Tennis games have a proud tradition in sports gaming, dating back to some of the first video games ever. Through the years, tennis games have come in many different styles, from simulations to arcade style to full-on fantastical, and there are great options to be found in each, so there’s always something for everyone to enjoy. These are the best tennis games from the best tennis series of all time.
Pong
Does Pong hold up as a timeless game that’s still able to blow the minds of anyone who picks it up today, half a century later? No. The simple gameplay of two paddles capable of moving across only the vertical dimension is the definition of dated, but that doesn’t make the game any less of a phenomenon or critical piece of not just tennis or sports video gaming history, but in the history of video games full stop. Pong is unlikely to become your next obsession, but anyone who hasn’t played at least a few games of this classic should have a go.
Hot Shots Tennis
Although not held in as high esteem as some of its Hot Shots Golf peers, Hot Shots Tennis, also known as Everybody’s Tennis, is still a game with plenty of die-hard fans for whom it was their entry into the world of tennis gaming. Featuring characters from the Golf series, the gameplay in Hot Shots Tennis was fun, even if more serious gamers may have found the difficulty curve to be a bit too easy to beat the top of.
Wii Sports Tennis
Sometimes you want a serious sports sim that accurately reflects all the nuances of the real-world sport in a digital version you can perfect and master. Sometimes you want to swing your arm about in the living room and maybe destroy a TV if you’re not into putting on the wrist strap, and that’s where Wii Sports and its suite of Wiimote-controlled sports games come into play.
While nothing in Wii Sports was blowing minds for realism, it remains one of the most beloved sports games ever for its ability to get just about anyone and everyone around a console to have fun together.
Grand Slam Tennis
For gamers who loved the idea of using motion controls but wanted something just a little bit closer to the actual strategy of a real tennis match, there was EA’s Grand Slam Tennis. While the game still relied on the computer to move players, the motion sensing was far more complex. By paying attention to things like which side you swung on, your swing path, and the angle of the Wiimote as you reached the point of “contact,” the game allowed you far more influence on the shots your player hit and whether your opponent could return them or not.
Tennis Manager
Management sims are a genre that players tend to resonate with extremely hard or not at all, and like any serious sport, tennis has its management sim options. For gamers who love the idea of a game like Football Manager but don’t find the sport appealing or for whom the S-tier sim franchise can be a bit overwhelming in its depth of mechanics, the Tennis Manager series is an excellent option.
It puts you in control of a manager of a tennis team, signing prospects, managing their training, and booking them in tournaments as they try to climb the ranks across the multiple levels of tennis tours.
Top Spin 4
2K has a proud tradition of creating outstanding franchises that, for one reason or another, stopped putting out new editions, and tennis is no exception with the Top Spin line. The top of the line came in what for a long time looked to be the final entry with Top Spin 4. The game featured realistic gameplay, with many tennis video game enthusiasts still holding it up as the gold standard of realistic tennis games.
For fans of the series, good news came last year as, after more than a decade on the shelf, it was revived in the form of Top Spin 2K25, which received a good reception as a game that generally lived up to the reputation of the franchise.
Mario Tennis
The Mario Tennis series, like all Mario sports series, is one known for producing a consistent series of fun and engaging games. Unsurprisingly for a game stocked with all of Nintendo’s finest stars, Mario Tennis games aren’t bogged down by trivial ideas like realism and pixel-perfect recreations of the real world game.
Instead, Mario Tennis is tennis gaming with the arcade knob cranked to 11. Featuring power-ups and super shots, and everything you’d expect from a sports game set in the Mushroom Kingdom, the entire line is worth a play, but the nod for carrying the banner has to go to the Nintendo 64 original. Not only does it still hold up today, but it is also the game that brought the world meme king Waluigi, who debuted in it.
Virtua Tennis 2
While many games on the all-time tennis video game list represent a battle between arcade and realistic gameplay, Virtua Tennis asks, “Why not both?” The characters themselves control wonderfully, and with all the shot crafting nous of a Top Spin game, while the challenges you face outside of your matches would feel perfectly at home in a Mario Tennis game.
Nothing encapsulates this balance better than the beloved World Tour mode, in which you guide your created player not just through a series of matches around the world to raise your world ranking, but also a series of arcade challenges. What made the mode shine was how the non-match challenges turned learning the game’s different shot mechanics into engaging mini-games that kept you entertained while sharpening the skills needed to excel on the court.
That wraps up the list, but did your favorite make the cut? Did you agree with the version chosen to carry the standard for your favorite tennis gaming franchise, or did we miss the boat? Let us know in the comments!
