Smoots World Cup Tennis (Nintendo Switch) Review

First impressions aren't always everything, but Smoots World Cup Tennis doesn't do a good job at relaying a competently optimised Nintendo Switch port of this over-four-years-old game. A heavily jaggy title screen logo, followed by unresponsive inputs on the main menu and close-ups of a Smoot avatar that looks like it's been pulled right out of 1996 do no favours to present something to look forward to playing.

Bypassing the gameplay for a second, there are a wealth of customisation options for the playable Smoot in the career mode, but flicking through the various appearances such as mouths can be difficult to even notice on the face thanks to the heavily aliased graphics. It gets worse once on the courts, as the jaggies and blurry faces are everywhere, from the copy-pasted Smoots of the crowds, to the sideboards lining the arena.

Gameplay is as basic as it gets, but every match becomes predictable and the fun fades fast. Forehands, slices and lobs are all tied to three buttons, with little to no variety outside of that. There is no indication of what shot is coming up next from the opponent, aside from a locator showing where the ball is due to land, but on top of this, the unpredictability of whether the avatar will hit or miss a shot is a problem. Shots expected to be hit are missed entirely, while others the Smoot isn't expected to reach are returned. A very common error occurs with the lob shot, too, where even if it lands very clearly on the other side of the court, it is signalled as being out, awarding the receiver the points. Enjoyment cannot be had when a game isn't even tracking scores correctly.

This isn't even mentioning the bizarre and annoying grunts that sound more like a pre-teen's interpretation of what goes on in the bedroom, of which there are only about two or three variations and are the same for every character. The umpire's constant calls of "first serve" at every service is equally frustrating, and the only way to turn these voices off is by sliding the SFX option right down, which causes all noise to be cancelled. Perhaps the only positive aspect on the audible side is the main menu music, with its glorious trumpets reminding this reviewer of Danganronpa, in particular.

Aside from solo and multiplayer exhibition matches and tournaments, the aforementioned career is a journey for one player to become the number one in the in-game rankings, but this drawn-out "story" mode, as it is known, loses momentum quickly with the tedium of every match. Its saving grace is the minigames, such as the zombie survival, where you must smash balls of fire at the encroaching undead before they reach you on the other side of the court.