Smash Court Tennis 3 [PSP]

Whereas Sega's Virtua Tennis has always been the crazy uncle of the video hardcourt set, making electronic tennis players perform oddball tasks such as fleeing from giant fruit, Namco Bandai's Smash Court Tennis contents itself in the role of the sober, sane pater familias. Now, in the colorful lingo of the common man, papa has a brand new bag with Smash Court Tennis 3 for Sony's PSP.

It's immediately possible to jump into a game and start whacking balls on the courts, but doing so won't give players any insight into Smash Court's depth. The game has 20-plus tutorials, showing players how to serve, volley, make specific shots, and offering insights into factors like fatigue and rallying. Players who want to build a great repertoire of shots will have to master slices, topspins, drops, smashes, lobs, and flats, and here Tennis displays both a great strength and a true weakness.

Smash Court Tennis trades accessibility for depth. It's purely a command call by the developers here, and it's one that largely pays off, but there are caveats to be had. Because there are a great deal of shots that can be made, and only a few buttons on the PSP, two or more hits are mapped to each button. The X button, for example, handles easy shots, flat shots, and drop shots. This is not a recipe for novice friendly play.

Players will have to struggle, say, to time the length of their button presses to make what the game calls a hard (as in forceful) shot. In the hard shot tutorial, the game brings up a power meter indicating exactly how long a player has held down the PSP's square button; a completely filled meter indicates the tennis ball will be returned with a hard shot. No such meter appears in gameplay, though, so players will be hard pressed to tell whether they made a hard shot or a flat shot, which is made by hitting the square button for a shorter time.

On-court gameplay requires finesse and patience. This means initial forays into the game will be met with missed shots, missed opportunities, and downright flubs. It's disheartening to know an opponent hanging at the net can be beaten with a lob shot, but to simply not be able to pull it off as effortlessly as a real tennis player would. Trial-and-error play isn't the smoothest way to go with a tennis game, but Smash Court gladly embraces such in its quest for depth.

Throw in special on-court icons to indicate an opposing player's miscues and, thus, the opportunity to make a "smash court" hit (sort of an unstoppable attack), fatigue, and special other hits such as spins, and players will have their hands full. Smash Court will not suffer casual players for very long.