alecto's Evert & Lendl Top Player's Tennis review

You have been much too harsh on this title. For it's time this was a stellar tennis game for the NES. The voice overs and sounds were much advanced for this generation of console games and the graphics were nearly on par with many 16-bit attempts at the time. The controls were actually pretty fantastic as it took two steps to reach your players stride and stopping was handled much the same way. The ball physics and the top spin added to the challenge in this game. The player attributes mode of the game were repetitive because in 1990 you may have only owned a handful of game. Plus the other portions of this single player mode helped you become better at the game. Your review seems as you are judging it by modern standards and not by the expectations and limitations of the 1980's. Overall it is a good game even if they did pronounce Ivan wrong. I appreciate your opinion but I just disagree.

Thank you for taking the time to chime in with your opinion! This review was posted most of 20 years ago, and its contributor hasn't posted around the site in almost that long, so you're unlikely to get a direct response.

With that said, I will note that there seem to be two schools of thought with regards to retro reviews. A lot of today's readers are looking for retro games they might enjoy playing today, and so they appreciate reviews that answer the question of, "Will I likely have fun if I play this game today, without having played it back in the day?" This review answered that question at the time it was posted, which is the purpose of most reviews.

Some critics like the approach you seem to prefer: a historical perspective. In that case, some games that feel dreadful when played today really shine, because their developers did creative things with limited resources. I happen to like either approach, and I try to take a review based on its merits rather than getting upset if it doesn't follow the approach I might have preferred.

Of course, sometimes someone comes along and posts a savage review for a game I loved back in the day--and still enjoy playing today--and that can be difficult to take. But, after all, reviews are really just one critic's opinion based on his or her personal experience in the moment. We're always happy to post well-written reviews that present alternate opinions, when talented writers and gamers have them to share. Have a nice day!

Hey, thank you for you response. This was not a game I owned or played while it was relevant. It's one I recently picked up at a thrift shop that I enjoyed immensely. It may not be the right fit for everybody but I would give it more merit than the review posted here so I just wanted to give it some shine.

Hey, thank you for you response. This was not a game I owned or played while it was relevant. It's one I recently picked up at a thrift shop that I enjoyed immensely. It may not be the right fit for everybody but I would give it more merit than the review posted here so I just wanted to give it some shine.

You should totally review it! Half of my reviews are inspired by me reading another review and saying "you're totally wrong--I need to redeem this game!"

I think reviews of 8- and 16-bit games circa early 2000s is really interesting. I feel like older games were being treated as largely irrelevant and replaced by newer systems. It's telling that the most prominent video critic at the time would have been the AVGN.