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Do you remember the last time you sat down and played a good game of tennis on your computer? I'm guessing that the majority of those who read this don't, because it seems like tennis has become one of the less popular sports in games. This is a bit of a shame, because the game is actually fun, so to satisfy the tennis-hungry fans Oxygen Interactive made Perfect Ace.
The game sports a total of 16 fairly realistically modeled courts around the world; some with grass, some hard, and some with clay. From the main menu you're presented with various choices, but since we want to get into the game quickly we'll choose between single match, tournament, and championship as because options and such are fairly self-explanatory. In single match you simply choose your character and your opponent's character from the 32 tennis players available. The characters are said to be modeled, textured and animated after actual players. You then choose between the 16 courts, and start playing. Setting up 2 on 2 matches is just as easy, only you click a few more times you select the players.
Tournament is even easier to set up, because after choosing between 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 matches you just select the player(s) you want, and the game begins, because you're playing on a predetermined set of courts. The trick is of course to win all the matches, and win the whole tournament.
Championship is a bit different, because here you first choose the nation you want to represent, each with his own home stadium. Now you play through the first round, through quarterfinals, semi finals, and at last the final. The first round consists of a number of 1 on 1 and 2 on 2 matches, which easy take a pretty long time to finish. Those of you who aren't really familiar with the rules of tennis will learn quickly, but beware that there really aren't any 'short' matches per se, unless you change the rules in options.
In my opinion what makes the game particularly enjoyable is the variety in courts, the very nicely animated players, and the 2 on 2 matches. As I told you before, the 16 courts are located throughout the world, so if you play in a certain country then you're likely to see at least something reflecting the country, like a temple in the background. Motion-capture was used to animate the movements of the players, which results in extremely realistic motion. This is very well and all, but it really doesn't work as perfect as the title of the game might suggest. You see, tennis players use a number of different ways to hit the ball, which affect the trajectory of the ball. In Perfect Ace you can choose between lob, top spin, and slice, which by default are used by pressing J, K , or L. These moves have certain advantages and disadvantages, depending on where you and your opponent are on the court, and where you want the ball to go. These moves also have appropriate animations and all, but the big problem is that the transitions don't always work as well as they should. When a ball is coming towards you naturally need to move to a reasonably good position according to the ball's trajectory, but you usually only need to press the J, K, or L button, along with the direction where you want the ball to go, and the player does the rest himself. Only, this doesn't always happen. Sometimes you press the right keys at the right time, and you just stand there looking like someone who's getting too old to keep up with the pace, and that's not good in tennis. I do wish the developers had tweaked the movement a bit more, because it could've been a really great title.
For someone who isn't really a big tennis fan the fun doesn't last for an incredibly long period. The repetitive nature of the game, and the long matches made at least me a bit bored, because at the end of the day the only thing you do is hitting the ball over the net again and again.
Graphically the game is quite good. Only being able to choose between 640x480 with 16bit colors, or 640x480 with 32bit colors is a bit of a shame, for a number of reasons. You do get less detail when running at such a low resolution, but the biggest problem lies in the aliasing. When playing at 640x480 you'll get a whole lot of jaggies, so unless your pc is powerful enough to run with 4x anti-aliasing or more, then the visual experience will hurt accordingly. However, when turning on 4x anti-aliasing and 8x anisotropic filtering everything just looks so much nicer - so much more pleasant. I'd have to say the artists did a good job on the characters, because they do look quite realistic, yet I dare say they are far from photo-realistic. One of the big challenges the developers of these kinds of games face is how to make the fans on the side of the court seem somewhat realistic. In Perfect Ace they opted for animated sprites, and it doesn't look good at all. The plus side is that the performance doesn't take as big of a hit as if they were made of polygons, but in its current shape they look much like the ones in NBA Jam Tournament Edition, from 1995.
A nice touch is that most of the things on the court, including the players, have dynamic shadows. When using the normal view this looks quite good, but when zoomed in the shadows reveal jagged edges like those that sometimes appear in Splinter Cell. The bottom line; shadows add life, and that's a good thing.
Sound wise the game isn't great, but it does its job. The musical tracks sound pretty cheesy, but the sound effects and voice-overs are better. Besides the expected ball sounds and the moans of the players, you also get a commentary of sorts, which luckily doesn't get as annoying as that in other sports games.
There is a basic form of multiplayer in Perfect Ace, but how practical it is can be debated. Two players can compete, but you need to share the keyboard, so there's no form of IP based multiplayer.
What I think could've made this game more fun, or at least give it more replayability, is unlockable features, characters, courts, and such. Perfect Ace is a tennis simulation in many ways, but I'm convinced that a 'special' arcade mode could cater more to people who aren't extreme tennis fans.
Conclusion:
To someone who isn't a huge tennis fan this game was surprisingly fun, although especially the gameplay could've been improved to cater more for those who just want more arcade-like action. People who just like tennis, and want to play it like you're intended to are likely to love Perfect Ace, but I think it's fair to say that those who aren't already fans of tennis will probably find it a bit boring after a few hours. In terms of graphics and audio the game does well enough, at least to satisfy those who value gameplay over graphics.
