Sega Superstars Tennis

Sega Superstars Tennis is a tennis game and the second title in the Sega Superstars crossover series. It is also the first in the series to be developed by Sumo Digital, crossing over numerous Sega franchises, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Alex Kidd, Space Channel 5 and 12 more. It was released in March 2008. In 2012, Sega and Feral Interactive announced that the game will be available for the Mac on its following Summer along with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. For the Mac, Superstars Tennis will feature online multiplayer by using Game Center, which will be added in the next version of Max OS X, Mountain Lion.

Playable characters
The game includes five characters from the Sonic series:
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Amy Rose (Unlockable by winning the second mission in Sonic the Hedgehog)
 * Shadow the Hedgehog (Unlockable by winning the last mission in Sonic the Hedgehog)
 * Doctor Eggman

The game also includes 11 SEGA characters from different games.
 * Ulala (Space Channel 5)
 * Pudding (Space Channel 5) (Unlockable by winning the last mission in Space Channel 5)
 * Aiai (Super Monkey Ball)
 * MeeMee (Super Monkey Ball) (Unlockable by winning a certain mission in Super Monkey Ball)
 * NiGHTS (NiGHTS into Dreams)
 * Reala (NiGHTS into Dreams) (Unlockable by winning the last mission in NiGHTS into Dreams
 * Amigo (Samba De Amigo)
 * Gilius Thunderhead (Golden Axe) (Unlockable by winning a certain mission in Golden Axe)
 * Alex Kidd (Alex Kidd) (Unlockable by winning a certain mission in Alex Kidd)
 * Beat (Jet Set Radio)
 * Gum (Jet Set Radio) (Unlockable by winning the last mission in Jet Set Radio)

Gameplay

 * Superstar Mode allows the player to play missions in the worlds of sega which include exhibition matches, tournaments and tasks based around a specific Sega game including Sonic the Hedgehog, Puyo Pop Fever and Virtua Cop. Completing missions unlocks items such as courts, stages, sound tracks and characters.
 * Exhibition Mode offers the chance to challenge a character to a match on one of many courts, including Sonic's home court of Green Hill Zone, or Amigo's Carnival Park court. Whichever court is chosen, there are a host of Sega celebrities cheering them on from court side.
 * Tournament Mode allows the player to play in a series of matches against opponents chosen at random by the computer in an arena also chosen at random.
 * There are several playable minigames in Sega Superstars Tennis, including ones from Sega games such as a House of the Dead meets Space Invaders game, in which the player has to hit moving targets in the form of zombies, a Space Harrier game, a Puyo Puyo game, and a Virtua Cop game.
 * Each character has their own unique special attack giving the player more chance of scoring a point. For example: Gilius throws a magic bottle in the air and covers the opponent's side with thunderbolts, if they touch one the character will be stunned for a brief moment, or Sonic's signature "Super Sonic" attack, which causes the tennis ball to zig-zag in various directions around the court when he hits the ball.

Platform differences
The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions both have online play, while the Wii version has three different control schemes (motion control, Wii Remote sideways, and Wii Remote with Nunchuk). The Nintendo DS version of the game can be played with, or utilize the stylus.

Sonic courts
There are two courts featured in this game from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, both originating from the first game from the first level and one from a later level, Sonic the Hedgehog.

Green Hill was fitted with a tennis court with various characters making cameo appearances around the field, mainly the Chao from the Sonic Adventure series, also Blaze the Cat, Silver the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna and Big the Cat. This is where many missions in Sonic's world in Superstar Mode take place, including a singles tournament with various Sonic characters. The Stage features four unlockable music tracks of levels from previous Sonic games: Seaside Hill, Ocean Palace, a System Screen Select and Green Hill Zone.
 * Green Hill Zone

Having not used this place for about 15 years there is no reason for Robotnik not to turn his old fortress into a tennis court. On the side of the court is the machine Robotnik used as the final boss from Final Zone, still moving up and down. Spectating from the sideline is Metal Sonic and the Egg Gunners from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). This is also the location of many of the missions in Superstar mode. In these missions Egg Gunners fire at you while you collect rings and avoid bombs that resemble Bomb from Knuckles' Chaotix. There are a number of unlockable tracks for this court from different Sonic games: Music from Final Fortress, Bullet Station, Egg Fleet, and Scrap Brain Zone.
 * Scrap Brain Zone

Other courts

 * Space Port 9 (Space Channel 5)
 * Splash Garden (NiGHTS into Dreams)
 * Outrun Bay (Outrun)
 * Carrier Zone (After Burner)
 * Grave Yard (The House of The Dead)
 * Super Monkey Ball (Super Monkey Ball)
 * Shiubuya DownTown (Jet Set Radio)
 * Carnival Park (Samba De Amigo)

Mini-games and side-missions

 * Puyo Pop Fever: In this minigame, the player plays Puyo Pop but controlling the popping gun as a racket with the character of choice to clear the Puyo wall.


 * Space Harrier: In this minigame, the player must throw the ball against a number of series of robot, alien, machines and meteorites the constantly come time by time when difficulty increases.


 * Virtua Squad: In this one, the player plays a classic game of the original Virtual Cop but with a tennis racket and a ball, aiming at the cardboard thieves that will shoot you in a time of 10 second each.


 * Jet Set Radio: The player gets a spray color from a grinding man how throws them at you, when you get those time by time, you are to hit the ball across the net in to an opacity graffiti to match its colors.


 * Sonic the Hedgehog: In this one, the player can free roam on the court and dodge electric spikes thrown by robots and collect as many rings as possible. Several monitor power-ups like Invincibility and Speed Shoes are available.


 * Super Monkey Ball: The player has to counter large balls and collect bananas and hand them into time gates before time runs out.


 * Chu Chu Rocket: The player has to guide mice into rockets, using tennis balls to change the arrow's direction.


 * Curien Mansion: The player must defeat zombies and rescue civilians to survive.

Videos
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Trivia

 * Ulala, Aiai, NiGHTS and Amigo have all been playable guest stars in the Sonic Riders series.
 * Sega Superstars Tennis features missions based on Puyo Puyo, which Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine was adapted from. Coincidentally, it was the one game to star Dr. Eggman (or in actuality the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog incarnation of the character) who just happens to be one of this game's playable characters.
 * Silver and Blaze are the only cameos that have not been a playable character in Sega Superstars.
 * This is one of four games where Sonic & Alex Kidd appeared together. (The others were Segagaga, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, and Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed).
 * This game was packaged with the Xbox 360 as a free game with the console in the holiday season in 2008. This is something Sonic hasn't done since Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) for the Genesis, along with Sonic Adventure and Sonic Shuffle being packaged with the Dreamcast.
 * Space Channel 5 was originally meant to have a minigame, but it was taken out in the final project. The minigame for Space Channel 5 was the player(s) hitting the ball and to the copy the morlians dance moves.
 * Despite being a starter, Tails did not appear in the opening cinematic or receive any artwork for this game and was also left out of the main cast picture.
 * Tails possibly could have been at one point an unlockable character instead of a Starter, but since Sonic would be partnered with Tails, the player would know that they would have to unlock him, instead of it being a surprise like Amy and Shadow.
 * Oddly in the demo of this game, Shadow is one of the few characters the player is able to play. In the actual game, he is an unlockable.
 * Quotes from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) were used in this game such as "My, that's a pretty snazzy performance there!" (Sonic's quote), "Who are you, and how do you know my name?" (Shadow's quote) and "See, I told you I could do it!" (Tails' quote).
 * Knuckles, Big, & Metal Sonic all were cameo characters who became playable characters in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.
 * In the Opening Cinematic, Amigo is seen using his maracas as a racket. However in the gameplay, Amigo uses a real tennis racket.
 * In the Opening Cinematic, Eggman uses a backpack with tennis rackets on it. But in the game, he does not use such a thing.
 * This is the only game where it has different ratings from the ESRB in each console. It has an E10+ rating on the home console version and an E rating on the Nintendo DS.
 * The rackets used by the characters seems to be based on a classic racket used in the late 1960s, as opposed to modern day rackets.
 * SEGA Superstars Tennis will be ported to MAC along with Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. However, SEGA Superstars Tennis will never be released on PC.
 * This is the only game in which Big and Blaze appear together in the same game as actual characters and not trophies or models.
 * Silver also appears in the game as a cameo.
 * Due to the series being banned in Germany, this game referred the House of the Dead series as Currien Mansion. This is carried over to future Sega Superstars titles.
 * All 16 characters in this game are all playable in Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed.
 * This is because they already had models for the characters.
 * This game was at one point in a development where it would only feature Sonic characters.
 * Shadow and Dr.Eggman are the only characters who are in the special round after winning the cup in the doubles tournament
 * Pudding's quotes were reused from Space Channel 5 Part 2, but with her design from Space Channel 5.
 * Although a PS3 version of the game is available, the PS2 is incompatible to the PS3's first and second generation models, making Sega Superstars Tennis one of the only two PlayStation 2 Games (along with Sega Superstarts) that are incompatable with the PlayStation 3.