Tips for Playing Wii Sports Tennis
One of five games included on the "Wii: Sports" game disk sold with the Nintendo Wii, Wii Sports Tennis takes advantage of the motion-sensing technology of the Wii to create a tennis simulation based on movements imitating those used to play a real tennis game. However, without a real court, net and ball in front of you to help you judge your movements, mastering this game can be somewhat tricky at first. Knowing the right way to set up and move will help you start having fun with this title faster.
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Setup
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Proper setup is particularly important to this game, as the tracking of movements is sensitive and can be finicky. Before you even turn on the game, make sure your Wii settings are properly configured to reflect the position of sensor bar, whether it's above or below the TV screen (see your Wii instruction manual for details about how to do this).
Make sure you have plenty of room to move and can stand directly in front of the TV, at least 4 feet back. If you're not already in the habit of securely attaching the wrist strap of your Wii remote, make sure to do so for this game, as the fast, sharp swinging makes it especially easy to accidentally throw the remote.
When you start the game, you will automatically be prompted to choose your hand preference. Make sure that this is also correct, or your movement of the remote won't correspond to the movements of your Mii avatar.
Playing
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If you are new to the game, you may want to select a "Best of 5" match, as this will give you the most time to to practice with your Wii remote before the game is over, as you are likely to lose a lot at first. It is difficult to master this game without spending some time with it, but it's rewarding once it starts to work.
A one-player game allows you to control both front and back avatars in a game of doubles, while a two-player game puts both players on the same team with one player controlling each player. In single-player mode, swinging the Wii remote will cause both avatars to swing their rackets simultaneously.
The avatars will automatically move into position to hit the ball as it comes toward them, making you responsible only for the timing, angle and speed of the swing. This is where it starts to get tricky: The Wii remote programming for this game responds properly only to a specific type of swing. For best results, try to cultivate a long, smooth swing with a quick snap of the wrist at the finish. If you swing too quickly or fail to snap your wrist, the player avatar may not respond, or may respond erratically. You will also need to move your Wii remote to the appropriate position and side of your body to reproduce the proper forward or back swing to correspond with what's happening on the screen. This means you must pay careful attention to the movement of the ball to prepare the proper swing in time.
The sharper the snap of your wrist is, the more power your strike will have. This is particularly helpful when it's your time to serve, as a powerful wrist snap here can earn you a point by creating a drive that's too fast for your opponents to respond to.
As in a real game of tennis doubles, you will have two chances to hit the ball, once with each player. Initially, you will probably find that it's easier to focus on the movement of the first player, as it has more time to move into place to hit the ball. However, as you gain more proficiency, you will find that you have opportunities to hit the ball with the player closest to the net, as the ball will sometimes fly directly to this avatar. Take advantage of these opportunities when you can, as this is often an easy way to gain a point or advantage.
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