Agassi Tennis Generation Review (PS2)

GRAPHICS
Graphics are ho-hum... Menus are straight forward to the limited modes and options. Presentation is nowhere to be found. Nothing really done so bad it takes away from the game, but it just has that in-between a PSX and PS2 look to it. There are limited animations as it seems as if there were no animations for a player to get to a lob hit over their head to chase it down. Every time it happened, and the ball was in front of me, I could not swing. Where is the famous Agassi between the legs shot? Maybe it will appear once I get into tourney matches…… Nope it never showed. Two camera modes which put you either too far away from the action, or one that is so close it cuts off much of your body are the only ones available.

GAMEPLAY
For those who love the simulation aspect of tennis, this game offers numerous unforced errors. Unfortunately, it is how you get the unforced errors. They have two real winners here. The first being the ball hitting you on the baseline and dropping in for a point. It has happened to me on numerous occasions due to the horrid control. This is the only tennis game where you will need to wear a cup. The other one is where your opponent does not hit the ball and it one hops over the net (like a serve in table tennis). Now here is the kicker, it happens once every other game (and I mean game as in one game per set). There are a few long shots and a few net hits but I find the two above happening more frequently in matches.

For some reason the developer decided to make the game where it automatically swings for you, assuming you were never to press a button. Of course if you don't hit a button you get a swing and a miss. The button serves as the basis for the type of shot you will take and the directional button will control the placement. This is where you find yourself getting pegged by many return shots. Due to this auto swing, if you make a wrong movement to the ball, you will find your player not swinging at all.

Control is sloppy, but not as bad as TMS. The lob is worthless in the game since the AI can back up quick enough to get to almost every lob, ending up in a smash that you can not return. You can even put spin on the shots that would be considered impossible in real life. The game simply consists of hitting the ball with your varied shots (top spin, slice, lob), holding the button down for a low shot and aiming at the corner. You do this; you win the point because the AI does not feel like chasing the ball. All that running apparently makes them very tired.

Serve is a timing arc that moves fairly quick and you have to stop it at the right time. Nothing complex but still better then the last two games I played (TMS and Hard Hitter). On the bright side, this is a tennis game you can ace the opponent in often. Due to the AI having a case of the, "I just did not feel like moving for that ball syndrome."

AUDIO
If the tennis was not bad enough, the audio is the worst part of the game. To play a full set on a hard court will require the mute button. The screeching sound of your shoes on the surface is non stop and sounds more like the screeching of fingernails on a chalkboard. Back to table tennis, this is apparently where they got some of the sounds of the ball being hit, as well as the ball hitting the hard courts and carpet surfaces.

Commentary consists of the following lines...

Noooooooooooo

Ohhhhh Nooooooooooooo

Yes

Ohhhhhhh that just hit the line

and just a few others..

BOTTOM LINE
They should force any athlete who lends their name to a game to at least play it for a couple hours. If such a world existed, this game would have never come out. This game is not even worth a rental and if you are still reading this, you must be extremely bored at work.