For a lot of gamers, their introduction and possibly their only foray into a tennis video game was Mario Tennis back on the Nintendo 64. This title was so charming and fun that players were willing to learn the ins and outs of the sport that only their grandparents watched. My experience with that game stuck with me, and I had tons of fun playing Badminton and trying Tennis in real life. In 2022, how does Matchpoint: Tennis Championships, an Xbox Game Pass Day One title, fare?

This isn’t my first foray into modern tennis titles. I took a look at Tennis World Tour 2 a while back and found it to be a decent game with its gameplay shining at the forefront. That’s also the case with Matchpoint: Tennis Championships. It has a physics engine so strongly polished that I haven’t felt it in this sport’s video games to this day. Every serve is blistering, every charge-up shot a risk, and every volley a rush. I found myself gasping for breath during intense points to save a break and secure the game.

Controlling your tennis star feels like a dream. You have control of where your shots land, indicated by a shadow in the opponent’s court. There is also a red indicator if you’re going to hit it out/fault and an indicator showing how strong your charged shot will be as the ball hits your side with a circle that fills. With four different shot types allocated to each of your controller’s buttons and the option to make a quick hit up close, Matchpoint: Tennis Championships truly puts you in control of your victories and shortcomings.

The career mode within Matchpoint: Tennis Championships is a standard affair for a tennis title. It is a detailed, feature-rich grind to become the best tennis player in the world. You can do so by choosing managers, playing exhibition matches, and training your skills to raise attributes. Unfortunately, I had a huge struggle with these training sessions. One has you doing a Simon Says of moves making you look away from the action, while another has you doing up-close volleys after you serve with positively no time to get close to the net. Training should hold your hand but this game’s practice just punishes you.

Online multiplayer isn’t much better. While I was able to find a match quickly on release weekend, I quickly noticed that there’s atrocious lag that not only affects your movement, but shot placement. I could tell this not only affected me, but my opponent as well. We both struggled to capitalize on the other. Thankfully, split-screen multiplayer is seamless, so Steam’s Remote Play Together could work if you shell out the full price for Matchpoint: Tennis Championships instead of the Game Pass freebie.

The target audience for Matchpoint: Tennis Championships could have an absolute blast with the career mode thanks to succinct gameplay and plenty to do. However, when it comes to playing with friends online, it’s not worth it even for the Game Pass price of free. At the time of writing on release weekend, the game sits at only 18 Steam reviews with a Mostly Positive. It’s likely worth it around the $20 sale price range for those interested in taking on the best tennis gameplay around.

A PC review copy of Matchpoint: Tennis Championships was provided by Kalypso Media for this review.

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Matchpoint: Tennis Championships

$39.99

6.5

Score

6.5/10

Pros

• Best Tennis Gameplay Yet
• Fleshed-Out Career Mode
• Formidable AI

Cons

• Near Unplayable Multiplayer
• Awful Training