AO Tennis 2

AO Tennis 2 is a tennis simulation video game developed by Big Ant Studios, officially licensed and centered around the Australian Open tournament. Set in Oceania, it features realistic gameplay with authentic players and venues, supporting both single-player and multiplayer modes across platforms like Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

AO Tennis 2: The Community-Crafted Contender in Tennis Gaming’s Drought

Introduction: Serving in a Vacuum

To understand the significance of AO Tennis 2, one must first appreciate the barren landscape it entered. For nearly a decade, from the release of the acclaimed Top Spin 4 in 2011 until AO Tennis 2‘s launch in 2020, the genre of dedicated, simulation-focused tennis video games was virtually a ghost town. While arcade offerings like Mario Tennis Aces provided fun, the deep, stat-driven career modes and authentic court simulations of yesteryear had vanished. Into this void stepped Big Ant Studios, an Australian developer with a pedigree in sports simulations (notably cricket and rugby league), armed with the prestigious official license of the Australian Open—the “Happy Slam.” Their 2018 predecessor, AO Tennis, was a promising but unpolished debut, a foundation laid with community tools that proved more popular than the core game. AO Tennis 2 is not merely a sequel; it is a conscious, concerted effort to build a Grand Slam champion from that shaky first serve. This review will argue that AO Tennis 2 represents a monumental leap forward for its series and the most compelling, if deeply flawed, entry in the modern tennis game canon. Its legacy is twofold: it proved a dedicated tennis sim could find an audience through relentless post-launch support and user-generated content, but it also starkly revealed the immense challenges of competing with the resources of EA Sports or 2K in a neglected genre.

Development History & Context: A Melbourne Studio’s Ambition

Big Ant Studios, based mere minutes from Melbourne Park, developed AO Tennis 2 in close partnership with Tennis Australia. CEO Ross Symons framed this proximity as both a responsibility and an advantage—to capture the unique “positive celebration” of the Australian Open (Thumbsticks interview). The studio’s development philosophy, as stated in the same interview, is deeply community-centric: “It’s a core principle that drives our team.” This ethos was born from the first game’s rocky launch, where fan feedback was instrumental in transforming AO Tennis into a competent title via patches.

Technologically, AO Tennis 2 was built on Big Ant’s proprietary engine, a necessity for multi-platform release (Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC, Luna) with varying capabilities. The constraint was clear: a small studio competing in a space dominated by giants, but with a unique asset—a powerful, user-friendly content editor that the community loved. The gaming landscape of early 2020 was crowded with sports titles, but AO Tennis 2 had the field almost entirely to itself for hardcore tennis simulation. Its main competitor was the nine-year-old Top Spin 4, a ghost haunting every review. The pressure was to not just be a better game than its predecessor, but to become the de facto modern standard by default.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: The Press Conference Gambit

The most significant addition to AO Tennis 2 is its narrative-driven career mode, explicitly compared by developer Ross Symons to F1‘s story modes and FIFA‘s “The Journey.” This is a deliberate attempt to transcend the sterile menu navigation of traditional sports career modes and inject the “personalities” and “highs and lows” of tennis (Thumbsticks). Thematically, the game posits that professional tennis is as much a battle of wits, reputation, and management as it is of backhands and serves.

The narrative unfolds through two primary systems:
1. The Reputation System: Decisions in press conferences and on-court demeanor (e.g., respectful wave vs. sarcastic thumbs-up to the umpire, as noted by IGN) directly influence your “Reputation” score. This score gates sponsor quality and influences media perception.
2. Press Conferences: After major matches, players are questioned with multiple-choice responses. The intent is to create branching consequences—do you show humility or arrogance? Support a rival or trash-talk? However, critics widely panned this execution. PC Games (Germany) called the “Gut-Böse-Mechanik” (Good-Evil-Mechanic) “aufgesetzt” (forced/put-on), feeling like a superficial addition. IGN acknowledged the “clearly been made on a budget small enough to lace a pair of tennis shoes,” serving merely as “serviceable” menu break-ups. The narrative ambition is laudable, but the implementation is thin, lacking the written weight and character development of its inspirations. It creates a framework for story but provides little actual story.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: The Core Conundrum

This is the arena where AO Tennis 2 both shines and stumbles most profoundly.

Core Gameplay Loop:
The fundamental act of hitting a ball is, for many, a success. IGN’s Tristan Ogilvie praised the “exciting and dynamic brand of tennis,” noting distinct player styles (Nadal’s baseline dominance vs. Isner’s court coverage) and meaningful surface differences between hard, clay, and grass. Ball physics and the sense of strategy—knowing when to flatten out a shot or add topspin—are frequently cited as strengths (Hooked Gamers, Gameplay Benelux).

The Assisted Movement Quagmire:
The single most criticized mechanic is the assisted movement system. Because the left stick controls both player movement and shot aiming, the game automatically shifts the player towards the ball. Critics describe this as profoundly frustrating. 4Players.de succinctly stated: “Man fühlt sich wie ein Beifahrer; als würde man vorgegebenen Linien nachlaufen, anstatt eigene Wege zu gehen” (You feel like a passenger; as if you were running along predefined lines instead of forging your own paths). Nintendo Life called the frame rate and timing issues “horrendous,” making an already “tricky stroke timing system” infuriating. Rock, Paper, Shotgun found the road to mastery “too frustrating.” This automated feel robs the player of agency at crucial moments, leading to “McEnroe’d a lot of virtual racquets.”

Progression & Career Mode:
Beyond the narrative shell, the progression loop is traditional but functional. Winning tournaments earns prize money to upgrade player stats (power, speed, stamina) and hire support staff for buffs. Training drills raise skill caps. This loop is praised as “refined” (Hooked Gamers) and offering “depth” (TheSixthAxis). However, Game Informer bluntly stated: “The career mode… is what really needs the work,” suggesting the gameplay itself underpins the mode’s success.

Innovations & Flaws:
* Innovations: The seamless import of thousands of community-created players and courts from the first game at launch is unprecedented. The comprehensive editing suite (the “Academy”) allows creation of players, venues, uniforms, and logos, truly making it a game “designed for and by its community” (Steam store page).
* Flaws: The serve is universally acknowledged as overpowered. As Jason Fernandes at Last Word on Tennis detailed, “if you learn how to serve well… you’ll often find yourself hitting an unrealistic amount of aces.” This breaks the strategic balance of matches, making breaks of serve “like finding gold dust.” Animation glitches also persist, with AI players sometimes hitting balls from impossible positions (IGN, 4Players).

World-Building, Art & Sound: A Venue of Two Halves

• Visuals & Atmosphere: The game’s visual identity is starkly divided. The Rod Laver Arena is praised as “iconic,” “authentic,” and one of the best-looking elements (Last Word on Tennis, IGN). This is the payoff of the official Australian Open license and close work with Tennis Australia. However, generic venues and, more damningly, player models are widely panned. Jeuxvideo.com called the realization “complètement datée” (completely dated). PC Games noted “Starspieler spielen nicht wie ihre realen Pendants” (Star players don’t play like their real-life counterparts). While community creations fill the roster gap with players like Federer and Murray, their models are often noted as looking “off” (Last Word on Tennis). Animations are a mixed bag: signature strokes like Nadal’s loopy forehand are accurate, but generic backhands and other movements can devolve into “ping pong like” animations (Last Word on Tennis). Clothing clipping (ponytails through skirts, as GameStar quipped) and stiff crowd sounds further hurt the presentation.
• Sound Design: This is a consistent weak point. TheSixthAxis criticized “weird crowd sounds.” Jeuxvideo.com placed the sound design alongside “menus très austères” (very austere menus) as a key failing. The lack of in-game commentators, noted by IGN, is a significant omission for a sports sim, leaving a silent, sometimes awkward, atmosphere during matches.
• Contribution to Experience: The authentic Australian Open venue creates a sense of place for the licensed tournament. However, the overall package feels like a collection of brilliant, community-made assets glued together with a dated, unpolished engine. The atmosphere is built more by the player’s imagination (downloading Wimbledon) than by the game’s inherent audiovisual direction.

Reception & Legacy: A Cult Success with Mainstream Limits

Critical Reception: AO Tennis 2 received “mixed or average” reviews (Metacritic scores: PC 65, PS4 69, Xbox One 69, Switch 64). The range was extreme: GameStar (77%) called it one of the best tennis sims, while Nintendo Life (50%) and Mygamer.com (40%) dismissed it. The critical consensus, synthesized from IGN, TheSixthAxis, and Game Informer, is that it is a massive improvement over its predecessor and the best pure tennis simulation available in the 2020s, but its flaws are too substantial to crown it a classic. It is “easily the best tennis game of this generation” (TheSixthAxis) yet “still not as complete as other sports titles” (Forbes).
Commercial & User Reception: Steam user reviews are “Mostly Positive” (70% of 1,200 reviews), suggesting a more forgiving audience than critics, likely composed of dedicated tennis fans who value the simulation depth and creation tools over polish. MobyGames shows a lower user score (2.9/5), but the sample is tiny.
Legacy & Influence: AO Tennis 2 has two primary legacies:
1. The Power of Community: It validated Big Ant’s “by the community” model. With over 20,000 user-created players available at launch (Thumbsticks), it functionally solves its own licensing shortcomings. This symbiotic relationship—where the game provides tools and the community provides content—is its most innovative and successful feature, influencing how niche sports sims can sustain themselves.
2. The Indie Sports Sim Benchmark: It stands as the definitive case study of a small studio desperately trying to fill a genre void. Its successes (core gameplay feel, career progression, creation suite) and failures (assisted movement, animations, presentation) set a clear, if imperfect, template. It directly highlights what is missing from the genre: the polish, resources, and perhaps the will of major publishers to invest in a niche market. Every future tennis game will be measured against AO Tennis 2‘s ambitious, flawed standard. As Last Word on Tennis concluded, it is “without a doubt the best console tennis game since 2011’s Top Spin 4,” a title it may hold until a major publisher decides to re-enter the fray.

Conclusion: A Match Point Saved, But Not Yet an Ace

AO Tennis 2 is a profound paradox. It is simultaneously the best pure tennis simulation on the market and a game whose fundamental control scheme can make you feel like a spectator in your own match. It offers a deeply personal, community-driven career mode while presenting a narrative with all the gravitas of a press conference written by an intern. It captures the majesty of the Australian Open with painstaking detail, yet its player animations can break the immersion in an instant.

Its place in video game history is secure, but it is a niche one. It is the keeper of the flame for a dormant genre, the proof of concept that a dedicated tennis sim can exist in the 2020s. For the hardcore tennis fan willing to wrestle with its idiosyncrasies, download community rosters, and tweak settings, AO Tennis 2 offers an unrivaled depth of strategic play and a career mode that can be endlessly tailored. For the casual Sports fan expecting the sheen of EA Sports FC or NBA 2K, it will feel like a rough draft.

Big Ant Studios took the feedback from a faltering first serve and constructed a formidable second. They built a game whose greatest strength is its malleability, its ability to be shaped by its community. Yet, the core technical experience—the moment-to-moment feel of hitting a backhand down the line—remains mired in automated frustration. AO Tennis 2 does not definitively end the drought for tennis games; it merely proves that a dedicated, passionate player base will cultivate a garden in the wasteland. It is a game of immense potential and palpable frustration, a passionate love letter to the sport that sometimes forgets what makes the sport so thrilling in the first place: the feeling of complete, unassisted control over your own destiny on the court. In that sense, its final verdict is a forehand into the net: a valiant effort, a point won, but the set is far from over.