7. There Is Too Much Competition
Ever since tennis has appeared on mainstream platforms, fans have had multiple choices to satisfy their simulated tennis needs. A quick overview of what has been and gone would detail that Top Spin was the first game on domestic consoles back in 2003. Virtua Tennis was an old school arcade game circa 1999 and didn't make it to the platforms we own and love until 2007 in the form of Virtua Tennis 3. Meanwhile, sports games heavyweight EA Sports were working on their own tennis franchise, Grand Slam Tennis, which was released solely on the Wii in 2009 before its sequel was released on all platforms in 2012. Both Top Spin 4 and Virtua Tennis 4 are the latest titles from their respective franchises, released in 2011. So you can see that there is plenty of ongoing competition between them as each franchise battles it out for tennis game supremacy. But so far, no one has succeeded in achieving this because whilst there's so much competition, fans are divided and so are their best features because each franchise has something great about it but neither deliver the full package. Top Spin 4 has mastered the realistic gameplay down to a tee, consequently winning over the more serious tennis nuts whilst on the other side of the coin, Virtua Tennis 4 is heralded for its easy-to-learn style and is the preferred choice of the less fanatical fun-seekers. It seemed as though EA Sports had sat back and bided their time to release the perfect amalgamation of the two, coming to the party late in the game and with all the authentic licensing to back it up which brings us to another problem with all the competition. It creates conflict between licensing agreements but this is where Grand Slam Tennis 2 stands head and shoulders above the competition. It is the only game to secure the rights to include Wimbledon, completing the grand slam venue collection, whilst the other games had to substitute made up championships. It also has an authentic ESPN Broadcasting feature that makes the games feel more exciting and wins hands down when it comes to their impressive player roster and likeness. Of course this isn't surprising considering EA Sports' track record of success with Fifa, Madden, Tiger Woods PGA Tour etc. But fans couldn't help but feel underwhelmed by EA Sports' offering to the tennis table, claiming the gameplay didn't come close to that of Top Spin 4 and felt it lacked realistic technique. If one game truly could integrate all that is good about each game and satisfy every tennis gamer's needs then it would succeed in uniting us all, as the demand is there for one great title to dominate. Tennis games feel like they have to settle for the lesser of three evils at the moment, even if they whole-heartedly argue which one is the best.