World Court Tennis (TurboGrafx-16) Playthrough
112A playthrough of NEC's 1989 tennis/role-playing game for the TurboGrafx-16, World Court Tennis.
All three game modes are shown in this video:
0:18 Quest game
1:50:20 1P Singles
1:54:47 4P Doubles
Released for the PC Engine in 1988 and the TurboGrafx-16 in 1989, World Court Tennis is Namco's console adaptation of Pro Tennis: World Court, an arcade game that served as a sequel to Family Tennis, a 1987 Famicom game.
At first glance, World Court Tennis could be mistaken for any number of long-forgotten sports games from the 80s. It looks and sounds great for a 1988 console title and it supports simultaneous 4P play with a multitap, but it's still an 8-bit tennis game. If you've played one, you've played them all, right?
Namco apparently thought so, because they blew up the traditional mold when they created World Court Tennis. The game sports the standard setup of multi-set singles and doubles matches, but those are just side dishes. The main course, the "quest mode," is a tennis-themed JRPG in the style of Dragon Warrior (https://youtu.be/J392i9NKvvo).
According to the manual, "Once upon a time, there was a peaceful, tennis-loving land. But one day, an evil Tennis King appeared and made off with all the prize money that had been won by the people in tennis tournaments. On top of that, he used his evil followers to set up tennis courts based upon a membership system, under which hardly any of the people could play. But now, there is someone who can overthrow the bad Tennis King. That "someone" is you!"
Setting out from the castle in Chicago, you travel between tennis courts battling the evil Tennis King's henchmen for the six magic pearls that hold the power to bring him down.
As you wander the overworld, you'll be regularly accosted by avid tennis players (including Jason Voorhees) who challenge you to matches, and as you rake in the prize money, you'll be able to purchase equipment that'll improve your skills. Better rackets increase the strength of your shots, nicer shoes improve your footwork, and the more expensive your outfit is, the more successful you'll be at turning down challenges.
Once you've found the pearls, become a tennis ace, and pieced together the clues fed to you by townspeople, you can make for the evil Tennis King's island citadel for the final battle.
World Court Tennis is an insane Dragon Warrior parody, but Namco absolutely nailed it. The game's premise and characters are hilariously absurd, but nothing about it feels cynical. It's all presented with such an unaffected sense of earnestness that I couldn't help but to fall in love with it, and the tennis gameplay that binds it together is excellent.
It's amazing that the TurboGrafx-16's launch-window line-up was so stacked with excellent games that a novelty like World Court Tennis got buried, but don't let its obscurity fool you. World Court Tennis is no mere throwaway sports cart.
And better yet, Namco went on to revisit this same concept the following year with Final Lap Twin (https://youtu.be/50K2F0tkQNQ), an F1 racing game, and a decade later, Camelot came up with their own take on Namco's formula with Mario Tennis and Mario Golf (https://youtu.be/N1tFslzICPU) on the Game Boy Color.
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