Main Features

Commercialization date: 1994
Place: Japan
Trademark: Nihon Telenet
Type: Sports-Tennis
Version: Super Famicon (SNES)
Language: Japanese
Special characteristic: uses DSP2 chip (special 3D chip, which cannot be emulated by any SNES emulator by the moment; that makes difficult for the Rom to run correctly).

Comments

This could be a customary game among its type except for the fact that in this occasion we are not supposed to choose among whatever tennis player but the main characters of “Ace o Nerae” series: Hiromi, Tohdoh, Yuu, Reika, Ranko, Kyoko, Saeko, Maria or Angie. We will be able to participate in exhausting matches under Jin’s expert tutorage, who will advise us about how to improve our tennis skills.

This game let us select among four modes (singles, doubles, training and history) which can be combined under four types of court (wood, hard, lawn and clay) and played from 3 to 5 sets. The training mode presents Hiromi receiving Jin’s instructions about how to beat her opponents: how to select them, which commands to use, most adequate combinations, ranking system, useful tips... Doubles mode may become one of the funniest experiences if played with others using a multitap (although the computer can substitute any player under any mode). On the other side, single mode will allow us to test our own tennis skills after challenging whatever player of the character menu.

If what we really want is to personalize Hiromi in her ascension to reach tennis summit, history mode will be the best option. Under this mode, Jin will be helping us to overcome all difficulties and improve our tennis style. He will both cheer us up or give us useful advises and even acid commentaries when our performance has not be as good as expected.

Graphics are remarkable for a SNES game and surely very nostalgic for the series’ fans. Characters are easily recognizable and maintain Yamamoto’s drawing style and personality features. The playing mode uses some sorts of 3D effects in which we can see our character from the back, facing the opponent. This sure has to get used to and makes the game pretty hard although the new perspective adds a more interesting and challenging ingredient.

Maybe this game has not woken up passions and/or revolutionized videogames market, but it provides the only way to make real one of the common fantasies of this series’ fans: Being Jin’s pupils for a while in order to challenge some of the best “Ace o Nerae” tennis players!