Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip Review

Ever wondered what the lovechild of Pokémon and Virtua Tennis would look like?

Well now you might just get to see it in action. In its simplest terms, Hot Shots Tennis is a cutesy mix of Virtua Tennis gameplay and Pokémon-esque RPG story, exploration, character acquisition and leveling. In the single player campaign you play as an up-and-coming member of the Love Tennis Club and it’s your mission to seek out people that have in some way lost their love of tennis, and then thrash them in a game of tennis... at which point they fall in love with it again. Counter-intuitive concept aside, it works really well, and that is in large part because it’s almost an exact cut and paste of Pokémon. That is not to denigrate either series; Pokémon is one of the most successful franchises in the industry and its ability to hook you in and devour days of your life is almost unparalleled. Transported to the world of tennis, the Pokémon gameplay style works brilliantly, and is only a handful of tweaks away from being almost as good as the game it emulates so much.