Smash Court Tennis 3 - Xbox 360

Smash Court Tennis 3 sacrifices realism for arcade-ish style play, and that sucks a lot of fun out of playing. For example, unforced errors in this game are very, very, very rare. You might as well take down the net, because it rarely ever gets in the way. And the game never lets your ball go wide -- except on rare occasions when it wants to. If the game wants you to lose a rally, it will throw in a little trickery to make sure you lose it, such as your ball going wide, or your opponent getting a sudden 35MPH burst of speed to dash across the court. If the game wants you to win a rally, suddenly your opponent plays like a doofus. I imagine the game does this to add suspense, but it only adds frustration when you know it's the game and not you.The controlling of the player has some major hang-ups. The stick that moves your player toward the ball is the same control that directs where you want to hit the ball. As a result, I guarantee that your player will occasionally run toward the ball, then pivot and run away from it only to watch the ball sail by. On rare occasions while playing, my player will not even raise his racquet to hit the ball. And when I want to move into the smash zone to hit a smash, my player hesitates before dashing, stops short of the zone, then pops a little volley into the other court.The graphics are acceptable, but they're quite dated -- the players look gangly and misproportioned, the crowd in the cut scenes is just three or four people cut and pasted throughout the stadium seats, but most annoying of all is the repetitiveness of the cut scenes... they never, ever change. The crowd noises add realism to the game play, but after two games, they, like the cut scenes, are nothing but annoying and repetitive. The makers of this game clearly suffer from extreme laziness.Another problem this game has is that you cannot move through the game features quickly enough. For example, if you fail a training exercise, it's suggests you try again. But you can't just try again. You have to exit your way out of, and enter your way onto, multiple screens and menus just to get back to where you want to be. It literally takes a half-minute to accomplish.During my last twenty level upgrades, no new skills have been enabled for me to purchase with my stock to add to my parameters. They remain grayed out so that I cannot select them. I have a full stock of twenty units to add to my parameters, but the game stopped allowing me to spend the stock. Is this a glitch? Without being able to spend my stock to increase my parameters, I am unable to increase my abilities, and therefore cannot get any better at my game. How am I supposed to become #1? What incentive do I have to keep playing?-Tom

I own a few tennis games for the Xbox 360 (Top Spin 2, Top Spin 3, Virtua Tennis 3), and I have found something to love in all of them. Here are my _opinions_ on how Smash Court Tennis 3 compares with them in terms of graphics, sound, gameplay, depth (longevity), enjoyment.Top Spin 2:* graphics: TS2 clearly wins; sorry to say, but projected 1080p on a 92" screen, SCT3 really does look like a PS2 game, even though TS2 is years old by now* sound: SCT3 wins by a large margin with realistic sound effects, atmospheric crowd noises* gameplay: SCT3 wins by a large margin again thanks to its realistic game mechanic, which nicely mimics real tennis strokes and movement. TS2's gameplay just never really worked, at least for me. In fact, playing tennis in TS2 was really not enjoyable though the rest of the game: the career progression system, the mini-games, the rival, the charity events, etc. were excellent in TS2.* depth: I'd say this is a draw. One of the things I loved about TS2 was the variety, depth and amount of things to do* enjoyment: SCT3 is the clear winner - it's simply much more fun to play than TS2.Virtua Tennis 2:* graphics: VT2 has a slight edge here (see TS2 comment above), but neither VT2 nor SCT3 are graphically impressive* sound: SCT3 sounds more realistic, but VT2 sounds more "exciting" - hard to describe why though. overall, I'd say this is a draw.* gameplay: i love TS2's very arcade game mechanic, but I also love SCT3's more realistic mechanic. On balance, I'd have to say SCT3 gets the edge just because it is more like a real tennis game. TS2 is more like very exciting ping pong in comparison.* depth: SCT3 has the edge here, but it's fairly close* enjoyment: SCT3 again edges out VT2 by a small margin. SCT3 and VT2 are the most fun tennis games available.Top Spin 3:* graphics: TS3 is the _clear_ winner over any other tennis game. TS3 has amazing graphics with great details, 3D lighting, shading effects. Watching a TS3 match is like watching a tennis match on TV.* sound: SCT3 easily beats TS3, which had pretty bad sound effects. The replays in TS3 are outstanding to watch.* gameplay: SCT3 beats TS3, even though TS3 also has a very realistic game mechanic, perhaps even more realistic than SCT3. However, TS3 matches are never as much fun as SCT3. Is it because the TS3 gameplay is slowed down compared to SCT3 and VT2? I don't know, while it could be rewarding in TS3 to pull off a really elegant shot, it's just more fun in SCT3.* depth: SCT3 easily wins here. TS3 dropped alot of the variety and depth that was in TS2.* enjoyment: SCT3 easily winsHope this review helps you if you are choosing your next tennis game. At first, I was rather unimpressed with SCT3's graphics, but once I started playing it, I just "got into it" and the actual tennis matches were fun, exciting and realistic - a nice combination of my favorite bits of TS2, VT2 and TS3. The Pro Tour mode has tremendous depth and longevity. I haven't even tried playing SCT3 on Xbox Live yet as there's so much else to do in this game. At the price this game is currently selling for, you can't go wrong with this if you're looking for a great tennis game.

the people who made this game really blew it.they had a great game in smash court tenis 2 that only needed to change 1 or 2 things to make it the perfect game and what do they do,they totally change the game giving it a totally new revamped look and game play feel.the movement is slow and sluggish to respond and it looks good but looks dont mean a great game.smashcourt tennis 2 is still the best tennis game to date so far and top spin 3 is just as bad as smash court tennis 3.top spin 2 is alright but not as good as smashcourt tennis 2.super nintendo has a great tennis game called super tennis while not great looking it is great game play.

Fun game for my two sons to play. It was very affordable and gave them hours of fun. Recommend for anyone who enjoys tennis and sports.