NES #10: Tennis

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Release Date: 10-18-85

This one wouldn't make a very good t-shirt!

It’s hard to get too excited about a game with such a generic title. It seems like every early console had a whole bunch of boring sports games that had equally boring titles. Nintendo had just about every sport represented in the black box era and before I played Tennis I was dreading having to play them all. Baseball certainly didn’t give me much confidence in the whole line. Luckily, Tennis does give me the slightest glimmer of hope.

The presentation is surprisingly simple for a Nintendo game. It’s a bit of a shock for people who are used to their modern sports titles featuring almost endless possibilities. Tennis only has one grass court and the choice of singles or doubles. In singles you play against the computer alone and in doubles you play with a friend against the computer. You can’t play a two player game versus another human. The only thing that gives it Nintendo flair is the presence of Mario as the judge. I forgot he was in this one so that makes it at least four games he was in on launch day. That focus on character would be what set Nintendo apart from the competition.

I think this game has Mario's first dialogue. Let me know if I'm wrong

Luckily what saves Tennis somewhat is the complex gameplay. It’s a game that actually requires precision and knowledge of tennis. It’s not a tennis game from the Atari area that was more about endurance with the computer handling most of the aiming. In Tennis you have to aim your player and your shot. The game will change depending on where your player is so you can play the more dangerous net game or more conservative long game. I also like that there are five different difficulty levels which give each game a different feel. Level five is probably the single fastest thing from the launch titles. It is certainly something that couldn’t be done on Atari.

So I had a pretty good time with Tennis and it made me a little less nervous about playing the other early sports titles, but it does have a fatal flaw. The games can last a very long time and there’s no way to change them. I have never finished a whole game, but they can last 45 minutes or more. That’s just too long to play one game of tennis. Still, the gameplay is good enough to put it high into the purple section. Not bad for a generic sports title but still nothing to get too excited about.

NES quality percentage 5/10=50%

1. Super Mario Odyssey

2. Galaga

3. Donkey Kong

4. Exodus: Ultima III

5. Pac-Mania

6. Wrecking Crew

7. Super Pac-Man

8. Pac-Man

9. Excitebike

10. Arc the Lad

11. Clu Clu Land

12. Artifact Adventure Gaiden DX

13. Mickey’s Racing Adventure

14. Metro-Cross

15. Ice Climber

16. Gaplus

17. Dragon Spirit

18. Pinball (NES)

19. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)

20. Red Sea Crossing

21. Baraduke

22. Tennis

23. Hogan’s Alley

24. Gamma-Attack

25. The Legend of “Valkyrie”

26. Galaxian

27. Evoland

28. Wild Gunman

29. Defunct

30. Gyruss (2600)

31. Looney Tunes Racing

32. Squidlit

33. Baseball

34. Birthday Mania

35. Bad Street Brawler

36. Burly Men at Sea

37. My Name is Mayo