This review originally appeared within iLounge’s iOS Gems series within the compilation article, iPhone Gems: Sports Games – Soccer, Golf, Air Hockey, Tennis + More. Additional details may be found in the original article.
Rather than just describing the video game equivalents of tennis and volleyball as being little more than the classic Pong with different graphics, we’ll note that there have been a number of stunning tennis and volleyball games over the years, particularly ones from Sega, Microsoft, and Tecmo.
Neither of the games here rises quite to that level. Tennis Slam ($5) by FinBlade is a cutesy doubles tennis game where you control two on-screen pills who bounce a tennis ball back and forth with two other on-screen pills, with very little control over your characters’ movements or heights of swings.
As the computer controls both sides’ characters’ motions on court from left to right, there’s nothing left for you to do than tap the screen to swing, hoping that you return the ball rather than missing it.
Perhaps because the game is presented solely in vertical mode and much of the screen is taken up by a scoreboard, you don’t have nearly the ability to move or see what’s going on that you might in a widescreen tennis game; it’s obvious that FinBlade designed this title to look nice and be basically light entertainment. But by the standards of even the air hockey games above, especially given this title’s comparatively high $5 price tag, Tennis Slam doesn’t feel like it’s a complete game—it’s a flashy interface with very light action taking place inside, and no audio.
