Developed specifically for the Wii, EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis delivers the deepest and richest tennis experience ever developed for the platform. Supporting up to four players both online and offline, utilizing the MotionPlus Wii Remote accessory and packed with real life tennis strokes which allow anyone to quickly pick up a racket and use every shot type and inch of the court, it is serious fun for both casual players and serious tennis fans alike. 
Hit the court as Johnny Mac or a slew of other Grand Slam champs.
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Utilize player-specific styles.
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Attack opponents with MotionPlus.
View larger. | The New Home of the Slams
At its highest level, success in professional tennis is all about how you perform at the most prestigious events on the circuit. The Grand Slam tournaments are the biggest and most important of these and EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis now gives gamers an exclusive home where they can play all four of these: the Australian Open, the French Open at Paris' Roland Garros, the championships at Wimbledon in London and the U.S. Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City. As players step onto center court at each tournament they can expect a realistic Grand Slam experience from the details of the stadiums and its surroundings, to the scoreboard, crowd, differing playing surfaces and more. Playable Characters: A Whose-Who of the Tennis Elite
Success at the Slams is what elevates top-ten players to the rank of the elite on the tour. The character lineup of EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis features some of the greatest and most accomplished tennis players ever, including John McEnroe in his exclusive video game debut. Joining bad boy Johnny Mac is an impressive roster of current and legendary men's and women's players who collectively own 135 Grand Slam singles titles, making this the most accomplished group of players ever assembled for a tennis video game. Just a few of the additional faces players can expect to see in your bracket are Rafael "Rafa" Nadal, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Bjorn Borg, Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras, Ana Ivanovic, Andy Roddick, Boris Becker, Lleyton Hewitt and many more. Wii MotionPlus
EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis is one of the first games compatible with Nintendo's new Wii MotionPlus accessory for the Wii Remote. Working in conjunction with the Wii Remote's existing motion control technology, MotionPlus further enhances the player's experience with added shot depth and precise ball placement on the court. Racket rotation is also recognized so you can spin your stick just like the pros do, whether you choose to strategically pick your opponent apart from the baseline, or aggressively attack the net using serve and volley techniques. Key Features: - Swing the Racket Like a Grand Slam Champion - Users feel like they are actually playing tennis as they swing real forehands and backhands. Hit a variety of shots such as top spin, slice, flat, lobs and drop shots.
- Grand Slam Career - As the only video game licensed to feature Wimbledon, users can play all four Grand Slams. Authentic stadiums and venues are recognizable as the real grounds.
- Wii MotionPlus - One of the first games compatible with the new Wii MotionPlus. When the peripheral is added, the experience is enhanced with added shot depth and precise ball placement. Racket rotation is also recognized so you can spin your stick just like the pros do.
- Social Tennis Party - A dozen party games can be played, using seven core Tennis Academy style games with group friendly scoring and presentation.
- Connect Online* - Play against new opponents online. Every win contributes to your country on the Battle of the Nations leader board.
- Practice Makes Perfect - Hone your skills on the practice courts with controllable ball machines at every venue. Take advantage of the instructional pop-ups to improve your abilities and beat the pros.
- In-Game Challenges - In your quest to win each Grand Slam, conquer the various challenges to accumulate more skills for your created player.
* Online play requires user provided Internet connection. | |
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 A video game that is the closest thing to real tennis - so do not expect to master it immediately! |
| Review Date: June 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: WiiTourNet.com, |
I have a feeling that many people will pick up this game and be initially frustrated. They may feel the game is not completely tracking their movements. Or that when they try to swing in a particular way it is not reflected in the game. Now, this game is by no means perfect, and some of these frustrations are real.
But I strongly urge you to keep with it and not give up. If you spend some time with the game you will quickly realize how brilliant and addicting it is. The point where you come to this realization will likely be when you are able to achieve a degree of consistency in your swing and direct the ball where you want it to go, and I provide tips for this at the end of this review.
I will say this - above all else this game is very, very fun. Some of the rallies you will have with your friends or while playing online will stick in your mind long after the match has been won or lost. You will agonize over missed shots. You will cherish your winners. In that sense this game captures the essence of what is great about playing tennis.
It is an addictive game that will keep bringing you back to play it until your arm hurts (and trust me, if you are not used to the exercise your arm will hurt).
As I said, this game is not perfect. The career mode should be more elaborate. Online play, great in itself and usually lag free, lacks tournament modes. And even when you have mastered the controls you will at times be frustrated. But that's tennis.
Here are some hints for achieving good control in Grand Slam Tennis using Wii Motion Plus. If you are waiting for the game to arrive at your door I recommend you keep these handy for your reference, since they will very likely be of help when you start playing:
-Be aware that the (imaginary) face of the racket is the side of the wiimote. That would mean that for the most part you want the wiimote to be parallel to the ground while you are swinging (i.e. the buttons are facing the ceiling). The index finger should be over the `b' button and the thumb should be over the `a' button.
-use defined swings (this is not wii sports tennis were you can just waggle, you really need to bring you arm back). This may sound like a given but it is actually one of the hardest things to realize if you have gotten used to wii sports tennis.
-start your swing as early as possible (just when the ball has been hit by your opponent, and you have determined what direction it is going to go), and follow through when the ball has reached you. Mastering this ability will markedly improve your game, and you will also have less instances where the WM+ is confused about if you are trying a backhand or a forehand.
-if you seem to only be able to backspin/topspin the issue is likely with your wrist on the follow through - you are twisting it. Go to the practice court and work on that.
-if you seem to only be able to slice you need to work on keeping your swing level. Trust me, its possible to hit straight - go to the practice court and work on that.
-when you are waiting for the other guy to serve, hold the wiimote still and parallel to the ground, don't worry about what your on screen character is doing.
-serving in GST is not 1:1 - it is the same as wii sports tennis. You swing the wiimote when the ball is at its apex. You can control the direction of the serve (while the ball is in the air) using the d-pad.
- you can only do lobs and drops using the `a' and `b' buttons. |
Wii motion plus is not broken
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| Review Date: June 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Vagitus, |
A little about myself, I had never played real tennis before and I'm not that good at Wii Sports Tennis either.
I had spent over 8 hours playing Grand Slam Tennis. Here is my experience so far.
For the first few hours, I felt like the game was broken, that wii motion plus doesn't work. There were so many times I felt like throwing the control into my TV because I lost so many matches due to the fact that my player was either out of position or did not swing at all.
But as I played more and more, things just starting to click. I realized that unlike Wii Sports Tennis, when you play Grand Slam Tennis with Motion Plus, little things matter, you have to pay attention to the way you hold the control "all the time", your form, your arm motions ... You have to actually swing correctly, you can't just flick your wrist back and forth and expect to hit winners.
While I was playing, if I concentrated and paid attention to my form, my swing, then more often than not, my player did exactly what I wanted it to do. But sometimes, when my arm was tired and I reversed back to "Wii Sports wrist flick mode" I started to hit the ball out of bound or not hitting the ball at all.
So in summary, if you want an experience like Wii Sports Tennis, just play without the Motion Plus. However, if you are willing to learn a newer, more accurate form of tennis game, then you will be greatly rewarded for your time. After the initial frustration, it's really fun.
Update:
Played for another 4 hours tonight. All I can say is the level of control is just simply amazing with Motion Plus. I feel like I'm in total control now. This game should be rated 10 stars not 5.
Also, I forgot to mention, I had been playing without the nunchuck. |
not for casual wii-ers
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| Review Date: June 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: vidgamehero, |
UPDATE 2 - after about 20 hrs of play, I will flat out say this is the best, by far, tennis/gaming experience i've ever been able to play. The depth of control with Wii Motion is unreal. Invest the time, and you will be SMILING ear to ear playing this, and then probably wanting to go take some tennis lessons too. EA gets a knod, I have not been a fan of them for quite some time, but everything in this game is done right to MAKE THE GAME FUN...awesome, awesome. You feel the adreneline flow before tryingto return a HUGE Sampras serve, knowing hes coming into net - the look and feel of EACH pro is just like real life (even given the graphics of this game) you feel the mounting pressure of a cross court rally, the crowd erupts, your playe reacts - what a game.
Well...the wiimotion plus is out, and so are 2 tennis games.
Ive been playing tennis my entire life, and can tell you that if you are a waggle-er from wii sports, you may just want to stick to it. GST is no joke, requires real, fluid,controlled swings, competent play, and constant attention to the wii mote/your hand. This is not demanding, its real - you would not be able to hit a tennis ball if you kept the racket hanging by your side until it was time to swing - getting the racket back before the ball needs to be hit, preparation for your swing, all the things needed for real tennis are in this game. You will have to prepare your shots, be set up, and take a real back swing - or else, you will wind up like other gamers out there complaining that controls are off, what you (think) you are doing is not coming out on screen.
Get ready to invest serios time into learning this game, but the benefits are great, and the rallies are awesome. Dont be swayed by the cartoon graphics...this game is the first game I have played that actually captures real tennis, the sounds of the court, the serious voice of the announcers, it has a very very authentic feel, powerful racket contact sounds, and its very real compared to the artificial nature of virtua tennis - virtua tennis 3 was so robotic it was horrendous to play, and if you are a tennis player, virtua tennis is much too arcade ish to really feel a reward if and when you put a ball down the line for a winner.
In virtua tennis - there is not such thing as hitting a ball OUT. in GST, you bet you can hit it out, go for too much - you will be dissapointed when you hit it 1 ft off the sideline. the game rewards you with good play, smart shot selection, and execution whereas in VT - the game wants the ball in play and you can do no wrong.
Being able to slice, lob, DROP, top spin etc, all in real time, and for the most part putting the ball where you want, its just awesome.
spend AT LEAST an hr with the ball machine - u know you have mastered the controls when you say "i want it cross ct" and you put it cross ct, i want a inside out forehand, and you do it, every time. then its time to play - just like real tennis.
UPDATE - MOST IMPORTANT THING - MAKE SURE THAT INBETWEEN POINTS YOU KEEP THE WIIMOTE LEVEL AND POINTED AT THE SCREEN AND STEADY - EVERY POINT YOU WILL HAVE A PERFECT CALIBRATED DEAD CENTER RACKET - THIS MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. |
Review from a Ex Tennis Teacher / College Player
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| Review Date: June 15, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Jeff C., Seattle |
Well I think that many reviews given already talk about the learning curve, so I wont get into that much, but I thought that as someone who played/taught tennis for a living I might be able to add to all these reviews.
First, I got my game just yesterday. I decided to go with the Motion and Nunchuck right from the start since I like the idea of having as much control over my player as possible. As stated by others it does take some time to get the movement and timing down(can't say I'm a great at it yet but good enough to win matches).
Things you can and can't do.
Can - hit with topspin/slice/or flat on groundstokes - haven't always felt like I have the time to react and still do that consistently, but when I have time and try it the game executes it nicely.
Can - hit crosscourt down the line or inside-out, I haven't mastered the timing on the down the lines yet but when I do I feel like I will be a force.
Can - aim serve and I assume have some control over the power
Can - volley and drop volley like the best pro's ever (I drop volley alot in this game) and some of the angle volleys are very good
Can - lob and drop shot (haven't lobbed much so I can't tell if it will have much effect for my matches (not like you can throw up a huge defensive lob to get you back in the point or roll a topspin lob of a tight net player)
Can't - move in a little when returning serves to chip and charge, have to stay the same distance until after you hit the ball
Can't - always move immediately after hitting a shot so recoverey isn't always very easy. (maybe it will be better on Hard?)
Can't - as far as I know- hit slice, topspin or flat serves on demand. With the motion control I would have liked to been able to. If I am wrong about this please let me know.
Those are a few of my thoughts on controls adn shot making.
The game seems to only allow you to play tournaments with your created player(if that is true that is too bad). There are some side games at each tournament that add to the overall gaming experience but at least on EASY the matches in the tournaments are only to 3 games (win by two) I would have liked to be able to adjust this like you can when you play just singles (3 out of 5 full sets is nice)
Many have said how hard it is to win at first. The trick is getting to the net (at least on easy) I serve and volley most of the time and the angles and drop shots are working well. (not as easy to break, just like real tennis)
In all I really liked this game (Wii sport tennis doesn't even compare) I like all the Pro's and Legends and the 4 Grand Slam venues. (Not sure how the different surfaces play since there should be a noticable difference in court speed). Having the ability to hit most of the shots you want and move where you want is exactly what I was looking for. It will be interesting to see how my 9/11 yrs old play though without the tennis strategies that I use. With the motion and nunchuck I would say this is a challenging game for a novice but as a former player I like that.
Hope this review helps
By the way this does burn some calories, long matches can be felt a little. |
The beginning of the gaming revolution
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| Review Date: June 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: J. Reed, |
The promise of the Wii's motion controller are finally being made good with the Motion Plus. No longer are Wii games restrained to random spastic "waggling" control schemes.
In "Grand Slam Tennis",the game is NEARLY 1:1 motion (with the exception of serving, which is the canned-type of control Wii owners should be very familiar with) Outside of serving, when you want to hit a backhand with topspin down the baseline, you CAN...IF you know what the motion should be from either playing or watching real Tennis matches AND you put in a couple hours of practice with this game. Imagine that, a Wii game that requires practice and skill, and with the depth to reward a player who puts time into it.
Slicing, topspin, forehands, and backhands. ALL feel great. If you use the Nunchuk to move your character into the correct position for said shots it is as authentic as videogame sports get.(again, with practice)
You can opt for Remote-Only play, with the Computer deciding where you will move (just like Wii Sports Tennis) but this mode will sometimes frustrate you, as easy winners will be missed by the AI overrunning the ball, changing your forehand into a backhand whiff. This will happen about 15% of the time, and only happens in Remote-only mode. I STILL reccomend starting with this remote-only mode for a couple of hours, until you get the swing motion down, before graduating to full precision nunchuk + wiimote control
VERY IMPORTANT: Do not let frustrated gamers opinions let you miss out on this great game, or this great accessory. This game is not broken, the Motion Plus is not flawed. IMO these gamers have grown accustomed to randomly wiggling their remotes, and the games playing themselves at least in part. Grand Slam Tennis demands practice and skill, and might come at a shock for some players.
The graphics are very simple, cartoony renditions of real pro players is probably for the best with the Wii's limited polygon/texture muscle. The best looking WIi games are styled like Mario, and not attempting realism, IMO, so "GST" picked a good graphical style.
Online is very fun, it keeps your ranking, as well as your wins/losses for your nationality Davis-Cup style.
In the end, I would give this game a 9/10, docking the score only for the lame serving controls and the occational glitchiness of the motion-reading. For a motion-plus launch title, these things can be forgiven, and leaves me very excited for the future of motion-controlled games, for the first time EVER. |
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Wii Remote Controllerakeldama931: it gets sort of fun if you hack it but not really....
2 Comments
edu blog
03. Jul, 2009
Great post. this is what I looking for, thanks
Arturo
13. Jul, 2009
Although we have been friends for a long time, I didn’t want to embarrase myself with my lack of tennis technique. So I decided to get myself a bit of help before our first session. I “kinda” dissapear of the radar for a couple of weeks. The reason, I was training with an amazing series of oline videos on how to learn to play tennis.
To my amazement and his, my first class with him wasn’t bad at all. He immediately noticed that I had had “some help” so he asked what I did. I mentioned the videos, he took a peek and was quite impressed.
I am far from perfection, but I have been doing quite well.
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