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Have you had your fill of the fast-paced, arcadey action of Sega's Virtua Tennis 3? Wishing you could break free from the overbearing realism of 2K Sports' Top Spin 3? Are you just mad for tennis games with threes in the title? Only have $40 to spend? Then Atari's Smash Court Tennis 3 for the Xbox 360 is ready to serve.

The Game Within the Game Within the Game

Multiple modes and depth of features are two of the most crucial elements in any sports game. Fortunately, Smash Court doesn't disappoint in either area. In addition to the standard Tutorial and Exhibition modes, there is also Arcade (try to win each of the game's fictional tournaments in singles or doubles), Pro Tour (the game's career mode), and various online modes as well.

The game features 16 real-world players, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, James Blake, Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin, and Martina Hingis, and includes 15 venues from around the world. While you won't be able to compete at such famed courts as Wimbledon or Roland-Garros, the stadiums in the game are each designed with enough detail to give you the sense of actually playing at their real-life equivalents. The crowds, judges, and ballboys are also nicely designed and effectively capture the look and feel of a professional tennis match. The character models and player-specific animations are convincing, but sometimes the models suffer from the same plastic-sheen effect common in modern tennis games. The clothing textures on the other hand are consistently bland, due largely to the fact that they remain static instead of flowing naturally in sync with character movements.

The character creation system is quite impressive and allows for some frighteningly accurate or just plain frightening results. Every facial feature and body part can be modified with ease thanks to the menu layout and simple controls, and the clothing/accessory options, which expand as you unlock more items, offer enough variety to ensure no two characters look alike. While the character creator is nothing new to tennis games (or sports games in general), it still never gets old watching either yourself or one of your unholy creations out there on the court vying for that number one ranking.

It's Tour Time!

Once you have created your character, you are ready for Pro Tour mode, which throws you into the brutal, unforgiving hell-on-Earth that is the professional tennis circuit. You start out as a low ranking nobody, and it is up to you to not only become the greatest player in the world, but the most popular as well. To do this, you will complete training exercises, compete in tournaments, take part in charity events (to boost your image), and even find a swinging soul mate through the doubles partner challenge option (beat any player on the tour in a best of five-point game, and they'll be your doubles partner).

Your career is presented in calendar form and unfolds in yearly intervals. Each week you have the option of performing one task – practice, enter a tournament, enter a sponsor challenge and attempt to win that sponsors endorsement, etc. If your fatigue meter is running low, you can simply skip a week or two to recover. Since your agility and strength on the court directly relate to your fatigue level, knowing when to rest can be the difference between winning and losing.

The main emphasis in career mode is to level up your player’s attributes in order to be the best in the world. To do this, you must gain experience points by competing in events. These points go towards leveling up different aspects of your game (faster footwork, stronger forehand, better serve/volley, etc.). You also earn money for your troubles, which you can use to purchase items such as clothing, hairstyles and equipment. While most of the items are purely cosmetic, some of them (wristbands, shoes, and racquets) can boost performance in specific areas such as speed, power and ball control.

Between the invitation-only events, fan mail, newspaper articles that appear after miraculous comebacks and sponsor challenges, in addition to all of the RPG elements tied into your performance on the court, Pro Tour mode is as deep as it is addictive. Also, despite having the option of limiting each tournament match to one set (best out of three games), you can still expect hours upon hours of good-old fashion tennis action as well as a grueling, yet satisfying, career experience.

For those players looking for human companionship on the court, there are several options for offline and online multiplayer, both of which can be played with up to four people. The game also allows you to play with a friend locally against two players online. There weren’t any noticeable dips in framerate or lag in gameplay during my multiplayer matches, and the same goes for the single player mode as well. Online leaderboards, tournaments and head-to-head games successfully create an engaging and convincing simulation of being a professional player competing on a global scale.

See the Ball, Try to Hit the Ball

Two pieces of advice for anyone thinking about trying out Smash Court Tennis 3: turn on the power meter and play for at least a couple of hours before deciding the game is too annoying to be worth your time. Since you have to charge up your swings and release the face buttons to hit, timing is crucial. Releasing the button too early or too late will result in weaker, less accurate shots, and without the power meter, it is almost impossible to know whether you're in that sweet spot or not. And while the controls are far from silky smooth and can be annoyingly inconsistent, they do get less frustrating the longer you play.

The most serious control issue that unfortunately never goes away comes from the left thumbstick. Since the thumbstick controls both movement and aiming, you will find yourself hitting shots out of bounds; because you held up a fraction of a second too long when you charged the net. Also, because the hitting system is charge/release based, you have to push a face button just before you move the thumbstick. This will oftentimes result in your character either standing still (because the game couldn't process the simultaneous pushes) or lunging awkwardly towards the passing ball. This is mostly due to the animation system, which looks great most of the time but which can also result in some very wonky movements if you're not careful.

To be fair, some of the animation issues are the result of the game's simulation approach to gameplay, meaning that if you're running across the baseline and you want to change direction, your momentum will naturally make that transition a bit delayed. In this respect, the animations are nicely executed and look believable. However, the rest of the time, the animations are just downright infuriating, especially when you see your character give up on a ball that he could clearly reach or when she fails to smash a lob in favor of volleying at air.

Speaking of net play, here's a quick tip/warning: if you serve and volley every point, you will win 98 percent of the time. Unfortunately, the same rule applies to the computer as well. And since successfully lobbing a ball over a charging opponents head is next to impossible even for the best players in the game, your only real option is a cross-court winner, but even that isn't effective as it should be.

However, the most troubling aspect of the incredible effectiveness of the serve/volley approach is that you will oftentimes find yourself being swept by a nobody one week and then destroying a top ranked player the next week simply because one opponent favored the serve/volley approach while the other played predominantly from the baseline.

As for shot control, it isn't quite as sharp or precise as it could be. Too often, you will find yourself engaged in long rallies because you aren't able to hit corners and sidelines at sharp enough angles. Consequently, the best way to switch up a long rally is with a drop shot, and unlike other tennis games, pulling off a devastating drop shot is not overly difficult but certainly requires some practice.

Adding to the on-court drama this time around is the ability to choose an emotional reaction (happy, sad, taunt, calm, ecstatic, angry, etc.) after particularly challenging shots or long rallies. While this feature has appeared in other tennis games before, it certainly doesn't hurt to see it again here.

Also, you now have the option of challenging line calls. If a ball was called out and you think it was in, hit challenge, and you'll be treated to a slow-motion instant replay of the shot. The challenge feature works great during tournaments, but there is no such option in any of the sponsor challenges or training modes, which means you will sometimes find yourself losing training exercise because the computer called a shot out when it was clearly in (On the upside, these scenarios are the perfect opportunity to quote your favorite John McEnroe lines. "ANSWER THE QUESTION, JERK!").

Not Just Pretty Pong

Despite some frustrating and inconsistent controls and an overpowering serve/volley design, Smash Court Tennis 3 offers a deep and rewarding tennis experience. The career mode is robust and varied, the character creator is incredibly sophisticated and the multiplayer features offer everything tennis fans could want. Plus, for $40, it is a great deal for anyone looking for a solid tennis game.

Review by: Jake Gaskill