Tennis Elbow 2011

Tennis Elbow 2009 is an incredibly realistic (and addictive) tennis game. It takes a while to get the hang of things, but once you do, you'll find it hard to stop playing.
The program's interface is not the most intuitive thing we've ever seen, and we found it a little overwhelming. There are a lot of options, and even though it's possible to play the game without knowing anything about tennis, such users won't get nearly as much out of it. We don't suppose it's the responsibility of this game to provide a crash course in tennis, but a glossary or basic explanation of the rules of the game would have been nice. The program does have a long online Help file that explains how the game's features work, but a lot of it won't mean anything to users who don't already have tennis knowledge. That said, the actual gameplay itself is quite impressive. Players are fast and responsive, the graphics are of very good quality, and the sound effects really enhance the experience (although we found it a little demoralizing to have to listen to the audience applaud every time our opponent scored). A guide showing the "danger zone" helps novice players position themselves so that they can actually hit the ball. The creators of this game paid tremendous attention to detail, even allowing players to throw down their rackets in anger. Overall, the game is a lot of fun, and should be pleasantly challenging to users at all levels.