An overwhelming experience...
Grand Slam Tennis Wii is overlooked, mainly because of it's style. Curently, it's released only on Nintendo Wii, with next-gen releases waiting for Microsoft and Sony motion controllers. People who think that this game is bad, are wrong, very, very wrong. Just because of it's style, it makes the game much more fun, and addicting.
It's the best tennis simulation on the Wii curently, far ahead of Virtua Tennis 2009, and any other game that comes to mind. You start as a rookie, a new competitor in the world of tennis, and is up to You to go up the ranks, beat the pros, and eventually, become a legend yourself. For me, this is the only sports game, that actually got me hooked on the career mode, being the first sports game who got that part right, in my opinion. Even though I didn't play as many sports games as the next guy, I have a pretty good share.
You create an avatar, get it dressed, and get your game on. You can have a "Tennis Party", playing tons of mini-games or battling against them, the "Get Fit" mode, that keeps track of how many calories you burned while playing, WFC Online mode, where you play against random players, or friends using either a Guest, or an existing EA Account, and of course, the main attraction, the "Grand Slam Mode", where you train, do exibition matches and participate in big tournaments such as the US Open etc.
There are four tournaments in total - Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open - in that exact same order. Before you can participate, you need to do one/two exibition matches against random opponents, and battle against one out of three pro's, an if you win, you get their special ability. Abilities are divided into three ranks - Bronze, Silver and Gold abilities. When you start, you can only have one ability, but as you progress, you get more stars (exp), and thus getting the ability to use more abilities, with the max total being three.
Abilities go from "Ana Ivanovic's Speed", over "Tsonga's Husstle", to "Andy Murrays Backhend". The list of pros you can beat is randomly made, so there is no specific order. When you get those few matches out of the way, you can participate in the tournament. Again, neither here is a specific order. In the first round you can fight a player you've never heard before, or you can face the legendary John McEnroe. It's just random. As you progress, you get into the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, and at the end, the finals. Players are ranked with stars, just like you, in a system of 1-5, with five being the maximum, of course.
The finals don't have to be harder, I once fought Boris Becker in the quarter-finals, eventually winning 10:8 in a 1h:30min match, and then I beat Pete Sampras in the finals with 3:1, under 30 minutes, so you have big chances of winning. Every time you win/lose, you get a bit of sponsorship swag, which helps you change your avatar's clothing. Headware, shirts, pants, rackets, shoes and armware. You can change the sponsor (ex. Nike, Adidas, Lacoste, EA etc.), and change the color, making really cool combinations.
In terms of gameplay, it's hard at first, very hard. It took me about 3 hours to ''master'' the control scheme, which can be changed. You can swing the remote at will, with the AI controlling your player, or you can attach a nunchuck, and control the player yourself, allowing you more complex combinations and strategies. I for one, always go to the net, slaming the ball to the other side every time I get the chance. The game is realistic, forcing you to swing the remote the way you should, doing slices, backhands, top spins, lobs etc. It sometimes get confusing, when the game doesn't recognize a perfectly performed move, and makes you throw the ball out of the court, which is an out.
I don't know how the Wii Motion Plus addon improves gameplay, but I'm pretty satisfied how the game plays without it. As for the roster, all the big names are in, even the old-school players that were No.1, decades ago such as Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. I've been playing the game for more then five hours a day, and have not been bored yet. If you have a Nintendo Wii, and like tennis, this is a game you should not miss, since another one won't come for a long time. Or if you won a next-gen console, you can get it when Natal and *insert Sony motion controller name here* come out, in a distant future.
I'll avoid giving scores, or rating it on a numbered scale, since I think it's a cliche. Those who want my honest opinion can read the last part of the review.
