Last week the Australian Open commenced, and to coincide with the beginning of the first grand slam tennis tournament of the year developer Big Ant Studios released AO Tennis. The first high-profile tennis game in quite sometime, and one that aimed to provide a deep and rewarding simulation take on the sport.

So, how does it far? Well...

Outside of the moderately impressive looking Rod Laver Arena and passable player models, it’s mostly terrible.

Where to begin? Well, without going into detail about how player physics and ball momentum feel off and robotic, when they aren’t behaving erratically or seemingly doing their own thing, one simply needs to look at the presentation. Outside of the fact that there’s no real commentary, pre-game or post-game chatter, or any real music (apart from Track 03 of the Generic Menu Music CD utilised on the main menu), there’s something lifeless about AO Tennis.

Boring even. Cut-rate.

Click Here to Read Our Full AO Tennis Review

The only question anyone wants to know about this is: can you have insane at-net Wii-Tennis like rallies where the characters flail around with their rackets at hypersonic speed?

Nope, because there's a good chance when you're at the net you're character will flair after you line up a shot and the ball will fire off the racquet like a rocket and go straight into the KIA logo

just back from the AO

always a good few days down there