(See the trailer in better high-res here.)
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Sega make the best FMV trailers for games out there. I swear more often or not the cut scenes are the best things in their games now a days, just look at the intros to Sonic Next-Gen, NiGHTS Journey of Dreams, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Even if the games themselves aren't their best (especially in the case of Sonic next-gen, which turned out to be a complete pile of rubbish) but you gotta admit they have clearly hired a brilliant animation studio to do this stuff. Now they've put out a trailer for Sega Superstars Tennis, and inside I cried with joy watching it.
This game has so much going for it it is really difficult to see how it could possible NOT rock my socks off. Check out this info from Eurogamer:* Playable characters include Beat and Gum from Jet Set Radio, Ulala and Pudding from Space Channel 5, and Alex Kidd. Yes, that's what I said. ALEX KIDD.
* Stages include Green Hill, Scrap Brain, the House of the Dead mansion, and Coconut Beach from OutRun!
* Mini-games based on House of the Dead, Puyo Pop, Space Harrier and Virtua Cop!
* Based directly on the Virtua Tennis 3 engine, and developed by Sumo Digital who have been pretty much the best to happen to Sega for years with their console ports of Outrun 2 and Virtua Tennis 3.* Unlike those games, this game is going to be on almost every console out there: X-Box 360, PS2, PS3, Wii and even DS! Oddly enough there's no PSP or PC versions, though.
* Legendary Sega musician Richard Jacques has composed the theme music. The game will also feature tons of classic Sega music.
This game is truly Sega giving all us long time fans a great big hug. After all the changes they have gone through in the years since they quit the console market, this shows they haven't forgotten about their roots and what made them so great in the first place. It's coming out in the UK this march, so it's not even that far away! If you're a Sega fan I can't really see there being any excuses not to buy this, seeing as it's on nearly everything and has fan service up the wazoo!