''AO Tennis 2'' is a

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

video game developed by

Big Ant Studios Big Ant Studios Pty Ltd is an Australian video game developer based in Melbourne. Founded in 2001 by chief executive officer Ross Symons, the company specialises in the development of sports games. Big Ant's games include ''Cricket 19'', ''Rug ...

and published by

Nacon Nacon (formerly Bigben Interactive) is a French video game company based in Lesquin. It designs and distributes gaming accessories, and publishes and distributes video games for various platforms. In 2020 Bigben Group was consolidated to form Na ...

. It is the sequel to '' AO Tennis'' and holds the official license of the

tennis Grand Slam The Grand Slam in tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in a calendar year, also referred to as the "Calendar-year Grand Slam" or "Calendar Slam". In doubles, a team may accomplish the Grand Slam pl ...

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

. The game was initially released on 9 January 2020 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

Gameplay

''AO Tennis 2'' game features multiple

types of tennis match Traditionally, tennis is played between two people in a singles match, or two pairs in a doubles match. Tennis can also be played on different courts, including grass courts, clay courts, hard courts, and artificial grass courts. Standard types ...

. The re-designed career mode features a new managing system. Players have to earn money and experience that can be used to boost players' skills and stats. The higher level is, the better form would like to perform. While performance on court is important, how to deal with

press conference A press conference or news conference is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicians, corporations, non-governmental organ ...

, how to maintain good relationship with your team would also be critical for players' reputations and decide the quality of sponsors that players can pick up. In addition to the solo game, the game introduces a multiplayer mode which offers up to four local players competing head-to-head. A cooperation mode is also available so that players can team up in doubles online. Like its predecessor '' AO Tennis'', all custom players and

venues Venue is the location at which an event takes place. It may refer to: Locations * Venue (law), the place a case is heard * Financial trading venue, a place or system where financial transactions can occur * Music venue, place used for a concer ...

sharing with the community are downloadable for the game.

Development and release

''AO Tennis 2'' was revealed with a game trailer in November 2019. It is developed and published by the Australia-based

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

, the developer of '' AO Tennis''. It is the second video game that holds the official license of the

, which gives the game plenty star players from ATP and WTA, including

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...

Stan Wawrinka Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking of world No. 3 for the first time on 27 January 2014. His career highlight ...

Angelique Kerber Angelique Kerber (; born 18 January 1988) is a German professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 1, for a total of 34 weeks, and won three major titles at the 2016 Australian Open, the 2016 US Open, and the 2018 Wim ...

Ashleigh Barty Ashleigh is the feminine form of the Old English name Ashley (given name), Ashley, which means "dweller near the ash tree forest". It is most common in the United States and United Kingdom. Notable people B *Ashleigh Ball (born 1983), Canadian ...

and more. The game was released on 9 January 2020 in Europe and 11 February 2020 in North America for

and

. In Japan, the game was made available on 14 May 2020. An official editing tool, which allows players to create their own players and stadiums and share online was available via

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

. The game was released for

Amazon Luna Amazon Luna is a cloud gaming platform developed and operated by Amazon. Luna was announced on September 24, 2020, with early access available to subscribers by invitation beginning on October 20, 2020. In its early access state, Amazon Luna ...

on 20 October 2020.

Reception

''AO Tennis 2'' received "mixed or average" reviews, according to

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. The game received a 7 from ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

''. The reviewer Tristan Ogilvie commented the game was "better-looking" and "smoother-playing", and approved the improvement of the series. The highest score came from William Thompson of ''Hooked Gamers'', who gave 8 points out of a possible 10 to the game. He praised the refined career mode, and commented "''AO Tennis 2'' is a heap of fun", but he felt AI players seemed to be invulnerable as they were often able to hit the ball from anywhere. Dominic Leighton of ''The Sixth Axis'' also rated the game an 8 out of 10, summarizing the game "bright" and "likeable". He was pleased with the in-game player creator and community support, as well as the depth of the game. However, he was not happy with the weird crowd sounds and thought licensed players were far from enough either. Brian Mazique compared the game with its predecessor '' AO Tennis'', and said the game "has more positives than negatives", but he also mentioned the ''AO tennis'' series was not "as complete as other sports titles". Matt Hewson of ''player2.net'' wrote a review when the game was released based on the Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. He rated the game "B", praising the developer

learned from their last release '' AO Tennis''. He also wrote that the game was "a deep and rewarding simulation", and felt the game was "an ace" for hardcore tennis fans. Matt Cox wrote a review at ''

Rock, Paper, Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...

'', commenting "it would be unfair to single out ''AO Tennis 2'' for replicating the banality of tennis when every sports ’em up has the same conceptual flaw". TY Sheedlo gave two stars out of five at ''

Screen Rant ''Screen Rant'' is an entertainment website that offers news in the fields of television, films, video games, and film theories. ''Screen Rant'' was launched by Vic Holtreman in 2003, and originally had its primary office in Ogden, Utah. ''Scr ...

'', which was the lowest score the game received. He described the game was "a headache", found it too hardcore to enjoy, even with its soft-rock soundtrack. He also complained the game was "unlikely to inspire any interest in the sport on its own".

References

External links

* {{Big Ant Studios 2020 video games Australian Open (tennis) Cooperative video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Tennis video games Video games developed in Australia Video games set in Australia Video game sequels Windows games Xbox One games Nacon games Big Ant Studios games