Davis Cup Tennis is an excellent sports title for the GBA, featuring more
than 100 different countries, several different gameplay options including
single-player and link-up modes. Players can either play a quick round, or go
for the Davis Cup itself. Its responsive controls are good but the choppy
animation and grainy graphics make for a mixed bag. The solid gameplay is
appealing but whether this Ubi Soft release has the depth for long-lasting
appeal is the big question.
Sports
fans probably don’t consider the Game Boy Advance to be the ideal platform for
this genre, but there have been some surprisingly good titles released lately.
Players can now add Ubi Soft’s excellent Davis Cup Tennis to the list, because
it packs in a surprising number of features and challenging yet fun gameplay in
a small package. Gamers will find several options at their fingertips. You can
choose to play a single match, participate in the Davis Cup, and can even play a
link up game with up to four other players. Before each match begins, you’ll
see an options screen where you select which country you want to play as. Once
you select the country, you’ll find a list of their players and each one is
ranked based on their skill set. Most players start off with slightly-below
average stats, but these can be increased when you gain experience and by
winning matches.
When you win each ‘tie’ or round, you
earn skill points which can then be used to increase your individual or team
points. Playing a solo match allows you to select from any country and any
opponents, but you gain little by doing this. In the Davis Cup mode, things get
more interesting, as you become the team captain, and must select four players
for your team, from a field of eight potential players. When you make up these
teams, the player stats will be averaged to make up your team stats. You can
also substitute players if they become tired or get injured. Once this is
complete, you compete in the knock-out tournament and progress through the
brackets quickly.
Davis Cup’s controls are very simple, even for a tennis game. The A button
serves and shoots, while the B button is used for lobbing shots. Players can
also take advantage of the auto-positioning system that allows you to aim your
shot while the computer moves you into position, which is simple to perform yet
makes the game flow much smoother. Players can change the spin and bounce of the
shot by using the shift keys. Aiming your shots requires not only knowing your
position on the court, but is also largely dependant on the surface the match is
played on. There are four types of surface: grass, clay, and two types of
carpet. You have to adjust your strategy for each type of surface because they
have different types of bounce and ball speed. This adds some variety to the
gameplay, though isn’t that big of a factor compared to masterting the
critical areas of setting up your shots and anticipating opponents’ volleys.
The
difficulty level is set low, making matches fairly easy in the early stages, but
later on, opponents gradually become more difficult and aggressive with fancier
moves that give you less room for error. Graphically, Davis Cup is decent in
some areas, but could have used some work in other. The standard angled-top down
perspective is used throughout the game, and the tennis ball is always easy to
see, making it easy to understand where it is. However, the players themselves
look blocky and animate poorly, even by GBA standards. This roughness undercuts
what is an otherwise good title and is a bit distracting. Given the hardware
limitations, Davis Cup’s lack of different camera angles is understandable;
however, the static screen gets to be a bit monotonous after awhile. Despite a
lack of finishing touches, however, this is an otherwise solidly playing game.
On the bright side, it offers a lot of different gameplay modes and really shine
in multiplayer since its controls make it simple to get into and play. Davis Cup
Tennis isn’t up the deepest sports title ever made, but it is still an
enjoyable and fun diversion.