Earlier in the week we reviewed the Xbox 360 version of Sega Superstars tennis and by all accounts we were fairly impressed, but can the Wii version live up to it’s glossier brothers on the next gen consoles with the help of the innovative controls?

Bringing Sega Superstars Tennis to the Wii was probably a no brainer for Sega, after all when you look at the success games such as Wii Sports and Wii Play have had on the console, putting together some of the greatest characters and games Sega have ever made into one big tennis game was always going to be guaranteed to make their bank manager happy, unfortunately however the Wii does have it’s limits and no matter how good the controls are, sometimes it’s what is under the hood that counts.  

For the benefit of the people who didn’t read our Xbox 360 review, the games main event comes in the form of Planet Superstars and the 100 challenges within this mode include mini games, tennis tournaments and special events, all of these take part in the worlds of Sega, using environments from games such as Sonic and Space Channel 5. Winning a challenge will allow you to unlock new characters and also unlock new worlds, more challenges and items such as new music tracks.

Sega Superstars also includes a tournament mode, here you play in either five single matches or three double matches, each of which takes part in a different court from the Sega world, once you manage to get through each round you will then be treated to a special, more difficult match. This mode is great if you are just looking for a few rounds of tennis, you can even play here with a friend.

The main omission from the Wii version however is the ability to play online against anyone, this really is a major disappointment because, this is the one thing that really adds to the overall lasting appeal of the game, why this could not have been included does baffle me, especially as the Wii has the capabilities to pull this off, and to be honest this is the main reason that the Wii version is inferior to the others.

Graphically the game is let down by a few issues, during matches it isn’t rare to see slowdown or blurry backgrounds, and there just isn’t as much detail as you see on the other consoles, although that is to be expected. The characters however do still look great and there is no problems whatsoever with the sound, as this still brings plenty to the whole atmosphere of the game.   

So does it fall to the controls to save this game from being nothing more than average? Well Yes, and thankfully they succeed most of the time. At the beginning of the game you are given three options for the controls, Wii Remote, remote and Nunchuk or classic controller, we would highly recommend the Wii remote and Nunchuk combination however as this is the way the game works best.

Using our recommended combination you control your character with the Nunchuk’s analogue stick while returning balls using the motion capabilities of the Wii remote, holding A while doing this will also allow you to lob the ball back, although the controls aren’t quite as responsive as Nintendo’s effort, they are still very good and work well. You can also use your characters special move with a combination of the A and B buttons, however you are only able to activate this when the star under their feet is light up completely.  

The game includes 16 characters altogether, and just like in the next gen versions, only eight are unlocked at the beginning, however as you play through each of the different challenges you will soon unlock all of them, which means you will be able to play with any combination when playing with or against your friends and family (offline).

Sega Superstars Tennis on the Wii is still quite a fun game to play, especially when you have friends round, however if you have an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, then the lack of online mode and the inferior presentation means that you should purchase it on one of those consoles instead, because for your money you will get a much better game.