Tennis World Tour Players
Anais Wachowski
This is a list of licensed tennis players in Tennis World Tour. There are a total of 31 licensed players in the game, with 24 of them being men, 5 being women, and in the Legend Editions 2 legends. In the Roland Garros Edition there is a total of 34 players, where 25 is men, 7 is women and 2 legends.
Let's not beat around the bush here. Tennis World Tour released earlier this month on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and got a really underwhelming reception. Now we could only hope that developer Breakpoint would address the game's most pressing issues for the Nintendo Switch version. The fact of the matter is they didn't. Not even close. Tennis World Tour has landed on the hybrid system, and that is the best thing I can honestly say. The sports game is flatout a boring affair that reeks of missed opportunities and thrown away potential.
To kick things off, let us discuss the important factor in all of this: the gameplay. The best tennis games offer a base that is easy to master, but rewarding if you can take full advantage of all the mechanics. The problem with Tennis World Tour is that the learning curve is harsh right from the get go. You will be required to hold action buttons, sometimes without instant feedback from the game. This makes the flow of it incredibly sluggish to the point of boredom. What doesn't help is that you need to hold the buttons for power, and you get no indication of this while serving the ball. These opening moments don't make for a great first impression.
Once you get a rally going, you can see what the developers are going for. The hard hitting tennis strikes between the two players feels very real and every action will cut it close. Even in those moments, the gameplay isn't without faulty design choices. There are moments where your input isn't immediately accepted by the game, without any good reason for it. In addition, the game sometimes forgets how to handle advanced shots. Your player might move longer than you might anticipate, causing you to miss shots on a regular basis. The moments it works the various strategies you can apply are awesome, but it stings to see good rallies end before their peaking moment. At the very least, the AI of your computer opponents is quite good.
When it comes to modes, the game is a shallow product. Outside of a tutorial, you can opt to play one-on-one versus matches or head into the Career Mode. I spent most of my time here, considering the limited potential of the multiplayer. In the Career Mode, you will make your own character and swing your way to the top. You are mostly playing Exhibition and Tournament matches to increase your rank and earn money and experience. This will allow your created star to reach new heights and make them the best player they can be. The money can be spent on gear, outfits, trainers and boosts in performance. Now and again, you are presented with training sections. These basically come to down hitting spots on the other sides of the field. Career Mode isn't anything special, but a decent enough time sink I reckon.
When it comes to multiplayer though, this game is rather thin. In local play, you can only play one-on-one. Tennis World Tour doesn't offer doubles or various ways to experience the game. It is basic tennis matches in which you need a number of sets and games to win. While the amount of stadiums is impressive (17 in total), the roster really raises some eyebrows. There are plenty of notable names missing, particularly when it comes to the embarrassing six women available. Each character has their own set of strengths and weaknesses, which in my book, never played a major stake in achieving a victory. Even more shameful is that the game has an online play button in the main menu, but left it greyed out. It really left me with nothing to hold on to for long.
Tennis World Tour looks fine on Nintendo Switch. Nothing stands out as remarkable, but it all decently presented. The character models in particular look like their real-life counterparts, which is worth praising. The load times are simply way too long, and it took a while for any action to start. Considering the downgrade on Nintendo Switch, I would've hoped for somewhat of a faster performance. On the other hand, they did retain the glitchy nature of the gameplay on other consoles, so who knows really. The promised commentary John McEnroe can barely be heard in the majority of the product. Even at that, you aren't missing much. He simply repeats the same set of lines over and over until the end of time.
Tennis World Tour is an underwhelming product in more ways than one. While it promises a professional tennis game, the way Breakpoint went about it isn't making me happy. There isn't really a star cast of tennis players, the gameplay has some extremely weak elements and the overall feeling is one a lack of care. The developers didn't care enough to prep some variables or offer something greater than the basics. That is honestly the biggest crime Tennis World Tour has committed, but even at that, this game needs a whole lot of work.
The game has been called the spiritual successor to the Top Spin series mostly because members of 2K Czech's development team (the group that created Top Spin) are apart of the Breakpoint group, but there are a number of original elements coming to TWT.
As console gaming has moved nearly exclusively to the PS4, Xbox One and Switch, the game is near completion for this generation of consoles. I had an opportunity to speak with the game's creative director Etienne Jacquemain and producer and Romain Ginocchion and I learned a host of details.
It's not a massive list and there are some obvious absences from notable players like Rafael Natal, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Simona Halep and Marin Cilic, but it's a start. Per Jacquemain and Ginocchion, it's possible we'll see the roster expanded post-launch.
Fans will also be able to create 20 players for offline play. The create-a-player system sounds pretty basic as it won't feature any face sculpting, but there will be a variety of facial templates and hairstyles to chose from as you customize your characters.
You'll begin your career as the world No. 100 player with designs on climbing to the top spot. You'll have to manage your yearly schedule which includes deciding which tournaments to play, hiring coaches, agents and more.
There will also be base archetypes and performance badges of sorts that will give your player unique situational abilities that add a boost to their traditional attributes. It's a concept similar to what we see in most sports games. There will be a good number of equipment items to unlock as well as you play through a career.
In addition to the career mode, TWT is being developed with esports in mind from the outset. That's one of the biggest reasons behind adopting the archetype structure. The dev team is prioritizing competitive balance from one character to the next and instituting online ranked environments to hopefully fuel that part of the community.
Tennis World Tour 2 is Big Ant Studios and Nacon's effort to keep the once-beloved tennis subgenre alive. The publisher has today announced the full list of licensed, realistically-modeled players that users will be able to play as in the game, and you can take a look below:
As shown by the video below, the new engine, animations, serve mechanic, and the addition of 2v2 multiplayer matches are the main new features of this year's TWT2, which will release on PC (via Steam), PS4, and Xbox One on September 24, while Nintendo Switch owners will have to wait until October 15.
Two years ago, the battle for best tennis game on the market was between AO International Tennis, developed and published by Big Ant Studios, and Tennis World Tour, developed by Breakpoint Studio and published by Nacon, formerly Bigben Interactive. AO International Tennis was promising yet clunky, but a vast improvement over the rushed to the market and incomplete release of AO Tennis months prior due to the Australian Open's timing. Tennis World Tour suffered the same fate, a barely functional unfinished mess, but was pushed out to market due to the French Open's timing. While it was updated to become a reasonably competent tennis game, it was still outmatched by the early 2020 release of AO Tennis 2, again developed by Big Ant Studios. The same studio has now taken center court with Tennis World Tour 2, but will they double fault against themselves or serve an ace for match point?
The most notable improvement from the previous entry into the series has been the animation advances. The animations have doubled, per the developer, which should promote a much smoother gameplay experience. Everything from reading your opponent's movements to the ball's trajectory is much more fluid, although it isn't perfect. The included tutorials attached to the tennis school are, without a doubt, a necessity before playing. I made the mistake of going straight into an exhibition match and was thoroughly dominated thanks to the highly challenging AI. Difficulty settings only seem to affect the AI, such as slowing down their shots, producing much easier balls to return, and increasing the sheer amount of unforced errors. Regardless of the difficulty, it doesn't appear that your strokes' timing is affected at all.
As you might expect, tennis is about placement, precision, and timing, and all of these aspects are faithfully recreated in Tennis World Tour 2. As you move your player around the court, you'll trigger a swinging animation depending upon your distance to the ball and whether it is on your forehand or backhand (depending upon if you are playing as a left-handed or a right-handed player). Each shot type corresponds to a specific face button on the controller, requiring you to combine timing and power with the proper shot type to put the ball past your opponent (hopefully). It won't make sense to slice the ball towards the court's left side if you are already standing close to the boundaries on the same side of the court. The four main face buttons on the controller represent the four main shot types: flat stroke, slice, topspin, and lob. A drop shot can be accomplished by holding the right bumper when using a slice. The inside out, which I will admit I have never used, is tied to the left trigger, while you can sprint around the court by holding the right trigger.
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