Ace Gals Tennis has people hitting the court on the Xbox LIVE Indie marketplace. Is this avatar game up your alley? Find out what all the racket is about, and see how the Ace Gals may be able to serve you today.
First impressions are often everything and developer Haruneko appears to realize this. When you launch the game, you’ll be treated to the high-definition menu, allowing you to choose a mode, view your trophies, and of course, change options or view the credits. It’s basic, straightforward, and it looks quite great in HD. Game modes include Quick Match, which allows a player to go against the CPU in a single match, and Career, which allows you to participate in 36 tournaments again the CPU. Keep in mind, the game classifies one match as a single tournament, as opposed to multiple matches. However, with 36 matches, there’s still a solid amount of time to be spent here.
There are 3 levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard – in Quick Match, you can choose which level you wish to play on. In the tournaments, matches are evenly divided amongst the difficulty levels. Players will find twelve matches within each level. As mentioned earlier, Ace Gals Tennis is an avatar title, meaning you play as your avatar on the court. To add more depth, you must pick a trainer for your avatar, and each trainer has a varied skill level of their agility, power, control, and reflexes. The trainers are comprised of 8 beautiful women, some being very scantily-clad and others being rather overdressed for the part. Sex sells, we all know that – embrace it, enjoy it. You’ll have access to 6 trainers from the start, and the remaining 2 must be unlocked, each will have a trophy unlocked as well.
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The mechanics of the game are simple, and there’s a very basic learning curve surrounding the timing of your shots. You can slightly aim your shots using the left analogue, and you hit the ball with ‘A’. Depending on when you press the button to make the shot, your shot is rated from poor to super. It feels like the difficulty curve wobbles, and it’s sometimes a game of luck to get the proper shot lined up. You cannot actually move your avatar around the court, and it automatically moves from point to point, wherever the ball will hit, and you won’t always make it there in time.
Ace Gals Tennis runs at 720p and it looks great. The courts themselves are decent, and the crowd is made up of various avatars. One thing I noticed, and it may be just a coincidence, but there’s an overwhelming number of avatars in the crowd wearing Canada baseball caps. I believe it may be due to the region of my console, and would love to hear from other players if they can confirm a change in their game. Besides the in-game, the menus and loading screens all look fantastic in HD. Characters are drawn using classic anime-style, with strong expressions.
The music and sound is quite good as well. Menus and in-game support a short looping tune, but it’s enjoyable. During your matches, you are treated by the voice of the announcer, who says a variety of things, including winner announcements, shot ratings, and points. It’s not spectacular, but it’s there, and it counts. You’ll hear some nice piano work in one of the songs in particular, quite well done if I do say so myself.
In terms of overall quality, Ace Gals Tennis serves up a solid game. With its net profits, it’d be nice to see some work put into a patch for multiplayer. The lack of both local and LIVE multiplayer is disappointing, but would given the title a large advantage when it comes to sales. Still, 36 tournament matches, with 7 trophies to unlock, that’s not too shabby for 80 :MSPoints: when you think about it.
For more information, check out the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
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