all for your helpful reviews.

I don't understand!! The game is clearly responsive and I CAN play it - EXCEPT there are certain periods of time where they CLEARY DO NOT WANT you to do well at it, and so suddenly they try every trick in the book to make it impossible for you to win, right down to having your character not even bother to swing at the ball!!!

This usually happens when the game gets 'harder', but I don't call not swinging at the ball 'hard', it is just infruiatingly impossible to win!!

Does extremely well at keeping you fit, and if you are willing to play through the periods where you CAN'T win, you will enjoy the times when they allow your character to actually translate your movements to the screen!