Game : Anna Kournikova Smash Court Tennis FAQ v1.0
Platform : Sony PlayStation
Publisher : SCEE / Namco 1999 ( European PAL release )
Anna Kournikova Tennis (c) Sony Computer Entertainment and (c) Namco
Unpublished work Copyright 1999 Nogs
This FAQ is for private and personal use only. It can only be reproduced
electronically as long as it isn't modified and is in its compete form. If
you are going to modify it, you must get my consent before you can distribute
the file. This FAQ is not to be used for profitable/promotional purposes;
this includes being used by publishers of magazines, guides, books, etc..
or being incorporated into magazines etc.... in ANY way. All copyrights and
trademarks that are not specifically mentioned in this FAQ are acknowledged.
This FAQ was created and is being maintained currently by Nogs.
(Nogs@sushi.co.jp)
Special thanks to John Davies for his playing tips, general advice and his
contribution to this FAQ. To Ben and Non as my fellow players since ‘88
on the original World Court Tennis / Pro Tennis World Court...
Also to Frogger for help on tidying up this document.
FAQ History
-----------
v1.0 29/07/99 Boring day at work so though we'd get down all the knowledge of
this game we had so far as we've been playing *LOADS* recently.
Game History
------------
Anna Kournikova Tennis is actually Smash Court Tennis 2, as it's known in
Japan. It is the sequel to Smash Court Tennis which was released in Europe
around 1996 but not in USA. However at the time games like Tekken and Ridge
racer were released so this gem went unnoticed. The original World Court
Tennis was released in 1988 for NEC’s PC-Engine(Jap) and a bit later for
the TG16(US). Featuring cute graphics, nice tunes and great gameplay it was
an instant hit. One of the best features was the 4 human players. This was
something that neither Nintendo or Sega machine offered at the time but
the PlayStation carries on this tradition.
Controls
--------
The game supports the vibration function of the Dual-Shock pad but not the
analogue sticks it seems. On the box is says analogue support but from what
I've read in the newsgroups nobody can get it work. However it does work on
the demo version found on magazine cds. I have used a 3rd party pad that lets
you use the analogue on all games but I found it much harder to pick a
direction when playing a shot and prefer the direction pad.
Triangle = Auto Serve / Lob
Square = Super strong serve / shot
Cross = Weak serve / shot
Circle = Power serve / shot
The Game
--------
Exhibition
This is where you can practice playing the CPU without it effecting your world
ranking if you lose. Also with your mates round, up to 4 players can take part
in friendly *cough* games. You can only pick from the main 16 characters and
don’t get to use the special equipment but you can mix and match men / women
in any combo. You also have a lot more courts additional to the tournament
selection, such as playing at the Barrier Reef, or in front of the Houses of
Parliament. As typical with Namco games you'll spot reference to other Namco
titles dotted around e.g Theme Park court has a SplatterHouse building, a great
sicko arcade game.
Tournament
This is obviously the main part of the game and where the real action takes
place. On selecting this option for the first time you are given a list of all
the players available to you. Highlighting a player will display the statistics
for each individual and you can pick the one best suited to your style of play.
Once you have picked your character you can not change who you are if you are
using a saved game. Selecting a male or female will put you into the relevant
men's or women's tournament. The next screens give you the four options listed
below. If you play a game you get to pick which event to participate in and then
singles or doubles game ( doubles is with a CPU not a human player ). Double's
is the first opportunity to check out the bonus characters you win as once you
pick a player for yourself can not change it ! Win you win a tournament you get
the game end credits with various pictures of the game characters. There is an
alternative ending featuring photos of Miss Kournikova but I don't know how you
access this apart from via a PC.
When you win a Street Tournament or Grand Slam a pink bouncing star will appear
next to the event on the selection screen. If you win the event six times this
becomes a flat green star indicating you've won all bonus items.
Street Tournament : The best place to try to win first as its not quite as
tough as a grand slam. There are 4 locations, Asaksa Temple, Time Square,
Osaka Bridge, Theme Park.
Grand Slams : These are the famous four from the ATP tour Great Britain,
France, USA, Australia . One of the nice touches is in France the scores
are all done in French.
Records : This is the ranking of the top 48, at the start you are last but as
you progress by winning competitions you’ll pick up points and slowly creep up
the list. As you get more points you enter tournaments at the second round e.g.
for Grand Slams you need to be 20th at least for this, street tournament you
to have won at least one tournament. You can lose points as well for losing a
game or quitting a tournament early. I have currently won everything but can
still enter tournaments and gain points, I'm on 1007 points so I don't know
what the limit is or what it can achieve.
Equipment : As you win tournaments you’ll gain extra characters ( detailed
below ) and bonus equipment with which you can equip to players, from here.
The more times you win a tournament (up to a Max of 6 times) the more items
you receive. The table below lists what you gain as you win each tournament.
As you can see you get a few comedy items such a lightsabres, football and
various character from other Namco games. From this menu you can equip other
players as well, these items will not appear in a doubles match.
Street Tournament Bonus Characters
----------------------------------
Asaksa Temple Time Square Osaka Bridge Theme Park
Win 1 Celeste Peach Owen Xiaomin
Win 2 Sasha Tiffany Acea Emilie
Win 3 Clara Tara Robyn Sam
Win 4 Red Ace Eddy #1 Lamar Coach
Win 5 Dragon Reiko N #3 Richard #2 Yoshimitsu #1
Win 6 Heihcahi #1 Pac-Man 3D Troy Sherudo
#1 = Tekken Character
#2 = Time Crisis Character
#3 = Ridge Racer 4 girl
Gran Slam Bonus Equipment
-------------------------
Great Britain France USA Australia
Win 1 Fire Racket Dynamite Racket Wave Racket Gold Racket
Win 2 Silver Racket Electric Racket Cola Bottle Tuna Fish
Win 3 Starburst Racket Frying Pan Crimson Racket Invisible Ink
Win 4 Smoking Shoes Mosquito Hungry Chick Light Sabre
Win 5 Rainbow Racket Afterimage Footprints Panda Head
Win 6 Wrestling Mask Mirage Racket Carrot Football
Note with some rackets eg gold pressing R2 will make the racket glint. Most these
items are just fun / silly but some rackets are an improvement on your original
equipment.
Blast Match
-----------
This is only available in multi player mode. Each team gets to choose 5 players
at the start, and the winner is the one with someone left alive at the end !
As per normal tennis except that the ball blows up either when the counter has
run down to 0 or the ball goes off the court. In either case if you're player
is near the ball you die.
Options
-------
The usual selection of game options, sound tests etc....and also the save and
load point to store your progress in tournaments.
Playing Tips
------------
Basics:
To play a shot you pick weak / strong button etc...along with a direction to hit
the ball in that basic direction. This will all vary depending on your timing of
the shot and the player you are using.
When serving:
Move to the centre of court, and then serve to far corner using triangle. Wait
to see where the return is going.... If it comes diagonally back (which it
usually does) to the centre of the court, move in a few paces and do a medium
strength shot to the other side of the court for a near certain winner. If it
comes down the line, do a weak return back down the line. Repeat until computer
hits one to the middle of the court and then hit a medium shot to the other
corner. This technique wins at least 90% of points though sometimes the
computer hits a stunning unreturnable return.
For serving, all the buttons work and provide a different style of attack.
Weak / Strong buttons are the same but triangle is now an auto serve and
thus only needs to be pressed once. With the others you press once to throw
the ball up then again to hit over the net. With the ball in the air use the
direction pad to pick line of service and you should be able to place the
ball almost anywhere in the service box. On serve you can also use the []
button, I find this a useful substitute for triangle if the CPU player starts
returning down the line and breaking your serve. Using this instead the opponent
will return the ball to the middle of the court almost every time which gives
you more chance to win the point
When receiving:
Move behind the base line and towards the corner a little. This gives more
chance of hitting the serve back where ever the opponent puts it. It sounds
obvious but watch the serve closely. You should be able to move your player
into position for any shot. Return the ball with a weak shot to the opposite
corner from where the serve came. Keep hitting it to this corner until the
computer hits one towards the centre of the court, then you hit to the other
corner, and win the point.
A small annoying trick is when receiving a serve stand on the service box line.
When you return you chip the ball just over the net which can be very annoying
to the opposition of human. A CPU player will normally blast the ball out wide
so you'll miss it.
General hints:
Never use the super strong shot against the CPU but with practice it can be
used against a human opponent. Don’t lob unless you have no other
alternative (or playing doubles)
Cheats / Codes
--------------
The only cheat I know of is to view the end sequences. To do this on the
"Press Start" screen via the 2nd control pad very quickly press :
Up x4, Down x4, Left x4, Right x4
Other resources
---------------
Namco Japan web page quite a bit of info on this game, well the Japanese version
which I guess would hold true but I can't read any of it :)
http://www.namco.co.jp/home/cs/ps/smashcourt2/special/index.html
www.namco.co.uk and www.namco.com currently have no information
If you have any questions, comments, or things to add to the FAQ? Please email
me at Nogs@sushi.co.jp and I'll do my best to answer. If you have anything to
add to the FAQ, I'll be sure to credit you with it.
