Davis Cup World Tour Tennis

Sometimes the hottest new prospects in tennis come from unexpected places around the globe. French games developer Loriciel just put the finishing touches on Davis Cup World Tour for the Genesis, and it's coming to the States via Tengen. This newcomer could rise to a top 16-bit seed overnight!

Your Racquet's Secret Weapon

Davis Cup offers more control and shots than other Genesis tennis games. How? Maybe a new-fangled, super-powered racquet? Sorta. Davis takes full advantage of the new six-button controllers now available from Sega and other companies. You can play with the standard three-button job, but we don't recommend it. The game's just not as much fun. and you can't pull off all the shots.

Hot shots!

If you're armed with a six-shooter, this game's a game-play bonanza. You get basic shots, including flat shots, speed shots, lobs, and drop shots. You can also put some wicked top spin or back spin on the ball. At the net, you get regular, lifted, drop, and smash volleys. The serving mechanism is smooth and clean, and your player can even dive for the ball! Davis Cup's only noticeable control shortcoming is a natural tendency to overrun the ball, because the players move too fast in relation to the size of the court and the speed of the ball.

Courtside View

Davis Cup's modest behind-the- player perspective is very playable, but it won't knock your sweatsocks off. The screen displays an adequate, though somewhat blocky, view of the players and the crowds in the stands. The scrolling is smooth, and the screen splits to accommodate two players. Unfortunately, the animation is only mediocre.

Davis Cup pipes out slightly above-average music. The grunts, announcer's voice, and solid "thunk" of the tennis ball are good, but the sneaker squeak effects are irksome.

From the Ball Machine to Center Court

Davis Cup dishes out the most extensive lineup of features and options ever seen in a tennis video game. Before you hit the courts, you can practice serves and ground strokes in a ball machine accuracy test. Once you're ready for the real thing, you can play a standalone Exhibition match, a singles or doubles Tournament with 18 competitors, a Davis Cup doubles tourney that pits your country against international opponents, or a singles Championship world tour.

You'll play Davis Cup for hours. The variety of game modes, the ability to play singles or doubles with or against a friend, and the lengthy Championship are excellent options. Unfortunately, there are no passwords to save your game. The computer is a pushover on the Amateur setting, but blindingly fast and tough on the Pro setting.

Game, Set, and Match to Davis Cup!

If tennis was all about good looks, certain repeat Wimbledon champs would probably be permanent bench scrubs. Fortunately, that's not the case in real tennis or in this game. Once you get past the average audio/visual offering, Davis Cup serves up an action- packed game. Tengen also gets a big thumbs for being one of the first licensees to support the six- button controller. This one's world class all the way!

Tengen, the company famous for arcade-to-home conversions, is coming out with a brand new tennis game that's certain to appeal to many tennis fans.

Davis Cup World Tour has the usual features like court choices, practice, exhibition and tournament. The most noticeable differences about the game are the special features where you can view an instant replay of a recent point and argue a questionable call by an official and possibly overturn the call.

Wanna go pro? Prepare to do some smashin', some servin' and a whole lotta slammin' - in the hottest split-screen tennis game on the video-game market.

Develop a wicked backhand against the automatic serving machine in Training Mode. Then serve and volley against the world's best in a country-wide run for the Davis Cup - the most coveted prize in all of tennis. Or live the life of an international tennis star and smash your way to the big bucks...and the world championship.

Come on, Ace. It's your serve - Get A Grip!

Tennis, love? Tengen's Davis Cup for the Genesis is packed full of power slams. Hit the clay, grass, hard, or indoor courts ready for the thrill of pro-tour tennis! Select training mode, singles, doubles or tournament modes. Set the difficulty to suit your skills: beginner, amateur or professional. Replay some of your great shots, and fight with the Chair on some of those not so great shots! Take a friend to court!

The Davis Cup is an annual international team event in men's tennis. The participating countries, consisting of different players, compete in both singles and doubles matches. The entire championship has been made available in this game, and the matches are played using a third-person perspective.

Davis Cup Tennis is the first and only tennis game on the Genesis to feature a two player split-screen view, which means no one will have the disadvantage of playing on the far side of the court. You'll be able to play on four different playing surfaces including clay, grass, indoor and hard court in five different game modes: the Davis Cup, Exhibition, Championship, Tournament and Training, where you can practice everything from precision targeting to serving aces.

Both singles and doubles play are allowed in all of the game modes, so you can partner up with the computer or friend as you take on the top seeds. Choose one of 32 different male players to play as, each representing various countries and ranked according to ability (there are no professional names).

Rounding out the package are three difficulty levels, your choice of playing one, three or five sets, instant replay and an announcer whose calls you can contest!