is a

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

video game developed and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

for the

Family Computer The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the U ...

(Famicom). It was originally released in Japan on January 14, 1984, a few months after the July 15, 1983 launch of the Famicom. An

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...

version titled ''VS. Tennis'' released for the Nintendo VS. System the same year, becoming a hit at Japanese and American arcades that year; it was the sixth top-performing arcade game of 1984 in the United States. ''Tennis'' is one of 17 launch games for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

(NES) in North America and Europe. It was also ported to the

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

in 1989, going on sale about a month after the launch of the handheld consose in Japan, and becoming one of the five launch titles for North America.

Gameplay

''Tennis'' features

single-player A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the gameplay. Video games in general can feature several game modes, including single-player modes designed to be played by a single player in add ...

and

two-player A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

modes for singles and doubles matches, with either

competitive Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...

or cooperative gameplay. A computerized opponent's

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

can be set to one of five difficulty levels.

Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...

is the

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or Mandate (politics), mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual Office, working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (eithe ...

Development and release

In 1983, the Famicom had only three launch games, and its library would total seven, including ''Tennis''.

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, video game producer, producer and Creative director#Video games, game director at Nintendo, where he has served as one of its representative directors as an executive since 2002. Widely regarded as one o ...

said he was "directly in charge of the character design and the game design". The game was developed in 1983. In 1984, it was included in the Nintendo VS. System

series under the name which was released in Japan on January 18, 1984. In 1985, Hudson Soft published ''Tennis'' for the PC-8801. It was re-released for the North American launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in October 1985. Nintendo ported the game to the

in 1989, and to the Nintendo e-Reader in 2002. The NES version is embedded in the

life simulation game Life simulation games form a subgenre of simulation video games in which the player lives or controls one or more virtual characters (human or otherwise). Such a game can revolve around "individuals and relationships, or it could be a simulation ...

'' Animal Crossing'' (2001), and in the party video game '' WarioWare: Twisted!'' (2004) as one of 9-Volt's

minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements and is often smaller or more simplistic than th ...

s. For the

Virtual Console The Virtual Console was a line of downloadable retro video games for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U home video game consoles and the Nintendo 3DS family of handheld systems. The Virtual Console lineup consisted of titles originally released on pa ...

, Nintendo republished the NES version to the Wii in 2006 and the Wii U in 2013 and the Game Boy version to the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. This version was added to the Nintendo Classics service in late 2018.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''VS. Tennis'' in its March 15, 1984 issue as the most successful table arcade cabinet of the month. It again topped the ''Game Machine'' table arcade game charts in April and May 1984. In the United States, ''Vs. Tennis'' topped the arcade software conversion kit charts of ''RePlay'' (July 1984) and '' Play Meter'' (August 1984). It became the sixth top-performing arcade game of 1984 in the United States. In Europe, it had become a popular arcade game by 1986.

Notes

References

External links