TENNIS IN THE FACE – PC Game Review

TENNIS IN THE FACE
Developed and Published by 10Tons
Available on Steam for Windows

Pete Pagassi was a famous and successful professional tennis player but all that changed when he became hooked on energy drink Explodz. His addiction caused him to lose his professional career and end up teaching tennis as a school P.E. teacher. After checking into rehab and getting clean, Pete vows to save the city from the evil grip of Explodz.

TENNIS IN THE FACE is an addictive sports-inspired physics game where your character, the tennis player Pete, must hit Explodz addicted characters, ideally in the face, with a tennis ball. With Peggle-like gameplay, your aim is to smash the opposing characters with as few tennis balls as possible. After completion of each round, you’ll be scored. The more opponents you take out with one ball, the better score you’ll achieve. You have unlimited tries of the round but each round has a limited number of tennis balls to use. Should you run out of balls and not wipe out every single opponent then you must either replay the round until you do smash all the opponents or skip it and come back to it later.

The premise of the game is a simple one yet with the brightly coloured level design and comical opponents, including clowns, hipsters, scientists and riot police, it’s cleverer than first glance will have led you to believe. As the game begins, you’ll start off with some pretty easy rounds. As you get used to the game and how it works, which is rather quickly, the rounds will gradually increase in difficulty. You’ll find obstacles in your way from panes of glass to solid walls that will hinder your aim so you must work out where best to hit the ball to achieve your desired path. The most fun bit about the game is that quite often you’ll hit the ball aiming for one particular opponent and after doing so it’ll take on a life of its own, bouncing around the environment and smashing into other opponents and interactive obstacles around the screen. Many a times I’ve hit the ball thinking I’ve messed up or misjudged the angle and I’ve ended up clearing the entire round with one ball! It’s times like these that will bring a smile to your face and an addictive rush that will make you want to play the rounds over and over again to beat your high score and see just where that ball will go.

The gameplay, as previously mentioned, is really easy to learn. With your tennis player Pete a static character who can only face left or right, you simply point your mouse or your joystick controller in the direction you want to hit the tennis ball and click. It’s that simple! As you progress through the map, you’ll find you can sometimes use Energize drinks instead that have an arched trajectory rather than the straight trajectory that tennis balls have. You’ll also find some environment pieces can either aid or hinder your performance. For instance, there may be a crate of Energize in the level and hitting it will cause the crate to explode, setting off a possible chain reaction with other things nearby which may knock out opponents in close proximity. Other things, like panes of glass and junk cubes, will destroy your tennis ball if it hits them, however sometimes you need to hit these items to get access to certain opponents in the specific round.

The map is split into groups of 15 rounds, with each group dedicated to certain opponents. The first opponents you’ll meet are clowns and boy are they both fun to look and smash tennis balls at. If you’ve had a hard day at work and are stressed out, smashing a few tennis balls into clowns faces is the perfect stress-reliever… just don’t do it to any real life clowns, you got it? The other opponents such as the hipsters and sales assistants are equally entertaining, whilst some opponents like the police and scientists have armour that you’re going to have to take into consideration when blasting them with your racket.

There’s tons of replay value with Tennis in the Face with its crown and bonus balls system. With each round, if you manage to knock out your opponents in one or two smashes, whichever the minimum is for the round, you’ll be awarded with balls at the end of the round. If you half manage it, you may be awarded one ball. If you manage to wipe them all out with the minimum, you’ll gain all the balls (might be 1, 2 or 3) and you’ll also receive a crown proving that you’ve cleared the round and taken the bonus balls. There’s also medals to be won where you must achieve certain targets to win them.

Colourful, fun and a complete blast to play, Tennis in the Face is an addictive, thrilling videogame that will keep you clicking round after round. Its easy-to-play mechanics and structure, comical storyline and characters and wildly chaotic and unpredictable physics means there’s never a dull moment to be had. Whether you want to have a marathon gaming session attempting to beat your high score or you just want to dip in for 10 minutes after work, Tennis in the Face will bring a smile to your face and a fuzzy feeling inside. It also features 15 Steam achievements to unlock and trading cards to collect for those Steam enthusiasts.

If arcade type games are your thing, then you’ll love what the hilarious Tennis in the Face has to offer.

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