0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - All Star Tennis 2000

         

All Star Tennis 2000 as you have probably already guessed is the follow up to All Star Tennis 99, this time around however Smart Dog wouldn’t be developing the game, instead that fell upon Aqua Pacific Ltd while Ubisoft would continue on as publisher.

Unlike the previous years game however it would only release in Europe with Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, UK and France seeing the game released. France would also like the previous years release it would be titled Yannick Noah All Star Tennis and in Germany the game is known as DSF All Star Tennis 2000, the game was released on the 18^th of August 2000.

  

Generally there is not much that has been added to the game with core mechanics the same, with slices, lobs, topspin and backspin shots as well as the individual special shots, the inclusion of mixed doubles is a nice touch.

Some new players make it onto the roster with Amelie Mauresmo, Barbara Schett, and Lleyton Hewitt as well as a few others, but again as with last years version these are limited, and the bulk is made up of fictitious players called Neo, Amore and Clementine Hilbey.

The game has three modes to choose from exhibition mode is for up to 4 players with variations 1p v com,  1p v 1p, 2p v 2com a three player mode as well as a 4 player mode. In addition to this there is a tournament made and a season mode, tournament wise there is no increase in the number that are available with 11 in total the same as the previous years game.

The same as the previous year, no real story or story mode there is a season mode and I suppose if you took one of the fictional characters through it could be classed as a story mode however there is no dialogue or story progression.

Again review are light in number like its predecessor I have managed to find three critic reviews for the game, as usual we will start with the best of them which comes from NowGamer. Their 71/100 review concluding, So where do we place All Star Tennis 2000 in the not-very-great scheme of tennis games? Well, like its predecessor All Star Tennis ’99, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The controls are intuitive and there’s a lively crowd to jeer and cheer your efforts.

 It’s addictive, even though the big hits from the baseline gameplay can get tedious and we’re also thankful for the chance to play with Conchita Martinez from Spain! Until we get a tennis game with options that allow zero-gravity serves, underwater smashes and mixed doubles in space, this will do us – love-one to Ubi Soft! Then again this is the same publication that made light of a tennis player getting stabbed so this review can be taken with a pinch of salt.

Another couple of critic review both coming from German publications the first Mega Fun rated the game at an average 56/100 with their review concluding with the following. Tennis simulations have been fully up-to-date since Virtua Tennis. Also the excellent Mario Tennis and Anna Kournikova Smash Court Tennis are fun representatives of this game genre. Unfortunately, DSF All Star Tennis 2000 can not compete with the aforementioned games in any way.

The lowest of the critics reviews came from Video Games who scored the game a lowly 32/100 with their review concluding. The third good tennis battle in a row? Certainly not! For this, DSF All Star Tennis 2000 in the area of ​​graphics gaming and gameplay loses the ground under the feet.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit five online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,  eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, I will also be including Ebay.com as well

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, with no surprise if the worldwide 99 release was not available the European only 2000 release won’t be either, Retrogames.co.uk don’t stock this title either is this going to be as hard to find as the 99 release.

Moving on to eStarland.com where we have an addendum, the Playstation version of All Star Tennis 99 is now listed on their site, however it is currently out of stock with an imported copy of the game priced at between $4.75- $9.50 when in stock. They also offer a trade in with $3.50 being paid for a copy of the game.

Back to this edition of the game, I imagine I will be making an addendum at a later date, the game is currently not available from eStarland.com. so we head off to Amazon.com where we find not a single copy of the game available, not a major shock with this a European only release.

So we switch to the co.uk version of the site where we strike gold, not a whole heap of gold though, with only 4 copies of the game available at the time of writing this. Quality wise for these copies, one which is priced at £2.01 and comes with free delivery has no condition information other than used, good quality.

The other three copies that are on the market a definitely incomplete copies, the very good condition copy that is for sale at £2.02 has no instruction manual, as does one of the good quality copies, the remaining copy is a disc only copy and is the most expensive of them all coming in at £4.

Hopefully we will have some more look on Ebay.com, once again setting out shipping location to the UK, and we have a limited number of copies on the market again, a complete copy in acceptable condition is priced up at $4.04.

A couple of Australian seller have copies priced up at $12.53 and $13.40 but once you add in the shipping costs those prices soon surpass the $20 mark with the latter of the two costing just short of $30. there is also a brand new sealed copy of the game for sale, shipping from the UK and coming with free international shipping this copy is priced up at $44.78.

 

Written by

P J Gibbon