 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Outlaw Tennis
- PlayStation 2, Xbox
- Price: $19.99
- Genre: Sports
Common Sense Media says
Bawdy humor + tedious gameplay = double fault.
Parents say
Kids say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this game has references to lap dances, a female character who propositions a ball boy, wanton boozing, and uninspired vulgarities. Male characters are either anatomically grotesque or wildly violent. Female characters are drunk, overly sexualized, or both. All flesh jiggles with abandon, on-court fighting is rewarded, one cut scene implies torture ... on the whole, the game is an adolescent celebration of bad behavior.
What's it about?
OUTLAW TENNIS marks the series' latest foray into "polite" sports, having previously unleashed raunchy humor and bad behavior to golf and volleyball. Players control tennis troublemakers on their quest for, well, nothing. There is no point to the game but participating in a seemingly never-ending series of matches to unlock new characters.
These new characters allow you to play another seemingly never-ending series of matches to unlock another character. Sixteen different characters give players lots of opportunities to explore the game's bad taste. The controls are easy to pick up: Four buttons deliver four kinds of shots, with a turbo and spin modifier to add some flair.
Is it any good?
The idea has potential: A contingent of criminals, lowlifes, and freaks tears up the country club in an attempt to critique a well-mannered sport. Too bad the game matches uninspired, lewd humor with tedious gameplay for an experience that fails on almost every count. Whether you control the well-endowed Don Juan, the part-time stripper, the alcoholic groupie, or the Brooklyn-bred goodfella you'll have to endure a long line of lewd jokes based on racial stereotypes, binge drinking, loose sexuality, torture, and crime.
Jokes are delivered through cut scenes after each point is scored, interrupting the flow of the game -- the very thing that makes Outlaw Tennis different becomes frustrating and boring. Despite attempts to liven the actual tennis with creative changes to the rules, this gets old really fast. With flat graphics, a clunky game engine, and animations that get reused in montages, cut scenes, etc., and you have a real loser of a tennis game.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about why all of this rudeness is supposed to add up to good fun. Is there something inherently pleasurable about deflating a polite, country club sport like tennis? Is the game trying to undermine the sport's elitist qualities or is it just looking for a quick, lewd laugh? This is part of a series: Why do Outlaw games keep getting made?
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AGE
FUN TENNIS
YOU CAN LEARN STUFF IN THE GAME. IT IS BEST GAME EVER! DON'T PLAY THAT TODDLER TENNIS GAME! IF IT'S HOT WHEN YOU PLAY TENNIS AT THE PARK, LOOK NO FURTHER! THE HOTTEST VERSION OF TENNIS IS OUT ON THAT PS2! IT IS FAMILY FRENDLY~!
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| Platforms: | PlayStation 2, Xbox |
| Available online? | Not available online |
| Genre: | Sports |
| Developer: | Global Star Software |
| Release date: | July 29, 2005 |
| Price: | $19.99 |
| ESRB rating: | M |
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