FAQ - Guide for Anna Kournikovas Smash Court Tennis

Game : Anna Kournikova Smash Court Tennis FAQ v1.1
Platform : Sony PlayStation
Publisher : SCEE / Namco 1999 ( European PAL release )
Anna Kournikova Tennis (c) Sony Computer Entertainment and (c) Namco

Unpublished work Copyright 1999 Nogs

This FAQ is for private and personal use only.  It can only be reproduced
electronically as long as it isn't modified and is in its compete form. If
you are going to modify it, you must get my consent before you can distribute
the file. This FAQ is not to be used for profitable/promotional purposes;
this includes being used by publishers of magazines, guides, books, etc.. 
or being incorporated into magazines etc.... in ANY way. All copyrights and
trademarks that are not specifically mentioned in this FAQ are acknowledged.
This FAQ was created and is being maintained currently by Nogs.
([email protected])

Special thanks to John Davies for his playing tips, general advice and his
big contribution to this FAQ. To Ben, Non and Juice as my fellow players 
since ‘88 on the original World Court Tennis / Pro Tennis World Court...
Frogger for help on tidying up this document. And finally thankyou to
everyone who has emailed me about this FAQ with ideas, tips etc....

FAQ History
-----------
v1.1 16/08/99 Blast game section, add more detail thanks to Doug Cload. Tips
              on using bonus characters in exhibition from Ronnie Dewkalie.
              Play stats added.

v1.0 29/07/99 Boring day at work so though we'd get down all the knowledge of
              this game we had so far as we've been playing *LOADS* recently.

Game History
------------
Anna Kournikova Tennis is actually Smash Court Tennis 2, as it's known in
Japan. It is the sequel to Smash Court Tennis which was released in Europe
around 1996 but not in USA. However at the time games like Tekken and Ridge
racer were released so this gem went unnoticed. The original World Court
Tennis was released in 1988 for NEC’s PC-Engine(Jap) and a bit later for
the TG16(US). Featuring cute graphics, nice tunes and great gameplay it was
an instant hit. One of the best features was the 4 human players. This was
something that neither Nintendo or Sega machine offered at the time but
the PlayStation carries on this tradition.

Controls
--------
The game supports the vibration function of the Dual-Shock pad but not the
analogue sticks it seems. On the box is says analogue support but from what
I've read in the newsgroups nobody can get it work. However it does work on
the demo version found on magazine cds. I have used a 3rd party pad that lets
you use the analogue on all games but I found it much harder to pick a
direction when playing a shot and prefer the direction pad.

Triangle = Auto Serve / Lob
Square = Super strong serve / shot
Cross = Weak serve / shot
Circle = Power serve / shot

The Game
--------

Exhibition
This is where you can practice playing the CPU without it effecting your world
ranking if you lose. Also with your mates round, up to 4 players can take part
in friendly *cough* games. You pick from the main 16 characters and any bonus
characters you have won from playing Tournament mode. You don’t get to use the
special equipment but you can mix and match men / women in any combo. You also
have a lot more courts additional to the tournament selection, such as playing
at the Barrier Reef, or in front of the Houses of Parliament. As typical with
Namco games you'll spot reference to other Namco titles dotted around e.g
Theme Park court has a SplatterHouse building, a great sicko arcade game.
To get bonus characters you must have won at least one tournament, see the
table below for more detail. To pick a bonus characters on the player select
screen press R2 and L2 to toggle the player list. To toggle an individual player
to mix bonus and normal characters press Select on a player.

Tournament
This is obviously the main part of the game and where the real action takes
place. On selecting this option for the first time you are given a list of all
the players available to you. Highlighting a player will display the statistics
for each individual and you can pick the one best suited to your style of play.
Once you have picked your character you can not change who you are if you are
using a saved game. Selecting a male or female will put you into the relevant
men's or women's tournament. The next screens give you the four options listed
below. If you play a game you get to pick which event to participate in and then
singles or doubles game ( doubles is with a CPU not a human player ). Double's
is the first opportunity to check out the bonus characters you win as once you
pick a player for yourself can not change it ! When you win a tournament you get
the game end credits with various pictures of the game characters. There is an
alternative ending featuring photos of Miss Kournikova but I don't know how you
access this apart from via a PC.

When you win a Street Tournament or Grand Slam a pink bouncing star will appear
next to the event on the selection screen. If you win the event six times this
becomes a flat green star indicating you've won all bonus items.


 Street Tournament :  The best place to try to win first as its not quite as
 tough as a grand slam. There are 4 locations, Asaksa Temple, Time Square,
 Osaka Bridge, Theme Park.

 Grand Slams :  These are the famous four from the ATP tour Great Britain,
 France, USA, Australia . One of the nice touches is in France the scores
 are all done in French.

 Records : This is the ranking of the top 48, at the start you are last but as 
 you progress by winning competitions you’ll pick up points and slowly creep up 
 the list. As you get more points you enter tournaments at the second round e.g.
 for Grand Slams you need to be 20th at least for this, street tournament you
 to have won at least one tournament. You can lose points as well for losing a
 game or quitting a tournament early. I have currently won everything but can
 still enter tournaments and gain points, I'm on 1007 points so I don't know
 what the limit is or what it can achieve.

 Equipment : As you win tournaments you’ll gain extra characters ( detailed 
 below ) and bonus equipment with which you can equip to players, from here. 
 The more times you win a tournament (up to a Max of 6 times) the more items
 you receive. The table below lists what you gain as you win each tournament.
 As you can see you get a few comedy items such a lightsabres, football and 
 various character from other Namco games. From this menu you can equip other
 players as well, these items will not appear in a doubles match.


Street Tournament Bonus Characters
----------------------------------

         Asaksa Temple     Time Square       Osaka Bridge   Theme Park

Win 1    Celeste           Peach             Owen           Xiaomin

Win 2    Sasha             Tiffany           Acea           Emilie

Win 3    Clara             Tara              Robyn          Sam

Win 4    Red Ace           Eddy #1           Lamar          Coach

Win 5    Dragon            Reiko N #3        Richard #2     Yoshimitsu #1
 
Win 6    Heihcahi #1       Pac-Man 3D        Troy           Sherudo #2

#1 = Tekken Character
#2 = Time Crisis Character
#3 = Ridge Racer 4 girl


Gran Slam Bonus Equipment
-------------------------

         Great Britain     France            USA             Australia

Win 1    Fire Racket       Dynamite Racket   Wave Racket     Gold Racket

Win 2    Silver Racket     Electric Racket   Cola Bottle     Tuna Fish

Win 3    Starburst Racket  Frying Pan        Crimson Racket  Invisible Ink

Win 4    Smoking Shoes     Mosquito          Hungry Chick    Light Sabre

Win 5    Rainbow Racket    Afterimage        Footprints      Panda Head

Win 6    Wrestling Mask    Mirage Racket     Carrot          Football

Most of the items here are just a bit of fun though they end up being quite
distracting. If you want an improvement on your original racket I'd suggest the
Gold or Silver racket. These have a larger head thus making it easier to return
the ball and they don't do anything silly / annoying. On the gold racket press
R2 to make it glint, I don't think this adds anything to the shot.




Blast Match
-----------
This is only available in multi player mode. Each team gets to choose 5 players
at the start, and the winner is the one with someone left alive at the end !
You play normal tennis rules except that the ball explodes when the timer has
run down to 0 or the ball goes off the court. In either case if you're player
is near the ball you die though you can be out of range and thus survive. If
you managed to avoid the ball exploding the range of the bomb will increase
each time. Once a player dies the bomb goes back to its originally range
and you continue until you run out of players.

Options
-------
The usual selection of game options, sound tests etc....and also the save and
load point to store your progress in tournaments.

Playing Tips
------------

Basics:
To play a shot you pick weak / strong button etc...along with a direction to hit 
the ball in that basic direction. This will all vary depending on your timing of
the shot and the player you are using.

When serving: 
Move to the centre of court, and then serve to far corner using triangle. Wait
to see where the return is going.... If it comes diagonally back (which it
usually does) to the centre of the court, move in a few paces and do a medium
strength shot to the other side of the court for a near certain winner. If it
comes down the line, do a weak return back down the line. Repeat until computer
hits one to the middle of the court and then hit a medium shot to the other 
corner. This technique wins at least 90% of points though sometimes the 
computer hits a stunning unreturnable return.

For serving, all the buttons work and provide a different style of attack.
Weak / Strong buttons are the same but triangle is now an auto serve and
thus only needs to be pressed once. With the others you press once to throw
the ball up then again to hit over the net. With the ball in the air use the
direction pad to pick line of service and you should be able to place the 
ball almost anywhere in the service box.  On serve you can also use the []
button, I find this a useful substitute for triangle if the CPU player starts
returning down the line and breaking your serve. Using this instead the opponent
will return the ball to the middle of the court almost every time which gives
you more chance to win the point

When receiving:
Move behind the base line and towards the corner a little. This gives more
chance of hitting the serve back where ever the opponent puts it. It sounds
obvious but watch the serve closely. You should be able to move your player
into position for any shot. Return the ball with a weak shot to the opposite
corner from where the serve came. Keep hitting it to this corner until the 
computer hits one towards the centre of the court, then you hit to the other
corner, and win the point. In doubles always return the ball to the server
weak or strong shot.

A small annoying trick is when receiving a serve stand on the service box line.
When you return you chip the ball just over the net which can be very annoying
to the opposition of human. A CPU player will normally blast the ball out wide
so you'll miss it.

General hints:
Never use the super strong shot against the CPU but with practice it can be
used against a human opponent. Use the lob button carefully, against CPU they
normal smash return though you can still win the point. Against a human its 
great very useful once you know when to use it properly.

Cheats / Codes
--------------
The only cheat I know of is to view the end sequences. To do this on the
"Press Start" screen via the 2nd control pad very quickly press :
Up x4, Down x4, Left x4, Right x4

Players Stats
-------------
Each player has his / her strenghs and weakness that are graded from 
0-16. You can view these when you first select a player for a tourament
or doubles but are list here as well.

MEN       | Serve | Stroke | Volley | Smash | Speed |
----------|-----------------------------------------|
Rogers    |   13  |   13   |   10   |   16  |   13  |
Renzo     |   16  |   10   |   13   |   16  |   13  |
Chan      |   13  |   10   |   10   |   10  |   13  |
Goodman   |   16  |   10   |   13   |   16  |    7  |
Rufus     |   16  |   10   |   10   |   10  |   10  |
Peters    |   13  |   10   |    7   |   10  |   10  |
Linn      |   13  |    7   |    4   |    7  |    7  |
Michaels  |   16  |   10   |    4   |   16  |   10  |
Densoua   |   13  |    7   |   13   |   13  |   10  |
Dann      |   16  |   10   |   10   |   13  |   10  |
Pierce    |   16  |   10   |   10   |   13  |    7  |
Diaz      |   13  |    5   |   10   |   10  |   10  |

WOMEN     | Serve | Stroke | Volley | Smash | Speed |
----------|-----------------------------------------|
Davies    |    7  |   10   |    7   |    7  |   10  |
Summers   |   10  |   10   |   16   |   10  |   10  |
Taylor    |   13  |   10   |    7   |   13  |   10  |
May       |    7  |   10   |   13   |   10  |   10  |
Alyssa    |    7  |    4   |   10   |   10  |    7  |
Celine    |    7  |    4   |   16   |   13  |   13  |
Mai       |    7  |    7   |    4   |   13  |    7  |
Jasmine   |   10  |    7   |    7   |   13  |   13  |
Kournikova|   10  |   10   |   10   |    7  |   13  |
Viki      |   10  |    7   |    4   |    7  |    7  |
Jordan    |    7  |    4   |    4   |    4  |   13  |
Akiko     |    4  |    4   |    7   |    7  |    4  |

BONUS     | Serve | Stroke | Volley | Smash | Speed |
----------|-----------------------------------------|
Celeste   |    7  |    7   |    7   |   10  |   13  |
Peach     |    7  |    7   |    4   |    4  |    7  |
Owen      |    7  |    4   |   13   |   13  |   13  |
Xiaomin   |   10  |    4   |    7   |   10  |    7  |
Sasha     |    4  |    7   |    4   |    4  |   13  |
Tiffany   |    7  |    7   |    4   |    4  |    4  |
Acea      |    7  |    4   |    4   |    4  |    4  |
Emile     |    7  |    7   |    4   |    7  |    4  |
Clara     |    4  |    4   |    4   |    4  |    4  |
Tara      |    4  |    4   |    4   |    7  |    4  |
Robyn     |    4  |    4   |    4   |    7  |    4  |
Sam       |   16  |   13   |   10   |   16  |   16  |
Red Ace   |   16  |   13   |   16   |    7  |   13  |
Eddy      |   16  |   16   |    4   |   13  |   13  |
Lamar     |   16  |   13   |   10   |   13  |   13  |
Coach     |   10  |    4   |    4   |    7  |    4  |
Dragon    |   16  |   13   |    4   |   10  |   10  |
Reiko N.  |   13  |    4   |    7   |   13  |    7  |
Richard   |   13  |   10   |   10   |   13  |   13  |
Yoshimitsu|   13  |   10   |    4   |    7  |    7  |
Heihachi  |   16  |   13   |   13   |   16  |    4  |
Pac-Man   |   10  |    7   |    7   |   10  |    7  |
Troy      |   13  |    7   |   10   |    7  |   16  |
Sherido   |   16  |   10   |    7   |   10  |   13  |

Other resources
---------------

Namco Japan web page quite a bit of info on this game, well the Japanese version
which I guess would hold true but I can't read any of it :)
http://www.namco.co.jp/home/cs/ps/smashcourt2/special/index.html
www.namco.co.uk and www.namco.com currently have no information

If you have any questions, comments, or things to add to the FAQ? Please email
me at [email protected] and I'll do my best to answer. If you have anything to
add to the FAQ, I'll be sure to credit you with it.