International Tennis Open
System: CD-i
Publisher: Phillips
Developer: Infogrames
Released: 1994
Genre: Sports (Tennis)
Capabilities: Multi-Tap Compatible, Hard Drive Save Compatible

The Game

Just tennis, that’s it. Where you hit the ball over and try to win as many games as possible. Pretty simple concept.

Graphics

Well, I really don’t consider these visuals taking power of the CD-i’s 32-Bit processor, but the most of the visuals are good nonetheless. There’s some FMV’s of each opponent you go against, which looks really nice, I don’t know if they’re pro players or not(I really don’t follow the actual sport of tennis that much), but they look like it because it shows highlights of the tennis players with trophies and other awards. The game’s in game graphics are ok, but to me, don’t look like a 32-bit tennis, but rather like a high-end sloppy running 16-bit game. The players on the court look great and all, and you can easily see the ball, and the umpire, and arena looks great. But there is some real sloppy animation here, with many skips between frames of you running to hit the ball, which causes many problems with game mechanics, resulting in lots of missed shots, and screwed up serves. A real down point in the game right there.

Sound

Well, all the tennis sounds are, here, you get racquet shots, and the sound of the ball hitting the net, so it all sounds like the real thing, but I don’t hear any umpire shouts of “fault” which are usually in all the other tennis games. The game does have some voice over commentary, of two types, those being the deep, serious, voice announcing the score after each play, and every now and then there’s announcers who commentate on how the player’s need to improve, or when they lost. They also do some nice voice over highlights of the four computer opponents, but the bad thing here is the quality of the announcers are really poor, and they sound quite muffled. I was expecting more from a CD system.

Game play

Well, the controls are pretty quirky, for serves you must move a tricky cursor into the right “zone” to select where you want your ball to land on your serve, but that cursor is really hard to position just right, which resulted in many faults for me. Also running around the court chasing the ball is pretty hard with the game’s control pad. You can set the game to run an offensive or defensive path for your player, so all you gotta do is the swinging of the racquet, but this option proves to be rather annoying, with your player running in the wrong direction of the ball, resulting in many missed swings.

There are three different modes of play: Training, Exhibition, and Tournament. In training you can attempt to perfect your game. And in exhibition you go a full three sets against one of only four computer opponents, you don’t get to pick a tennis player, you only get to play as “yourself.” Then in tournament mode, you get to try and beat all four of the computer opponents to be champion. This game can also be played by two players, so if you have a CD-i multi-tap, you can have two people play this game.

Replay Value

Their really isn’t much here to keep you playing this game forever. Because of the frustrating controls, and the lack of opponents, their’s not much at all to keep you hooked on this game. Once you beat the tournament mode that’s about it. Heck, there’s not even a doubles mode! The only interesting feature is that you can save at any time during a game into the CD-i’s hard drive, and pick up from wherever you left off. I wish all the new tennis games have this, because it’s really convenient to finish your game if something comes up.

In Brief

+: Nice “Save at any time” feature, Some nice FMV’s of the tennis players, announcers make the game more realistic

-: Really frustrating controls, Most of the sound’s are muffled, lack of players and game modes

The Final Ratings Rundown

Graphics: 5.8
Sound: 6.3
Game play: 3.3
Replay Value: 2.1

Overall: 4.3

Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 4

Comments

International Tennis Open could’ve been a great game, if the developers at Infrogrames would’ve spent more time on the controls and added more players, and a doubles mode, this game could’ve been a classic, but it turns out to be pretty crappy instead. The tennis action is ok, and if you’re a big sports nut, and just gotta have a sports game on the CD-i, then I guess you can pick up this title, and at least it’s 2-player, otherwise, avoid it all costs.