Tennis World Tour 2 has some good ideas on paper, but never gels into a cohesive whole.

Tennis World Tour 2 shows huge improvements over the original game, with satisfying gameplay and game modes. Some features, like the card system, might be debatable and it could have had better graphics, but this is definitely the right (re)start for a series aiming to become the new Top Spin.

Tennis World Tour 2 has changed the formula of the fist game, going somewhat more realistic, and it feels better. But it couldn't be enough. Graphics or the lack of game modes are below the rest of the concept. In the same way, some options, like cards, doesn't feel accurate, or valid, when it is trying to be more realistic. It could be enough for now, but the fans of tennis still remember games like Top Spin or Virtua Tennis, as the best games in this discipline. Maybe they deserve something better, perhaps for the next time.

TWT2 feels unfinished, underdeveloped and somewhat soulless in some aspects. The swing mechanic might be a good idea conceptually, but it falls short of supplying that satisfaction that is transferred from simply hitting the ball in a tennis video game. Couple that with the malnourished feature set and you have one of the most disappointing tennis video games in a long while.

The old glory days of TopSpin offered some of the best tennis we’ve ever had the joy of trying. Many have attempted to emulate its success but none have succeeded. Whilst the original Tennis World Tour had some good points and focused on some nice areas, it fell flat instantly with janky controls and just a general carelessness. Its follow-up, Tennis World Tour 2, attempts to fix this, but fails in many of the same areas.

Tennis World Tour 2 is a frustrating experience that will leave players feeling like John McEnroe after a missed line call far too often.

Ultimately, Tennis World Tour 2‘s new timing-based shot system ruins what could have been a decent or even good tennis game. It makes gameplay so unpredictable, and not in a good way. If you plan on buying Tennis World Tour 2 just to play exhibition matches as your favourite professional players, you might get some fun out of it thanks to their boosted stats making things more lenient. But career mode will be unbearable for most, requiring either an obscene amount of skill or an inhuman amount of patience. AO Tennis 2 remains the best tennis game available right now, so just stick to that.