Outlaw Tennis Xbox Review

The Outlaw sports series successfully meshes raunchy comedy with real sporting events, which has always been a major hook of the series that has given us golf and volleyball prior to the release of Outlaw Tennis. Thankfully the humour is never the priority, as minus the competitive seriousness seen in other sports titles, the games convince as enjoyable budget material. The question is does Outlaw Tennis continue this trend?

Before we get to the game itself lets talk humour, as Outlaw Tennis is still largely a funny package. The crass humour that you have either grown to love or loathe makes a return, meaning larger-than-life characters and an annoying commentator that still somehow manages to remain amusing. In fact “amusing” is the one word that sums up the entire package perfectly.

Don’t despair racquet fans there’s still plenty of tennis in here, and thankfully it’s the humour playing second fiddle to the game and not the other way around. Whilst Outlaw Tennis isn’t the most serious take on the sport, it still manages to deliver a worthy tennis ball onto the court.

As far as tennis games go everything is in place, therefore if you are playing in classic mode all the real rules stand untouched. However, this doesn’t mean that insane serves and superhuman like speeds are absent, as the turbo feature assures that this isn’t the case. Holding the required button down and hitting a perfect serve delivers the ball to the other side of the court at a manic and intimidating speed, whilst holding it down whilst the ball is in play allows you to rapidly attempt to reach a bounce that would have otherwise been out of physical reach, or even hit a powerful and speedy turbo shot if timed correctly.

Outlaw Golf allowed you to take your aggression out on your caddie to restore composure, Outlaw Tennis allows you to take the fight to your opponent instead. Winning a fight in this incredibly simple button-mashing contest grants you 30 seconds of unlimited turbo, which earns you a rather nice and nimble advantage on the court.

Classic mode is only the tip of the iceberg, as the game offers some alternative takes on the sport. Hot Potato sees a timer ticking down during a rally, which results in an exploding ball that knocks any player down on impact. Casino is naturally set on the “money is the motivation” theory, meaning every time the ball is hit a dollar is added to the pot, and at the end of a rally the winner pockets the lot, subsequently the match victor is the one with the most cash in hand at the game ending. Whilst continuing on to American Football, Pinball, ping pong ball and baseball rules assures that the game offers tons of variety for those who like their tennis a little bit warped.

Having played other titles in the series, we’re not at all surprised that Outlaw Tennis is fantastic value for money. Beyond the usual multi-player options, there’s an online mode that runs perfectly fine, allowing you to play with all the different rules and even participate in doubles matches. The Tour mode is meanwhile the heart of the game, and with each character having five events each to dominate – complete with a whole host of goodies to unlock, there is certainly plenty of tennis to be played and enjoyed.

Undertaking and completing drill events, allows you to improve various character attributes (which are pretty poor to begin with) to bolster your chances in the tour mode. The drills in question lie as a separate mode on the games menu and turn out to be fun “tongue in cheek” mini-games. Further drills become available as you progress throughout the tour mode, which means you can’t build character attributes up to world beating standards too prematurely.

Outlaw Tennis is a truly enjoyable game, which is heightened by the trademark humour that the series has become known for. At such an attractive budget price, and with a stack of things to do this certainly comes heartily recommended. You don’t even have to be a hardcore tennis fan to love it.

8/10