Outlaw Tennis

Written by Glenn Wigmore  on April 13, 2005

Final Glimpse: Outlaw Tennis' scantly clad ladies eliminate the need for one to sit through an Anna Kournikova match just to ogle her.

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Another year, another Outlaw sports title on Xbox. This time, instead of golf or volleyball, the people at Hypnotix are hitting the court to provide some curvaceous characters and wacky gameplay in Outlaw Tennis. Personally, I think there's always room for franchises like this as they are reasonably simple games that deliver more or less what they promise (the promise of the Outlaw games being T&A and over-the-top gameplay). Still, while I do like the look and feel of the series, Outlaw Volleyball was a lemon and only the golf games have delivered; this means that Outlaw Tennis will have to avoid some potential pitfalls to truly be a fitting addition to the series.

Much like the previous Outlaw titles, this game will feature another vast array of colorful characters as well as many unconventional locations to play in. Some of the returning characters include the sultry Summer, the sassy but snappy Trixie, and wannabe rapper/thug Ice Trey. There will also be several new characters that come from all walks of life, but much of the 16-character lineup has yet to be formally announced. Locations that you play in will be just as wild, including deserts, streets, parks, and even an aircraft carrier. The one thing that the Outlaw series has gotten right all along is the presentation of its principle players and locations so it's not unreasonable to expect that this trend would continue here.

Gameplay will be a similar mix of simulation and arcade elements, much like in the other Outlaw games. You will be able to play a variety of different standard shots such as slices, lobs, forehands, backhands, and smashes. Additionally, you can use the triggers to add spin on where the ball goes and you can use a power meter system (similar to Outlaw Volleyball) in order to get a blazing fast serve or hit a perfect shot. Fighting will be used again, and it will also be similar to the engine used in Outlaw Volleyball, which is more like a fighter rather than the sequential button pressing of the golf games. The momentum system will also return and it will let you know if you're Уin the gutterФ or Уin the zoneФ while executing your shots; this feature never drastically affected shots in the other games, but it provided a small nuance to gameplay that rewarded good shots and punished mistakes.

The main mode of play will be the Tour mode where you will go through various tournaments and mini-game challenges. It will be mostly standard fare, with the mini-games providing power-ups and attribute points so that you can access harder tournaments and events. However, the mini-games seem like they will be quite creative, as some will even have you competing in a УbattleФ of sorts with the tennis balls serving as dodge balls to drill you AI opponents.

The game also features other modes that can be played apart from the tour mode, including Football, Baseball, Casino, Hot Potato, and Ping-Pong. Football and Baseball work much like other sports games that have УusedФ these modes, in that your shots will represent hits, runs, yards, points, etc. and you will win the respective game by stringing together good shots. Casino is somewhat creative as you will win money for your success, but the real benefit comes from winning long volley sessions, as the longer they go the more money you will make. The Hot Potato mode just serves as a time bomb type contest where the counter will wind down and you'll want it to be on the opposing side before it blows; this mode was also used for some fun in Outlaw Volleyball. Ping-Pong is just basically tennis with ping-pong rules -- who knows, could still be fun.

Outlaw Tennis will also feature Xbox Live support for up to four players (this was done in Outlaw Volleyball and Outlaw Golf 2). Hopefully there aren't any online issues like there were with Outlaw Golf 2 (couldn't play 4-player games without crash, ranking issues, etc.) and Hypnotix learns from their mistakes. All the modes should be supported online, including doubles play (which is available offline) for four people to get some silly gaming going on.

Outlaw Volleyball looks to be following the successful formula that made that golf and volleyball games work (well, more the golf, but the volleyball had attitude at least). Hopefully the game will be released for a bargain price ($19.99 to $29.99 USD) so that more players will be motivated to buy it, thus helping out for the online matchmaking portion of game.