Find in website:
Davis Cup World Tour Tennis (Sega Mega Drive)
Purchase
My copy of the game Davis Cup Tennis was received for free, bundled with the Extreme Land Sega Mega Drive 2 clone. I suspect it was put most probably by the seller himself, in order to increase the sales of the console. I am not a big fan of sport games, but as I did not have a choose to select another cartridge, I took it instead of the option to leave it.
Package
The game did not have any package. It was simply put inside the box of the console. The cartridge is a standard black plastic one,
with the CAUTION text on the back. Unfortunately the label on the front was put curved, or had moved during heating.
It has a picture of a tennis player, who just have hit a ball. The ball is moving very fast, shown by the motion blur effect and
the left trajectory in the air. With green font on white background is written DAVIS CUP and on black background with yellow
font is written TENNIS. Under the Latin name is another writing in Chinese. On the top of the cartridge on red background with
yellow font is written DAVIS CUP TENNIS, making the cartridge easy to distinguish from the others.
The game
Just like the other cartridge I have purchased for the Sega Mega Drive, it was not original game. The title screen was shown directly, without the SEGA logo immediately after switching on the
console. Just like on the cartridge, on the title screen on white background with green letters is written:
DAVIS CUP
A tennis player serves from the left, striking the ball to the screen, from where it pops back for him to play.
A nice pseudo 3D effect when looking the player playing with nice music. There is neither text for the credits, nor any other text except the title.
Further look at the title screen reveals that the credits text is not totally erased, but just hacked to show off the screen, by altering the Y coordinate.
This is noticeable when the top line of some text appears, then fades out. Pressing the start button brings the main menu.
WORLD TOUR
On the main menu there are five options available. Moving through them does not automatically give the suboptions, but a press of a button is required.
The first menu option is for TRAINING. It is recommended for all first time players to go this menu and then try the others.
It has suboptions for PRACTICE, where the player can practice with the ball throwing machine. The controller with the pressed direction
and buttons is shown, which shows the player what he is doing. Very useful. Next in the Training menu is the PRECISION, where the balls from the ball
throwing machine have to be aimed at shown by an arrow places of the court. This is already harder goal, aimed for more experienced players. Third in the
training options is the SERVICE, where the player trains his service with a shown by arrow target. Graphically displayed controller pad helps the
player by showing which direction and key to press. Next option is the train for SPEED, which is also important for playing tennis. Here the player trains
his speed and concentration with the ball throwing machine, which throws the balls faster and faster with every ball shot back. Last option is BALLS,
where the player with the computer or another player serve balls from their pockets to the opponent in a training session. From the option the two player
split screen mode can be experienced. In the training sessions the player also can select to try the different types of courts - CLAY COURT, GRASS COURT,
HARD COURT or INDOORS COURT. Every type of court have its own peculiarities, which should be taking into account when playing the game.
In the training also can be selected the difficulty - AMATEUR, PROFESSIONAL or BEGINNER.
Second menu option in the main menu is the EXHIBITION, where the game can be chosen as SINGLE for one player against another,
or DOUBLE for two versus two players. In the single mode, the player can play against the console, or against another player. In the double mode,
the player can play together with the console, against two opponents controlled by the console, two real player against console opponents, or two players, one of them in
the first team and another in the opponent team. The type of court can also be selected, also the number of sets to be played - 1 SET, 3 SETS or 5 SETS and the difficulty
as well.
Unlike in the training sessions, where only a few people are watching, in the Exhibition matches there is very big audience, which applauds the game in beautiful situations.
The audience can be viewed only in one player mode. Next option in the main menu is TOURNAMENT - the player or two players play against other opponents in order to win.
Here the game is much harder with different opponents, each of them with aim to win the cup. The game has a total of 16 rounds. This makes the game a real challenge for the player. In the tournament,
the courts still can be selected, while on the next item in the main menu - DAVIS CUP, it can be selected only the type of play - one player with the console versus two console opponents,
Two players versus two console opponents, or two players - one in each team. In this menu only the numbers of sets and the difficulty can be selected. The fifth option is
the most interesting for me, called CHAMPIONSHIP. It has no other options, than changing the difficulty level. After selecting the player, the nice tune changes to another nice tune, then a map of the world
appears with a window saying
SPONSOR BONUS
TENGEN OFFERS YOU
$20.000.
After pressing the button, your MONEY shown at the bottom right corner from $0 become $20.000 and here the fun starts.
You begin from RANK:64, shown on the bottom left. Now it is your turn to get better rank. It can be selected where to play,
which cost money for entrance and the transportation. But there are prizes to be won, paying for the expenses, if the player manages to win. There is also shown WEEK on the top
of the screen. In the different weeks, various offers around the world open. Really nice addition to the other options, with strategy, options for different tournaments (singles and doubles) and selected courts, depending of the
location. The money collecting is a good motive to play the game around the world. Some of the locations which can be chosen are
TOULOUSE, FRANCE - doubles tournament, indoor, SHANGAI, CHINA - doubles tournament, indoor and SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, singles tournament, hard court.
Because the game can became very long here, the progress can be saved on the world map with a password system.
Davis Cup World Tour Tennis is a very nice to play sport game with motivation raising during the game, big learning curve and enjoyable gameplay. At first it does not look that good, but as soon as the
player starts to score points to the beating him opponents, he motivates himself to get better and better. The music songs are good to listen, the sounds are perfectly sampled real voices, the graphic is very nice done
with many colours, the scroll and animations are perfect. There are even funny bonus scenes, where a player is angry about his out. The coin
throwing before the match is also very nice addition to the gameplay. The doubles tournaments are also big challenge for the player, playing it with
another player or the console. Even if I was sceptic about the game at the beginning, I am happy to have it in my Sega collection, to play it and enjoy it from time to time on old TV set.
- Gameplay: 8/10 - the player have motivation to play and get better, but sometimes it is way too hard. The two player cooperative mode is a nice addition with totally different requirements for both players.
- Presentation: 8/10 - nice menu system, title screen animations, graphics and options.
- Graphics: 8/10 - very good screens, with use of lots of colors, but there are several equal patterns noticeable during the game. Very good animated sprites.
- Sound: 7/10 - very good sampled sounds. The music is too repetitive to leave the game alone and enjoy it. There are only three tunes.
- Story: 10/10 - nice challenge for the player in the championship. Real motivation for everyone, with option for save. The funny talks add nice spice to the game. Not to neglect the option to play in practice, exhibition, Davis Cup and tournament.
- Overall: 82%