Smash Court Tennis 3

The tragedy is that an earlier relesae date would have seen this be a real smash hit. [Aug 2008, p.80]

A good game, but one which feels eerily out of place and out of time. [Sept 2008, p.79]

While Smash Court Tennis 3 largely fails on its claim as the most realistic tennis game on the Xbox 360, it’s certainly a serviceable game of tennis. It’s just that with three much better tennis games already out on the Xbox 360 already, there’s no reason to buy this game unless you’ve exhausted all that those games had to offer.

The tennis is good when your'e in a match. You feel like you're really in control of the game thanks to the array of shots at your disposal, but the pace of it and the euthanasia-like tedium of the Pro Tour will put most players off after half an hour. [Aug 2008, p.84]

Falls short of grand slam quality. [Issue#35, p.94]

Despite some frustrating and inconsistent controls and an overpowering serve/volley design, Smash Court Tennis 3 offers a deep and rewarding tennis experience.

There's a fair amount to like about SCT3, but its greatest weakness is that there are two other games out there that stack up extremely well against it.

The controls are obtuse, and it becomes obvious with a bit scrutiny that the game is definitely a port; it's nice to see an online mode included, but it isn't particularly fleshed out or engaging.

Ultimately, the deep and engaging Pro Tour mode of Smash Court Tennis 3 can't win out over inconsistant controls and a flawed gameplay design.

You don't have to be a line judge to point out Smash Court Tennis 3’s faults. Pinpointing targets is frustrating, since you have a small margin of error while aiming, and the timing isn't always consistent for "nice" shots.

Iffy controls and blotchy animations mean Smash Court Tennis 3 should restring its racket and try again next year.

Even though it's technically passable – although never amazingly so - Smash Court Tennis 3 misses in the most important department: playability.

With a frustrating serve and volley AI and a sluggish player reaction/ movement system I wouldn't be surprised if SCT3 doesn't make its way to your gaming collection.

Smash Court Tennis 3 actually fails in every section -graphical, gameplay, sound, control...- to fall in the absolute mediocrity. It´s difficult to recommend it even to the hardcores of that sport, maybe them will like it less than anybody else.

The well put together RPG elements in the career mode cannot save the outdated and stiff looking Smash Court Tennis 3.

Sadly, SCT3 just doesn't have the chops to go beyond mediocrity, regardless of bells and whistles.

Smash Court Tennis 3 straddles the line between Virtua Tennis’s arcade style and the technical aspects of Top Spin, but ultimately it comes off only as a sluggish imitator of both.

With numerous problems that work against the gameplay, poorly designed game modes don’t make this simulator fun or interesting even for gamers who love the sport. Sorry, this one just isn’t good enough to recommend.

The refinement of the animations, the character models, and accurately capturing the simulation (that sports titles do best) is missing.

Let this middling tennis game be a lesson to why you shouldn't port a PSP game to the Xbox 360.

Could have been much better, unfortunately though this game has far too many flaws for us to recommend it to anyone.

Tennis games usually turn out to be fantastic gaming experiences, well adapted to the entertainment form of gaming. Surprisingly Namco managed to utterly fail when moving Smash Court Tennis 3 from PSP to Xbox 360. The game still almost looks and sounds like a PSP game and the pacing is just horrible. The career mode where you can devlop you player is a nice touch although it doesn't come close to making this worth a buy.

With lacklustre visuals, tedious training exercises, an unforgiving difficulty curve and gameplay that fails to offer anything new or, indeed, much in the way of enjoyment, this is one tennis game that you're best off avoiding, because it's likely that if you do pick it up, you'll be lobbing it into your local game store's bargain bin pretty soon.