Eurogamer said:It doesn't help a great deal, either, that the player you create is a bit of a chump at the start. Beginning with a zero-star rating, the only way to improve is to beat opponents - either in one-off matches or through tournaments. Winning points and games (even when you lose the match) will eventually contribute to your star rating, but the problem is just that - winning games is disproportionately and unfathomably tough.
As something of a tennis gaming veteran, I kicked off on the game's medium level to see how I got on, but was forced to drop it down simply to see if I'd fare any better. The difference was minimal, and, again, the problem was nearly always down to actual shot-placement rather than fierce AI. In the heat of a lengthy rally, you might be doing fine, but one misread shot and you're another point down. If that happens a couple of times in a game, you're not only left frustrated, but probably defeated. The AI hardly ever makes mistakes. Being able to unlock special moves, such as Serena Williams' serve, by beating them in one-off matches is largely inconsequential when the outcome of so many matches is apparently random.
I'm hoping for a user error here. If the controls work as well as I expect them to, the bolded parts would be the essential part of the whole idea / fun. I've heard so much good about the controls from Finnish gaming press to IGN that I'd be very surprised if they are so totally broken that it's not even possible to aim your shots properly.
Time will tell, keep the impressions coming guys.
EDIT: I just went to IGN and looked at their hands-on:
Something strange is going on again....Once you plug in the Wii MotionPlus dongle, the title auto-recognizes it and takes advantage of its added precision. Simple, no fuss. And all of a sudden you play Grand Slam Tennis very differently. Rallies become much less about timing and much more about the motion and positioning of your swing. The experience considerably more natural and intuitive than any tennis videogame I have ever played, Wii Sports included. And you'll notice this added control fidelity the moment you start playing. If you bend down with the controller in hand, your athletic superstar will do the same, positioning his racket in a lower formation. If you raise the controller above your head, so will he. If you hold it at mid-level, he will too. And you can play the match in these formations.
Forehands and backhands are legitimately read and translated, occasionally at your expense. If you anticipate shots and prepare a forehand or backhand correctly, you'll be golden, and your rallies will be intense and long. But if you misread a shot, go for a forehand and then correct to a backhand, your character will try to do the same, which takes a second, and you might actually flub the shot because of it. You don't have to do that, though, because you can play the way you want to. If you find, for example, that you just don't like your backhands, you can attack left-corner court returns with forehand swings. You simply position the Wii remote sideways as though you want to hit a forehand return and your character will go into the position and strafe over so that you can hit the ball. Works flawlessly and feels very dynamic.
Without Wii MotionPlus, rallies are all about timing. Based on when you swing, the ball will fly off in a certain direction -- very similar to Wii Sports Tennis. With MotionPlus, it's all about your form, power and followthrough, the latter of which is very important. You still use A and B-trigger as lob and dropshot modifiers, which just works. But less emphasis is placed on your timing. As your waiting for a serve or for a return, you twist the Wii remote about and your on-screen character will do the same. And when you finally hit it back, you'll need to consider whether to hit forehand or backhand, speed, and the positioning of the Wii remote at the end of your motion and arch. In my play test, every ball I returned shot exactly where I wanted it to go. Even better, if I cut my followthrough midway on a return, the ball would curve inward toward the middle court instead of outward toward a corner, which is amazing.