EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis is something a bit different for Electronic Arts' sports brand. The most obvious difference is that it takes a rather interesting departure from most EA Sports games in that it doesn't carry the usual mark of ultra-realistic graphics. The presentation is obviously geared to encourage a broader range of players to take to the virtual court, and the almost cartoony-but-recognisable appearances of Henman, Federer and Nadal seems like a throwback to the brightly colou ... more >>

EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis is something a bit different for Electronic Arts' sports brand. The most obvious difference is that it takes a rather interesting departure from most EA Sports games in that it doesn't carry the usual mark of ultra-realistic graphics. The presentation is obviously geared to encourage a broader range of players to take to the virtual court, and the almost cartoony-but-recognisable appearances of Henman, Federer and Nadal seems like a throwback to the brightly coloured sports games of the SNES and Mega Drive era.

Gameplay will be familiar to anyone who's played Wii Sports' tennis game before, albeit with a few quirks. Serving is exactly the same as the launch title and returning the ball to the left, centre or right of the court is still a matter of how well you time your swing. At this point, however, Nintendo's MotionPlus peripheral comes into play. There's a greater degree of control in the motion sensing, with angled swings resulting in slices or top spins, while holding A or B buttons during your return will perform a lob or drop shot respectively. Rushing to the net and back is as simple as pressing up or down on the D-pad.

While there are certain similarities to Nintendo's own console-bundled tennis game, connecting the MotionPlus attachment makes the game a whole lot more accurate than the Wii's pack-in tennis game. The main difference when using MotionPlus is that, excepting the net-rushing, all the controls are set to your motions, the buttons otherwise rendered useless. The game more accurately registers the power and curvature of your return, so you can get the ball almost exactly where you want it to be.

The game does, of course, come with a multiplayer option. You'll be able to serve up against your mates either on the same system or online! << less