Smash Court Tennis 3 Preview - PSP

With the critical acclaim for Virtua Tennis 3 still resounding round the court, Namco Bandai have their work cut out for the third in their series. Always considered less compelling than the competition, the Smash Court Tennis games have nevertheless always provided a solid and entertaining franchise. Will this new version be the breakthrough that sees Smash Court Tennis serve an ace? Our Smash Court Tennis 3 preview sees whether the game has got what it needs to become a champion. Download the magazine to read our Smash Court Tennis 3 preview.Click here to read the full Smash Court Tennis 3 Preview for Sony PSP now!

Smash Court Tennis 3 Preview - PSP
There are three tennis franchises capable of competing at the top level: Sega’s Virtua Tennis, 2K’s Top-Spin and Namco’s Smash Court Tennis series. Historically, the Smash Court games have always come in last due to a lack of dynamism, accessible controls and the crucial fun factor.
Unfortunately, after playing the latest build of Namco Bandai’s first tennis outing on PSP it looks like business as usual. The main problem is that this series doesn’t really know if it wants to be light-hearted and knockabout (the mini-games and player customisation options are brilliantly quirky) or a challenging simulation. The core shots, such as slice, lob and top-spin, are assigned to the face buttons but here the focus is on timing your strokes for power rather than walloping the ball by holding down the shot button. Yes, this may better replicate tennis in the real world but it feels far less satisfying.

HGZine is a full, free to download magazine dedicated to Sony PSP and Nintendo DS gaming. This issue includes over 30 pages of games coverage, all written by professional UK games journalists. This month, we have huge previews of WipEout Pulse, Worms: Open Warfare 2, Smash Court Tennis, World Championship Poker 2, SBK 07 Superbike World Championship and many more great games on Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Read our massive reviews of SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Fireteam Bravo 2, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, plus reviews of Final Fantasy Fable: Chocobo Tales, Burnout Dominator and many more. Plus we have a major interview with Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada, features, news, mobile reviews and loads more too, and it's all enhanced with video and multimedia. Simply click to download and you will get the complete magazine.

Please note that this magazine is an enhanced PDF file and is therefore designed to work primarily on the PC using Adobe Reader 8. We do not currently produce versions to display on mobile platforms, such as the PSP, as sadly we would have to remove a lot of the interactive functionality from the magazine.