Tennis 3D

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Alrighty, this is a tennis game, so there is not much of a "story" here! You play against the computer or against another player, choosing between clay, turf or synthetic grass surface. A great success in this game is the ease hitting the ball as well as crossing the blows, which was a really difficult thing to succeed when playing tennis computer games back in the days, and thus Tennis 3D is a game that is a pleasure to play with. Note that, the two-player mode does not support a split screen style gameplay (which was not yet developed back in the mid 80s actually), rather than both players share the same gameplay screen. Also, the game offers either an automatic option to choose for interacting with the ball or manually as you prefer. I advise you at the beginning to choose the automatic ball strike
The game is a real success by Loriciel, and surely a great investment of the company to release later several successful tennis titles for the gaming industry!
For my liking, Tennis 3D is surely one of the best tennis games released for the CPC series!

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The graphics detail and color usage are certainly pretty good and the game runs in MODE 0. The courts are nicely detailed with 16 colors on screen while sprites (although pretty small) move fast on screen too. The main game screen is large and the camera angle is set high. The ball movement is also good enough, the depth perspective reasonable but not perfect. Apart of the players and the ball, there is no other animation on the screen, rather than the flashing scores and info at the game's panel, as well as the crowd when the cheering at the end of a set (which is actually a color-cycling effect).
The sound is at the same standards, featuring the usual whacks and swings of tennis as well as a crowd cheering sound when a set is finished. Probably a tune at the main menu, would add a bit more to the overall sound score.