Super Family Tennis

Overview

Super Family Tennis, also known as Smash Tennis in Europe, is a tennis game made by Namco (via their in-house brand Namcot) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and was released on the June 25, 1993 in Japan. The European version was localized and released by Virgin Interactive the following year. The game follows the standard rules of tennis and provides a variety of characters and courts for players to play on.

Gameplay

The player controls their character's movements by using the D-pad, and the A, B, Y, and X buttons are for racket strokes. The A, B, and Y buttons are used for normal strokes, and the X button is used for lobbing the ball. While stroking, the player can choose the ball's direction and velocity. They do this by hitting left or right on the D-pad to choose the left or right direction and up or down to increase or decrease the ball's velocity. It is also possible to swing the racket early or late to increase the angle at which the ball is hit. The serve is accomplished by hitting a stroke button once to toss the ball in the air and again to hit it. While serving, hitting the ball when it's too high will cause it to go out and hitting it when it's too low will cause the ball to go into the net.

The game uses only the real rules of tennis in the game, which means there are no novelty modes or specialized training drills as you sometimes find in more modern tennis games. At the title screen the player can choose from just two main gameplay modes and an options mode.

Exhibition

Exhibition mode allows the player to create any sort of match they want to play. The player can choose between singles or doubles and whether they want to play alone, with a friend, or just watch the computer AI play itself. Twenty different characters are selectable (12 male and 8 female), and there are 8 unique courts to choose from. The match can be comprised of 1, 3, or 5 sets.

Tournament

Tournament allows the player to choose a character and play in a series of ladder tournaments against progressively more challenging opponents. Tournaments can be singles or doubles, and the doubles tournaments can be played with a computer team mate or a second player.

Options

This gives an option to toggle the ball marker on or off and to switch between mono or stereo sound.

Characters

Male

• Mike
• John
• Matt
• Peter
• Ian
• Brian
• Dan
• Darren
• Mark
• Paul
• Tony
• Steve

Female

• Helen
• Julie
• Carol
• Kirsty
• Susan
• Rose
• Marina
• Nina

Courts

• Resort Court: A blue court with a tan out-of-bounds inside a ski resort lodge. Through the windows it's possible to see snow and some girls watch the match from a balcony.
• Lodge Court: A green court with a tan out-of-bounds. The court is fenced in by a green fence and the lodge is behind the courts. The match starts in a fog, but as it progresses the sun comes out and shadows of trees envelop the lower half of the court.
• Shrine Court: This court is reddish orange with a brown, rocky out-of-bounds. The court is in front of a traditional Japanese shinto shrine and has tranquil ponds and a Torii gate.

• Beach Court: This court is on a beach. There are palm trees, a friendly looking crab, and the ocean, in which there are surfers and swimmers lined up to watch the match.
• Mountain Court: This court is on top of a rocky mountain plateau. A great forest can be seen below in the background.
• Namco Grass Court, Namco Hard Court, Namco Clay Court: These courts are inside a stadium much like Wimbledon or the US Open. The courts each have different court surfaces.