Don't get the Outlaw games on anything but Xbox. The PS2 versions are filled with choppy framerates, slowdown, and ugly scaled-down visuals. If you don't have an XBox, I wouldn't even bother.
I did get Outlaw Tennis yesterday and was up late last night playing; it's just as awesome as Outlaw Volleyball and Outlaw Tennis 2 are. The game play is similar to Top Spin; you have three different types of shots, a lob, and you can put a spin on the ball by holding the L button. The R button is used for any turbo speed that you build up, and when it's fully charged, you can unleash a super shot (which isn't "cheap" by any means and can be returned quite easily), and the trademark fighting system (used to get a full turbo meter) returns, although you can turn this off (I'd definitely recommend not using fighting for multiplayer) in the options.
Outlaw Tennis also contains a variety of game types in addition to the standard single and doubles matches. You can alter the game rules to ping pong style, baseball, football, casino, and more. These don't change the way the game is played, but the way you score points and who gets to serve. I have played one game type so far that did alter the rules; in pinball mode, you have targets on one side of the court, and you have to hit the ball into them to score points, but there's a bumper on the net going back and forth at various speeds. Hit the bumper and it's your opponents turn to try and score while you attempt to deflect the ball with your racquet. There's four court surface types and optional weather effects (haven't tried this yet so I don't know how it affects the game) too. The Outlaw games always give you a variety of options, so there's plenty of ways to play tennis should you want to alter things.
Game modes include the tour, which has changed compared to previous games in that appears you now only get one tour (five events) per character. Playing through the tour mode unlocks outfits and accessories, other characters, and courts. There's also exhibition mode, quick play, and drill mode, which like the other Outlaw games, gives you various minigames to play (lob balls at people dancing toward a goal..in this case, butchers trying to get to a cow! Defeat a tennis-ball throwing robot, hit targets to unlock a naughty picture, play a version of Missile Command with your racquet deflecting the missles, etc.), which upon winning gives you points to build up your character's stats. There's also XBox Live, which I haven't tried yet, that features all the standard options and IIRC you can also create your own tournaments.
But this wouldn't be an Outlaw game without the trademark characters. Most of the characters from the other games return (total of 16, with one of them being touted as a special character, likely meaning download-only), such as Summer, the stripper, Killer Miller, the convict, Donna, the bitch from the Bronx, El Suave and his "package," Lizzy, the punk rock girl, etc. New characters include Afrodite, the dance queen, Sven Svensvensoven from Sweden (I think he's new...), a male punk counterpart for Lizzy, Vinnie, Donna's caddy from Outlaw Golf, and a Jewish Tennis-playing Ninja...couldn't make that one up if I tried.
There's more character reaction animations and dialogue now, not just with the characters celebrating or getting pissed off that they missed a shot, but also interaction with the referee and ballboy, and you can taunt your opponent when you aren't serving. Keeping with the Comedy Central announcer theme, The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert provides the play-by-play, following past announcers Steve Carell (Outlaw Golf and Outlaw Volleyball) and Dave Atell (Outlaw Golf 2). The game's soundtrack is a mix of rock, rap, and techno; most of it is pretty good and fits the game well, but you can always use your own custom soundtrack as well. Hypnotix improves the visuals in each new Outlaw installment, and while the backgrounds aren't any better than Outlaw Volleyball's stages, you still get a nice variety of wacky locales to play in, and the character detail has been improved.
If you're looking for a solid tennis game with some fun minigame and match type options, give Outlaw Tennis a try. It may have a bunch of stupid toilet humor, but it's all serious when it comes to the game play. Worth a look since it's only $19.99 new.
This might also be the last Outlaw game ever made or the last title in the series worth getting. Developer Hypnotix was bought by EA and will now become part of EA Tiburon; the Outlaw series is owned by MTV Games, so the team will no longer be developing it.
sonarrat said:
I can't believe you could stand Outlaw Golf. I paid $3 for 9 Holes of Christmas at Blockbuster, and it was so awful I threw it away - the first time in my life I've actually done that to a game.
Hypnotix improved their golf game big time with Outlaw Golf 2. Outlaw Volleyball and Outlaw Tennis also rock. You can get them all cheap ($20 new for OG2 and OT, and OV is around $10 now), so they're worth a look.
The thing I like about the Outlaw games is that they have very solid engines behind them; there's good game play in these titles and it's not just about the raunchy humor and characters. One of the few "gimmick" series that gets it right.
