Racquet Sports (Wii, 2010)

Although it looked highly inspired from Wii Sports, being the fair person that I am, I decided to give Ubisoft the benefit of the doubt and at least try Racquet Sports. And in this day and age, I expect better from a game like this.

There are 6 different modes to be found in the game. Each mode offer its own variations of how to take part in the five racquet-based sports in the game: Tennis, Ping Pong, Squash, Badminton, and Beach Tennis. Quick Match is the fastest way to start playing a game where you can skip a bunch of menus and jump right into playing the game. Around the World is the primary single-player mode. Here, players complete challenges and tournaments in different locations for all five sports, either on their own or co-operatively with a second player. In Party Mode, players choose the number of rounds they'd like to play for, and then engage in 90-second tests to earn points. It's kind of fun if you long for something a little more varied. Friendly Tournament and Championship work very similar: you set up a tournament bracket and play through a bunch of games to see who places first. This is a nice mode to play if you're in a group and want to try to face-off against one another. Finally, Training will let you test your rallying skills against a tennis coach in a practice area.

There are so many resemblances to Wii Sports in this game, and it's a bit sad that Ubisoft couldn't make a unique game. Even the intro screen looks like it was taken from Wii Sports Resort, complete with an Instructional Video menu, an island overview in the background, and everything. At the conclusion of each game, you can either earn or lose Skill Points depending on your performance. Again, just like Wii Sports, but children who enjoy the game might want to improve their ratings simply for the sake of showing off to their friends/siblings. Instead of Mii support, Ubisoft designed their own character models which looked more Rayman-esque than anything else. No matter how much you try not to, you can't help but make these silly little comparisons.

It seems that in order to stick with the "pick-up-and-play" appeal that they've gone for with this release, the developers refused to create a control scheme designed for more advanced players. The lack of Nunchuk support is a shame, and although it's something younger audiences will appreciate, not having much control over your gameplay limits the appeal of this game.

Racquet Sports does have some good qualities to it but it just comes across as a quick cash-in on the Wii Sports/casual craze. The sports themselves are very mixed affair and the accuracy isn't always there. Tennis and Ping Pong have been done before with better results, and Beach Tennis is just not fun at all. This leaves Squash and Badminton as the only mildly-fun games for multiplayer enjoyment. If you're looking for a fun tennis game, you could do so much better than this. Because of the easy control system, I can feel comfortable recommending this to children. Otherwise, it doesn't stand well on its own, especially at the price it currently retails for.

+++++++++

Visit Wiiloveit.com for a full review of this title, as well as other releases:
http://www.wiiloveit.com/​games/racquet-sports---wii-rev​iew

I bought specifically for the Squash game, but there is not really a challenge, no real ball control, and no variety in opponents. To give you an example, I didn't lose a single game of Squash from turning iton until it flatlined at 2000 for a skill level and stopped giving me harder opponents.

Each "Around the World" tournament is four spots, and it's the exact same game on different backgrounds. Pretty poor. The characters also do an awful gloating dance after every shot, even if it's not a good one. Very childish.

If you have WII Sports or WII Sports Resort, this is a waste of money. If you're over five, it's probably a waste of money. The only upside is it should be pretty easy to sell here on ebay...

The Game is a good concept, but unless you are only around the ages of 7-10, this game is not the best. By that I mean, there is no difficulty at all in playing this, and you do not even have to be close to accurate. I would not have bought this game knowing this, but sometimes you have to take a chance.

The game is fine, it is just what I wanted. I have not had a lot of time to use it, but I will trya and use it more. My husbands grandchildren have used it and they like it as well.