Since the humble beginnings of Pong, tennis has always been a sport that has translated well to videogames.

With Wimbledon now in the rear-view mirror, what better time than now to take a look at some of the past champions of videogame tennis, a genre that's almost as old as videogaming itself.

Here are five of the best offerings from the last five console cycles, starting with the era of the NES and Sega Master System.

Tennis (Game Boy)
Nintendo – 1989

The only handheld champion on this list made its debut the same year as the original Game Boy (often referred to as the "Fat Boy" for its monstrous size and hunger for AA batteries).

Like many of the handheld’s launch titles, Tennis was a pseudo-sequel to an existing NES game of the same name.

The key change to the Game Boy version of Tennis was the faster pace of play, which put the snail's-pace gameplay of the 1984 original to shame.

Game Boy Tennis did, however, make a smart decision by keeping the original's two-button hitting system intact, along with Nintendo’s fresh new mascot, the mustached "Mario," who was seated high above the court in the official’s chair.

The fine print on the back reads, "blue shadows not included."
Source: Gamespot

While the game's artificial intelligence (AI) provided a tough (but cheap) opponent, much like Baseball, Nintendo’s other single-word Game Boy sports game, the real fun began when two copies of Tennis and a link cable were hooked together for head-to-head play.

And back in the late '80s/early '90s, nothing smoothed over awkward visits with the in-laws quite like a battle on the slime-green courts of Game Boy Tennis.

Super Tennis (SNES)
Tonkin House – 1991

The developers of the NES legend Dusty Diamond’s All-Star Softball, followed up their cult classic with a launch-window overhead smash for the fledgling Super Nintendo.

The game was published in the USA by Nintendo, and Mario again found his way into the umpire’s seat. But aside from The Mustache’s presence in the high chair, Super Tennis shares very little in common with the NES/Game Boy Tennis games, which were developed and published by Nintendo.

Aside from the usual lob and drop shots, some of the innovative new shot types in Super Tennis included straight, topspin and slice. Each of the five shot types could be tweaked even further by holding the left or right trigger to generate sidespin.

The sound and graphics in Super Tennis really showed off the strength of the SNES, with a memorable soundtrack and some great looking crowds/arenas that were filled to capacity with spectators, ball boys and line judges.

Celebrate good times, come on!
Source: kresten.net

The roster, though full of generic players, provided a nice variety of player types, with some being power hitters while others owned a strong serve or a masterful control of the net.

Looking back at the game today, the only real points against it are the lack of four-player support (the SNES multitap had yet to be invented), and the obnoxious password save system in the single-player circuit.

But strictly as a head-to-head title, there are few tennis games to this day that can match the intensity of Super Tennis in the gameplay department.

Mario Tennis (N64)
Camelot - 2000

Right after successfully integrating the much-loved Hot Shots Golf engine into Mario Golf in '99, developer Camelot lent its unique brand of cartoon sports to the world's other big country club pastime, creating a second-consecutive "Players’ Choice" title in 2000 with Mario Tennis.

The game provided you with the usual variety of Nintendo icons, but one of the game’s real innovations was the ability to import your own created character from the Game Boy Color Mario Tennis to the N64 version -- where he (or she) would be rendered with the system’s patented blurry 3-D graphics.

Waluigi made his videogame debut in Mario Tennis as a net player with a tremendous wingspan.
Source: emulation64.com

Simple two-button controls kept the game approachable for beginners, but the variety of play styles that were provided by the game’s roster of Nintendo characters (and GBC created characters) made Mario Tennis a title to come back to time and again.

Being on the one system that everybody seemed to have four controllers for also helped the N64 Mario Tennis secure its place in many tennis fans' memories as one of the top titles of the 32-bit/64-bit era.

Virtua Tennis 2/Tennis 2K2 (Dreamcast), Sega Sports Tennis (PS2)
Hitmaker - 2001

Words cannot express the disappointment that Dreamcast fans experienced when the proposed online mode for the first Virtua Tennis sequel was canceled.

Nevertheless, enough improvements had been made to the core of the game, which made the major oversight of online play, though disappointing, ultimately forgivable.

Gone in Virtua Tennis 2 was the series' cheesy rock soundtrack, and in its place was a more ambient, techno soundtrack (much of which is still being used to this day in Virtua Tennis 2009), which helped to create a more authentic feel to the Virtua Tennis experience.

Partner AI was also significantly improved, making the necessary doubles games in the career mode much more tolerable.

But the best part of Virtua Tennis 2’s revamped career mode was the feature that allowed players to create their own character and level him or her up while going through the classic World Tour mode.

Many questioned the game's lack of Anna Kournikova, but who can blame Hitmaker for focusing on a roster of female players who have actually won major championships?
Source: khinsider.com

Once players finished maxing out their character’s stats, they could even import that character from their VMU memory device. From there you could use the character in exhibition matches against other friends, regardless of whose house the match was being held at.

Top Spin 3 (PS3/Xbox 360)
Pam – 2008

With the possible exception of Super Tennis, every other tennis game that made this "best of" list is essentially a souped-up version of Pong, meaning the actual strategy of tennis is either completely absent or marginal at best when it comes to the functionality of the gameplay.

Top Spin 3 came along last year and changed all that by being the first console tennis game to integrate serious tennis strategy into its gameplay.

In Top Spin 3, advances towards the net actually had to be set up with careful approach shots. And for the first time in a tennis game, standing in no-man's-land also had significant penalties, as balls that bounced at the player’s feet came right off the racket as missed shots.

Even running your player around the court and expending too much energy would result in fatigue that hurt your shot strength and accuracy.

In space, no one can hear you squeak.
Source: Talk Playstation

But most importantly, the different shot types that had been a staple of tennis videogames since the days of Super Tennis (slice, top spin and straight) all had practical uses for the first time in Top Spin 3, making the game anything but the type of "one-button" hitting affair that tennis games before Top Spin 3 had a tendency to become.

While the Top Spin series still has a long way to go to get its atmosphere and presentation up to par with an actual TV telecast, the core gameplay remains truer to the sport than any tennis title to date.

It’s a shame that the competitive balance of the game’s online play ended up being broken by cheap created players, otherwise Top Spin 3 would have had plenty of right to call itself the sport’s all-time great.


So there you have it, five tennis games spanning 20 years and five different console cycles, all of which remain just as fun to play today as they were in their prime.

Did we hit all of the sport’s high points or is there an overlooked challenger who deserves some of the spotlight? Let us know your thoughts in the comments box below.