Smash Court Tennis 3

There comes a time when everybody must grow up. Childhood toys are stuffed into a cardboard box and hoisted into the attic or on to eBay; milk turns to cider turns to single malts supped in slippers by the fireside. Even for those who choose to cling to the material trappings of youth, the creep of crow's feet, retreat of hair and sag of breast lurk in every mirror, irrefutable evidence to the irresistible plod of time.

For Smash Court Tennis, a series that started out way back on Sony's PlayStation as a cutesy J-tennis explosion of fun, sunshine and wide-eyed simplicity, this maturing has been more marked than for most. Gone are the chibi-style characters with heads too big for their shoulders. Gone are courts set-up in the middle of town centres and mustard beaches and all the very silly unlockable hats. In place of such youthful irreverence, the game's grown into, well, Virtua Tennis 3.

'Out! (of order),' Namco Bandai doubtless shouts, and the truth is that its game IS significantly different to Sega's recent handheld tennis wonder. But looks-wise you'll certainly have a hard time telling them apart. Smash Court Tennis 3 is clearly a fan of its rival: the slick menu system pulses and slides in a similar way; the slew of game options is near identical; and during matches each game's characters and courts are hard to distinguish from each other.

But Smash Court Tennis 3 mixes things up considerably when it comes to controlling all of these elements. The core three shots of topspin, slice and lob are present and correct, of course, but the way in which you achieve each, and the variations employed thereafter are trickier than players will be used to.

A simple tap of each of the PSP's face buttons performs what the game calls an 'Easy' shot – a return with little power or control but which can be whipped out with little difficulty.

Above this are 'Nice' shots, where the button must be held down to power up for a couple of seconds before contact with the ball. These allow for considerably more power and positioning to be added to your shots, and right from the very start of the game are necessary to beat opponents.

'Hard Hits' are the top-tier of shots in the game. To perform them you need to fill a power bar by holding Square down for a considerable length of time before the ball gets to you. These are game winning shots, however, and so, if a character is in a position to pull one off, it's well worth it.

These three core ways in which to hit the ball can then be spun out by using the D-pad/analogue nub to provide various modifiers (all taught to you via a groaning 24-stage tutorial mode), lending a considerable amount of precision control to the player. This is in contrast to Virtua Tennis 3's more contextual (and forgiving) approach and, as such, Smash Court Tennis 3 has a steeper learning curve.

Structurally, the Arcade, Exhibition and Pro Tour Career modes are bolstered by ad-hoc multiplayer support and a short series of mini-games. In Exhibition and Arcade modes you can play as one of 16 licensed tennis stars, while the meat of the game, Pro Tour, enables you to name and customize your own character.

In a similar way to Virtua Tennis 3, this Career mode is divided up into a 52-week calendar in which you can plan your own schedule of playing training mini-games, negotiating sponsorship contracts, playing in tournaments and, of course, resting. A stamina bar indicates how tired you are at any one point, and managing your time is the key to success – it's no use turning up at Wimbledon burnt out.

After each tournament you're awarded experience points, which can be assigned to different skills in order to improve your player. Special skills become available to you as you progress (which can also be purchased via exp points) and these interesting additions to your repertoire of moves helps create a strong sense of ownership over your character.

A handful of delicious mini-games (see some in action here) round off the competent package but, really, the actual tennis on offer isn't as flowing or easy going as that of Virtua Tennis 3. It certainly delivers a more realistic game of tennis, but the decreased pace and often awkward, stuttering flow of play within matches undermines the sheen and quality of the rest of the package. Put it down to growing pains...