Get Ready for "Turbo-Charged" Tennis Action - Playing World Court Tennis on TurboGrafx-16 for the First Time

Face 17 of the World's Top Tennis Professionals...Plus an All-New Tennis Adventure!

World Court Tennis was released in December 1989, the same year that the TurboGrafx-16 launched in the United States, and it was the last title remaining for me to play of all the games released for the TurboGrafx in its launch year. 

At first glance, World Court Tennis appears to be similar to a lot of other tennis games from back in the day, albeit with a cutesy super-deformed art style. 

Most of the game is pretty standard. You have a lot of different characters to choose from, and you can choose from three different types of courts which generally relate to Slow, Medium and Fast ball speeds.

You can play singles against either the CPU or a friend, and you can play doubles, but only with another human player. You can't have a CPU partner and take on CPU opponents. 

The real game, however, lies in its third mode, which is (BY FAR) the most interesting part of the game: Quest Mode

From the manual: Face the evil Tennis King! In the video world's first tennis role-playing game, take on a band of evil-doers who have robbed all the prize money and are now forcing everyone to play tennis on their terms. Don't let them get away with it! 

Quest mode is like a mash up of Dragon Warrior's overworld, with random battles taking the form of  tennis matches against enemies. 

It's very silly, but it honestly adds a layer of cheesy humor and interesting gameplay that the core game would lack without it. 

If you want to see some gameplay of World Court Tennis, you can check out this YouTube video:

Overall I think the Quest mode really saves this game, as it turns it from a mediocre tennis game into something funny and a bit deeper, while still incorporating an entire tennis game. 

Now that I've finished World Court Tennis, however, I've finished trying every game that released in the United States during the TurboGrafx launch year, leading up to the 1989 Christmas season. 

So instead of moving right onto the next game released in the TurboGrafx library, I'll take a moment to review the launch year of the TurboGrafx, how the games were overall, how its library compared to the other major consoles available at the time and how its advertising compared.

Should be an interesting deep dive into the TurboGrafx's launch year, before moving onto the games released in its second year in the U.S.

Until next time friends...