Sega Superstars Tennis, developed by Sumo Digital, was released March 18, 2008 for the Xbox 360, PS2 and PS3, Wii, and my system of choice, the Nintendo DS/DS Lite.

The game features characters and courts representing many of Sega’s franchises, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Monkey Ball, and The House of the Dead. Right off, you get three options: Quick Play, which allows you to jump into a match without the bother of choosing your character or court. Your second option is Single Player mode, where you can choose to play a single match, compete in a tournament, or advance your way through a range of kooky mini-games. The final Multiplayer option allows you to join, create, or share your game with another DS-er.

Each character offers something different: Sonic and his speed, Dr. Eggman and his power, AiAi and his spin. But when actually playing each of the characters in a match, I failed to notice any significant differences in their maneuvers and skill except in their “special” shots.

What you’ll get with Sega Superstars Tennis is, well, a game of tennis. Even with mini-games (a few of which I failed to see the connection to tennis other than the fact that the character just happens to run around with racket still in hand), unique courts, and special character power modes to spice up your tennis shots, there’s not much new and exciting going on. (Though I have to admit, the mini-game where you hit tennis balls at zombies seems to be particularly amusing to me for some reason.)

Maybe I was a bit skeptical to begin with, because right away it sounded too much to me like Mario Power Tennis for the Nintendo GameCube. Once I started to play, the game did not offer much to quell my skepticism. I can win matches and unlock new characters and courts? Oh. Sounds vaguely familiar…

To be fair, there really isn’t much room for variety when it comes to video games that focus solely on tennis.nIt pains me to say this as real-life tennis is probably the only sport I’m halfway decent at, but as a video game, it is lacking the key factor in any video game worth its salt: replayability. Sure, I may want to pick it up every now and then to play a match or two for kicks. But five years from now, will I still want to play it? I’ll have probably sold it on EBay by then.