Sega Superstars Tennis

Sega Superstars Tennis is a tennis video game 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.

Playable Characters
The game includes five characters from the Sonic series:
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Amy Rose
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Doctor Eggman

The game also includes 11 SEGA characters from different games.
 * Ulala (Space Channel 5)
 * Pudding (Space Channel 5)
 * Aiai (Super Monkey Ball)
 * Meemee (Super Monkey Ball)
 * NiGHTS (NiGHTS into Dreams)
 * Reala (NiGHTS into Dreams)
 * Amigo (Samba De Amigo)
 * Gilius Thunderhead (Golden Axe)
 * Alex Kidd (Alex Kidd)
 * Beat (Jet Set Radio)
 * Gum (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 the standard control pad, 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, 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 a number of 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

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.


 * The Fantasy Zone: In this minigame, the players 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 cardborad 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 a opacity graffiti to match it's 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 is to counter large balls and collect bannans and had them into time gates before time runs out.

Videos
thumb|left|300px|SEGA Superstars Tennis trailer thumb|right|300px|SEGA Superstars Tennis commercial

Gallery
For more, see : Sega Superstars Tennis/Gallery

Trivia

 * Ulala, Aiai, NiGHTS and Amigo have all been playable guest stars in the Sonic Riders series.
 * Sega Superstars Tennis features missions based off of 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.
 * This is one of three games where Sonic & Alex Kidd appeared together. (The others being Segagaga and Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.)
 * This Game recently began being packaged with the Xbox 360 as a free game with the console. This is something we haven't seen Sonic do 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.
 * 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 you're able to play as yet 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.