Konami tennis title confirmed for DS - ace shots inside

This looks like a GBA title.

I thought with the DS and PSP we would see the end of 2D titles like this. Sure, puzzle games are fine but this looks disappointing. Time to move methinks.

Come on, Kaxxx. Have you never learned to never judge a book by it's cover. Dude, 2D gaming is here to stay and co exist with 3D. Some reviews I read of the previous games were pretty good.

Prince of Tennis anime and manga is very good, but if they push the story mode is another thing (we don't need another game like GBA F-Zero GP Legend dire story mode thanks), let's hope Konami do so.

But Joji my point is that 3D potable gaming is meant to be the next gaming revolution. I dont like it at all, it looks like an SP game (which it probably was) that has been updated for the DS (which it probably has).

If you compare this scenario to the laep between SNES and N64, no-one would have been happy. Look at the amount of flack Yoshi took and it still had some 3D elements to it. Ive been playing handhelds since the original GameBoy and i dont think this type of cheap effort needs to be seen anymore. Lets see this sit beside Metroid and Mario and see how it ends up in the GAME bargin bin.

I totally agree that 2D gaming has its place, as i said puzzle titles and scrolling shooters but this just looks cheap and dated when you compare them to the titles we have been seeing over the last few weeks. Maybe im expecting too much but ive been really disappointed by this, Puyo Pop and others. Its all too GBA.



2D tennis? i think not!

I think that's a little too judgemental of you, but it's your opinion though. It's kind of like you're saying that you expect everything on DS and PSP to be in total 3D. It's not gonna be that way I'm afraid, and never will be with all games and formats.

A 2D tennis game can be great fun regardless what it's running on, please don't tell me you have never played Pong in your life. Pong was one of the first games and does not need to be 3D in order to make it any better. Perhaps the same goes for Prince of Tennis. Also because Prince of Tennis is based on an anime and manga series, all of the characters etc have already been designed, so in respect the game has to respect it's source material to sell. For anime style graphics similar to the anime series feel, perhaps Konami thought 2D graphics would be better suited, than 3D for the sake of it.

Sega's Virtua Tennis was in 3D, but still presented in a 2D viewpoint so it never made a fantastic amount of difference, but helped show off the games real life characters between ingame breaks, to fire you up a little. For anime style graphics the artists' characters will do and present anything more complex. If Konami choose to put more 3D in the game it's up to them, but for tennis, like some puzzle games if it's not broke why fix it? Yes, we might see a another 3D tennis game but maybe not this one. If you want a more pretty version I suggest you check out Konami's WTA tennis games on PS2/GC or Prince of Tennis on PS2. The latter won't be that much different from this DS version graphics wise, again in keeping with the series style. It does look like an SP game, but is the DS not half SP? Best of both worlds. If 2D is used well, why restrict it to puzzlers and shooters only, that would be silly.

Do bare in mind that not all 3D games are good just because they are 3D. It's a 2D tennis game, accept it, but voting with your money and wisdom is always the best way. The previous games were quite good, so I'd do more research on them before jumping to conclusions on something that's not out yet, or just wait til DS is out. Prince of Tennis DS might see a western release due to the manga being available in the U.S now.

You two have some points with which I agree and some with which I disagree.

I think the everything-3d concept is decidedly wrong, especially when we're talking about handheld gaming, which is basically founded on accessibility. By that I mean accessible games with accessible prices, and that trend is likely to continue for some time even with the release of more sophisticated portable machines. Don't expect most 3rd party developers to spend tons of time and money in the creation of original softwares that will retail for a lower price than that of a console game. And I think it will be like this for a long time in the handheld realm. Not all PSP games* will look like PS2 games and not all DS games* will look like n64 games (*not considering ports and conversions). But I think that's quite fine. As much as I'm very excited about the prospect of playing a technologically impressive 3d game on the PSP or the DS, I still want to be able to just pick my little machine up for a quick round of some amazingly fun 2d arcade action. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who would spend a lot of time playing arcade-perfect conversions of Metal Slugs, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodowns and Guilty Gears on my PSP or DS.

We can't forget, however, that 2d games have also improved a lot in the last few years. I have to admit that I think that this particular tennis game by Konami seems too dated and unimpressive to be released as a full-priced DS game, or even a budget-priced one really. No matter how fun the game might be, it still clearly has a simplistic 16-bit look that would be considered modest even if it was released on the Snes in 1994. The DS is capable of doing much, MUCH better than that, be it 2d or 3d, so there's just no reason not to improve those visuals considerably. Sure, if they released a megaman collection-like package, it'd be a totally different story.

I agree with you. What im really trying to say is that by adding an extra screen to a 16bit game, which this is, does not make it exciting and new and i can imagine alot of developers will do the same thing. I personally wont be buying this, maybe if the price was reflected then it might be different but when there is so much good stuff round the corner this looks dated and lazy.

Joji, i get your points my friend but personally i think im just more attracted to 3D games, not because i think that 2D are bad in anyway but that 3D simply creates a more imaginative and creative world in which the game is set. I know there are alot of guys out there who love 2D games such as Newtynho mentioned, they have their market but Prince of Tennis looks just looks poor. Can you seriously see this selling in huge amounts? The PSP has some seriously cool looking titles and games like this dont help the DS's cause IMO.

Ive played Tomb Raider on the GBA and played it on the N-Gage with is basically a playstation conversion. There is no comparison. There are classic 2D series, fair enough but for the rest of titles its time to move on and quit with the lazy ass titles because at the end of the day thats all they are. Ive been playing 2D titles since i was a kid, im bored of them.

As for Pong. Pong? Trying playing that now to see how fun it is. Its dated and old but a classic, it should stay in the past where it belongs.