Sega Superstars Tennis

Spanning the worlds and characters of Sonic, Samba de Amigo, House of the Dead, OutRun, and more, Sega Superstars Tennis is a Virtua Tennis–meets-Sega-classics exhibition whose gameplay meat is a series of Sega-branded, franchise-specific hubs, each containing a unique list of events. Sounds interesting, right? You’ll need to pass each task to unlock the next, but after running through just a couple of areas, the unshakable gloom of mindless repetition sets in.

Each section contains singles and doubles sets and up to a dozen mini-games. Most of the mini-games, however, involve simply running around the court either collecting items, avoiding items, or hitting balls at targets. Where’s the creativity inherent in Virtua Tennis 3’s mini-games? Only the Virtua Cop–inspired area shows any spark of ingenuity.

Also, the action is incredibly easy. We rarely had trouble with events, particularly the formal tennis matches. We do have to give major props to the set pieces — the themed courts were obviously lovingly crafted for each Sega series — but they can’t make up for all the yawning we did.