Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

You know whether A Game of Tennis is for you almost immediately. It asks for the pure Pong skill set: track the ball, position the paddle, make the return, and find a way past the other paddle. There is no long runway before the match starts; the tension comes from seeing whether your reactions hold up when the ball comes back again.

That stripped-back setup is its strength and its limitation. A close exchange can be wonderfully stubborn, because every missed return feels like it was there for you to stop. But there is nowhere to hide if the basic paddle-and-ball duel does not grab you. The game lives or dies on how much you enjoy repeating that central contest.

Local multiplayer is the clearest reason to play. Sitting down with another person turns a familiar arcade exercise into a quick competitive ritual, full of tiny momentum swings and immediate rematches. Online multiplayer extends that option beyond the room, while the online scoreboards give score-chasers a concrete reason to keep refining their results.

Graphics

The top-down view keeps the important pieces in front of you: your paddle, the opposing paddle, and the ball. It is a clean fit for a game where following the ball matters more than anything else.

Story

A Game of Tennis does not need a dramatic hook to create pressure. Its stakes are as direct as a point on the line: get the ball past the opponent before they do the same to you.

That makes each match its own tiny competitive story. A rally builds anticipation simply because both sides are trying to force the same mistake, and a point lands with the blunt finality that Pong has always done well.

If you want characters, plot turns, or a larger campaign to carry you forward, this is not that kind of experience. The only arc that matters is the score changing over the course of a match, which suits the game’s old-school focus.

Overall Experience

A Game of Tennis is a modest but sensible update to a classic idea. The central play is still unmistakably Pong, and that is the point: you are getting an instantly understood duel rather than a reworked sports simulation.

The multiplayer options do meaningful work here. Local play makes it easy to turn a few spare minutes into a contest, and online play plus scoreboards add some staying power for anyone who wants competition after the people in the room have moved on.

Give it a chance if you want a simple, reaction-driven head-to-head game and appreciate arcade rules that need no explanation. Skip it if you need variety beyond paddle control and scoring points; the payoff is the purity of the rally, not a broader tennis package.

Retro Replay Score

5.5/10