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Whether it is the green grass of Wimbledon, the hard courts of the Aussie and US Opens or the clay of Roland-Garros, tennis is big business. But what if you want to channel your inner Djokovic, Federer, Williams or any of the new guns coming through in the virtual world? Well, that’s where we come in, giving you options in regards the best tennis games on Xbox.
All playable on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles, the following tennis games will have you firing off aces like there’s no tomorrow. Just be aware, some tennis games on Xbox veer far too much towards a double fault and a let.
But what tennis games should you play on Xbox? And do any of them hit the heights found in Top Spin and Virtua Tennis? Grab your racket and get ready to hit some balls – these are the best tennis games for Xbox that you can play today.
The best tennis games on Xbox
Tennis in the Face
We’re going to kick off our article covering the best tennis games on Xbox with a bit of a leftfield option. See, further down this list will be a ton of tennis ‘simulators’; games that try and replicate the beauty of ball and racket with huge depth. Tennis in the Face can’t be bothered with all that, instead focusing on mindless fun.
Tennis in the Face is a quirky and humorous take on tennis. It has you playing as a former tennis star on a mission to take down an evil energy drink corporation.
In that aspect, you could look at this as the Sunset Overdrive of tennis games.
Playing as Pete Pagassi, Tennis in the Face broke out of the mobile scene to release on Xbox back in 2016. This is definitely the oldest game on the list. But it’s also the most enjoyable. Strangely.
Tennis in the Face on Xbox is just mindless fun
With single screens dictating the action, your task as Pagassi is to clear levels of bad guys, putting a stop to Explodz – that drinks maker – once and for all. Ammo crates await, but your humble tennis balls should be more than enough to save the world.
A super low price combined with tons of levels means that Tennis in the Face is good mindless fun. Ultimately that’s what we want from a tennis game on Xbox – and it’s something some of the other games on this list could learn from.
Review quote:
Tennis in the Face only costs £4 and when you consider that, should be pretty tempted into having it sitting in your games library ready for a rainy day. Don’t expect to be wowed, but yet again 10tons have delivered exactly what they intended – over 120 levels of good mindless fun.
Super Tennis Blast
Okay, okay, this is another fun one. We thought we’d get the enjoyable tennis games on Xbox out of the way before going deep into the more staid options.
As you may guess from the name, Super Tennis Blast is, well, a blast. For a bit.
Offering up a fun and arcade-like experience of tennis, with customizable characters and a variety of courts to play on, we were surprised by Super Tennis Blast on Xbox when it launched in 2019.
An arcade take on the tennis world, Super Tennis Blast on Xbox forgoes the realism with cartoony characters, bright colourful courts and some fun mini-games. Don’t get us wrong, if you just want to whack a ball across a court, you can do so here, with the World Tour career your best bet, but it’s probably the court modifiers and amendments that are found elsewhere in the game which will really excite. Living Net and Crazy Court, anyone?
The best tennis game on Xbox?
In fact, this could be the best tennis game on Xbox.
You can even get Super Tennis Blast picked up from the Xbox Store bundled with Super Volley Blast if you want too.
Review quote:
Super Tennis Blast on Xbox One is one of those games that you’ll have immense fun playing. Yes, it’s a shame that there is no online action, but no matter whether you are a solo player or one who can drag together family and friends for a ball smashing time, it will more than suffice. If you want realism, then you’ll need to go elsewhere, but for fun and well paced action, I’m not sure there are many better tennis titles out there.
Matchpoint – Tennis Championships
And then we get into the nitty gritty of tennis ‘simulators’. Forget about the fun that Tennis in the Face and Super Tennis Blast, the next few games are all competing at the other end of the court.
The most recent tennis game to launch on Xbox, Matchpoint – Tennis Championships is, as a premise, pretty compelling. A game that should – on the face of it – appeal to both tennis and casual sports fans alike.
In practice, a sparse roster, stale gameplay and lack of detail means it struggles to excite.
These Tennis Championships struggle to entertain
Created by Torus Games and pushed to the world by Kalypso Media, Matchpoint – Tennis Championships on Xbox is a bit of a drag. Whether you are playing through the limited career journey, taking in the barebones multiplayer or personalising things with the basic character customisation, this one struggles.
It’s not difficult to play though, however once you get a handle on the control system, you will find this is a fairly simple tennis experience.
Review quote:
Ultimately Matchpoint – Tennis Championships is less of a winning smash and more of a missed drop shot.
Tennis World Tour 2
Let’s not beat around the bush – the original Tennis World Tour was a disaster.
Releasing alongside a game that was far superior – for fear of spoiling the final game on this list – Tennis World Tour was delayed, then released on the originally promised date, much to the confusion of the world. Sitting here now, I’m not sure the developers or the publishers knew what was going on – if only as the state it was in at launch was nothing short of a mess.
Fast forward to Tennis World Tour 2 then. And yes, we’re skipping the 2019 drop of Tennis World Tour in Roland-Garros form, because frankly, that’s the game that should have launched first time around.
Tennis World Tour 2 walked out onto court in 2020, a couple of years on from the first game. Plenty of time to get things right, you would have thought? Think again – we thought this one was a bit of a foul ball. A ton of annoyances and some Xbox 360 styled visuals put paid to that one ever being able to compete.
The series finally got better. A little.
But once again those behind it weren’t done and it wasn’t until the Xbox Series X|S optimised version of Tennis World Tour 2, complete with Complete Edition, tag, were the devs finally happy.
They probably shouldn’t have been as again Tennis World Tour 2 – Complete Edition failed to hit the mark, constantly dropping the ball the wrong side of the line. Ball direction felt hit and miss, reading an opponent’s shot was impossible and the online world was non-existent.
Which is all a bit of a shame because there are bits of Tennis World Tour 2 – Complete Edition which are nice. The tactics found in the card-play were appreciated and the career mode pretty solid. I guess that’s what you want from a tennis title? If you can get it on the cheap, better still.
Review quote:
Tennis World Tour 2 – Complete Edition on Xbox Series X is fun for a time, but falls short of the line. Even if you’re a fan of the sport, there’s not enough here to justify the price tag.
AO International Tennis
If you’d asked us for the best tennis game on Xbox a couple of years back, we would have pointed you to AO International Tennis. Releasing in the same window as Tennis World Tour, it was far and away the best tennis title on the market. Particularly if the player was looking for a realistic option.
But then AO Tennis 2 popped up, taking what was good about the original and, well, taking it nowhere. In fact, it was a step back.
For that reason alone we are ditching off AO Tennis 2 from this list of best tennis games on Xbox and picking the older title. Yes, AO International Tennis is probably still the tennis game to play on Xbox if you are looking for a well rounded experience.
The most realistic of tennis games on Xbox
You may have gathered from this piece that picking the best tennis game on Xbox is no easy task. Most have a good few issues and none have been able to replicate the joy of games from years, decades, ago. If you can put up with long loading screens though, the on-court action found in AO International Tennis is the best there is.
The roster may not be massive aside from the headline act of Rafael Nadal, but when on court you’ll find that AO International Tennis at least plays well enough. Smashing aces, running volleys, lobbing opponents – it’s all done well here. In fact, we’d advise you give the Career mode a shot right now.
Pick up AO International Tennis on Xbox from the Xbox Store now.
Review quote:
AO International Tennis come across as being right up there with the very best tennis titles available today. Granted, that group is a seriously small one, and it’s strange to have seen the tennis video game scene left to die in recent years, but Big Ant have proven that there is still plenty of love for the sport.
What are your best tennis games on Xbox?
So there we have it – a list of 5 of the best tennis games on Xbox. Of course, there are other tennis games too, like Smoots World Cup Tennis or even Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game complete with tennis opportunities. But what do you think of our list? Will you be serving with AO International Tennis, or is it game, set and match on the wacky courts of Tennis in the Face?
Let us know your favourite tennis games on Xbox by dropping into the comments. Surely none match the might of Top Spin from back in the day?