The sports genre has always been one of the most prolific in the history of video games. And it is always exciting to get into the shoes of a football player, basketball player or tennis player, and live the intensity of elite sport from the comfort of our homes. But while it is true that other sports such as football or basketball are experiencing their peak during these years, thanks to sagas like FIFA and NBA 2K, tennis has not been so lucky during this last decade.
Something diametrically opposite happened during the last generation of consoles (X360 and PS3), which had several exponents of the genre: Virtua Tennis 4 by Sega, Grand Slam Tennis 2 from EA Sports and finally, the crown jewel, Top Spin 4 from 2K Sports. After the successive releases of these three titles, the genre of tennis entered an odyssey that left us without games for more than six years.
Large companies like 2K, Sega and EA did not seem interested in developing more tennis video games, since they did not report the benefits that they considered appropriate, therefore, it had to be a smaller company with fewer resources such as Big ant studios the one that breaks the silence. In January 2018 they launched AO Tennis for sale, promising to bring back the tennis games to all the fans who had a whole generation without taking a racket.
What was the problem? That the title did not meet people's expectations, as I said before, it had been more than six years since the last great game of tennis was put up for sale, six years in the video game industry are a world. But the lack of resources and being the first installment of the saga made AO Tenis receive mediocre criticism, especially attacking its playability and its physics (something unforgivable for a title of these characteristics and of this genre).
All this brings us to the current moment, in January of this year, matching its exit with the Australian Open, it was released AO Tennis 2, a second part that arrives two years after its predecessor seeking to solve its shortcomings and bring the experience of tennis to higher levels.
The problem is that this game is far from reaching the levels of Top Spin 4, which for me is still the best tennis title ever created. But What separates AO Tennis 2 from the elite tennis video game? Mainly its playability, the feelings with the command are confusing, you do not feel the control of the player and much less the weight of the ball. I think this effect increases even more because of the animations of the game, they are not fluid, they get choppy, sometimes there are unfinished animations. All this makes AO Tennis 2 gameplay doesn't feel "real" (much less enjoyable), it is useless to have a lot of options, customization modes, a career mode, tournament licenses and players if you fail in the most important.
This is just a few strokes on AO Tennis 2, the new title of Big ant studiosFor those most interested in this game, we recommend you read the full analysis, which will be available soon in Nintenderos. There you can find out if AO Tennis 2 really is the solution to this odyssey.
