Tennis Club Story

A charming sports-themed Kairosoft title, initially released in 2016 on mobile. If you are familiar with Pocket League Story - it's basically the tennis version of that, with some improved mechanics.
You run a tennis club and recruit players. You then go on playing various matches of increased caliber. The matches are played by the AI, and your influence comes from the stats, equipped items, and strategy used. I always found it fun watching my little guys run around and doing their thing. You will need to hire several players since some matches and tournaments are locked to only kids, seniors, or woman.
The difficulty is fairly low, as is the case with pretty much all kairosoft titles. It's a perfect game if you are in the mood for a casual, light sim/management experience. It also features replayability, as NG+ will carry over some things from your previous playthrough.

This review is based off of playing on a Steam Deck.
Introduction
Tennis Club Story is a charming sports-themed management game, initially released in 2016 on iOS and Android platforms. It offers a unique and engaging experience that combines various elements of management sim and sports, resulting in an enjoyable gameplay loop that will keep you hooked and entertained for hours. It features captivating retro-inspired visuals, well-made pixel art, and an upbeat and catchy chiptune-style soundtrack, creating an immersive and nostalgic gaming experience.
Story
Take on the role of a club manager, with the goal of building and leading a team of elite tennis players to victory. Strategize and make crucial decisions on everything from recruiting and training players, managing finances, and competing in tournaments to defeat rival clubs with the ultimate goal of becoming the Tennis champion. As with most of Kairosoft's games, the story does not play a central role but instead serves as an overarching setting that establishes the context for the gameplay.
Gameplay Analysis
In Tennis Club Story, grow the club and become the top-ranked Tennis team. To accomplish this, effectively manage and train existing players, actively recruit new talent, and participate in tournaments and events to gain recognition and prestige. The gameplay revolves around strategic decision-making, resource management, and balancing the team's equipment and stats.
Create a character and decide your specialty while assigning specific attributes, then compete in singles. As you gain experience and improve your skills, recruit other players to join you in doubles and team format matches for even more challenging and exciting competition. As your club grows in popularity, you will have the opportunity to upgrade and expand your club's facilities, equipment, and overall land size, attracting more sponsors and members.
To maximize your success, effectively manage your resources and keep your members happy by providing them with the training and support they need to be content. As a reward for your dedication, satisfied members occasionally offer additional rewards or request specialized training that can yield even more items.
While I found watching the CPU VS CPU tennis matches engaging, some players may not share that sentiment, especially at end-game content, as that is when it becomes a tad bit grindy. But I enjoyed it nonetheless because of the resource management and training aspects outside of the matches, which made each victory feel satisfying and the training impactful, especially after overcoming a challenging game. Additionally, it is just soothing watching the AI duke it out for you and mildly amusing.
Additional Content
Tennis Club Story offers a significant replay value to players, provided that the grind does not become overly tedious for you. Once 16 years of in-game time have passed, you will be awarded a high score and given the option to continue in a sandbox-style mode or replay the campaign with your previously created characters and attributes.
Visuals
It features a charming pixel art style that is visually appealing, with vibrant colors that bring the environments and characters to life. The retro style perfectly adds a touch of nostalgia to the game without making it look dated. While the simplicity of the design does lend to its charm, it can also make some elements feel a tad monotonous. For example, the facilities in the club never change appearance despite multiple upgrades, which ultimately limits the visual appeal and diversity of the club. That is not to diminish the wonderfully designed facilities and overall main hub.
The character designs are charmingly precious, with recognizable traits and chibi-like features, they are minimalistic, with basic movements and expressions, but they perfectly fit the game's retro aesthetic. I do, however, wish that during Tennis matches, the crowd featured more dynamic animations to enhance engagement and immersion, such as animating the audience to add an extra layer of liveliness rather than having them simply as static figures watching.
The courts for the various Tennis matches are a delight to behold, as they always offer a degree of variety, whether it be in terms of creative design or visual differences. The matches themselves are also visually engaging, with colorful effects when the ball is hit and cute animations of your team running around playing.
Audio
The Soundtrack features an upbeat chiptune style that adds to the retro-inspired atmosphere, providing a fitting background for the gameplay. Though it may not be anything extraordinary, it does an adequate job of enhancing the experience and remains pleasant to listen to, despite its repetitive nature. Additionally, the sound effects, such as the sound of a Tennis racket hitting the ball or the crowd cheering during a match, are sufficient and do their job well in immersing you in the experience.
Steam Deck Specifics
Tennis Club Story is capped at 20 FPS, and while this affects the performance, it does not detract from the overall gameplay experience because of the retro-aesthetic and overall gameplay style. At 800p and default settings, it allows for ~6.5 hours of continuous playing and drawing ~5.9W while sitting at ~50C degrees. The default configuration is sufficient for optimal battery performance without the need for further adjustments, especially since the game's framerate is capped and cannot be increased. While you can experiment with other settings to potentially extend battery life, it is not necessary for a lovely experience. It does have Steam Cloud Saves, meaning you can easily swap between the Deck and pc. Altogether though, a delightful game to play on the Deck, with plenty of options for playing, be it with the touchscreen or traditional controls.
Final Thoughts - Very Good
Tennis Club Story is a compelling blend of sports and management sims that offers an immersive and nostalgic experience enhanced by exquisite pixel art and a chiptune soundtrack. The thrill of climbing the ranks and expanding the club, coupled with the satisfaction of strategizing and managing resources between games, makes for an enjoyable experience that will keep you hooked for hours, with only the late-game content feeling a tad too grindy.
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This might be the best tennis game on steam, from what I could find. Finally a half decent tennis RPG game where you can level up different stats and buy new gear/equipment to make your character better. I'm not much of a sim player but it was easy and relaxing enough to blindly go through the game without much trouble.
100% achievements took roughly 25 hours, no missable (all progression based). NG+ not necessary but I think it would make it easier when trying to grab the last few.

One of my favorite Kairosoft games.
The tennis part is done well and it's fun to figure out.

Definitely too grindy vs other Kairosoft games I enjoy,but much less so than Kairosoft games I dislike.
Not much to say other then that it barely passes my recommendation criteria.

Kairosoft is a software developer that is based in Shinjuku, Tokyo and they create PC and mobile phone games utilizing pixel art. It began with a guy named Usui Kazuyuki who would use the pen name "Oyama Kairo".
And he would create games in college and when companies asked him to develop games for the Nintendo DS, he would end up creating Kairosoft in 2007 and would create apps for a membersite, Kairo Park.
And this company would grow to nearly two dozen staff and focus on new apps for Android and iOS, as well as for the PC and consoles. And these popular games continue since 2008 to the present.
If anything, Usui and his company garnered a lot of followers because he created these fun, management driven type of games with many themes that would attract fans of the games all over the world.
It began in 2008 with "Game Dev Story" and over 45 games later, in October 2015, the company released "Tennis Club Story".
The game starts off with you and a partner founding their own Tennis club. Starting from scratch and taking part in small events to make money, training your players and eventually taking on opponents in the community and later to major events, while growing your tennis club to add convenience stores, department stores, indoor gyms, swimming pools, hot springs, etc.
And also attracting to sponsors and if you use their products, they develop better ones for you to assist with you and your star tennis players.
For the most part, "Tennis Club Story" is addicting. And while you don't play the tennis game per see, you are in control of your players development and also selecting tactics ala strategies during gameplay.
And development of the players is important, so you can take on other tennis players from their own club and earn more money, management points, sponsor items and practice points.
But also knowing that to make money, you need to spend money and some of these structures are expensive and also player clothing can get expensive (especially if you grow your tennis crew as it will be important to develop a team of guys, ladies, seniors, kids who can play the game) and development to play solo or doubles.
It's a very addictive game like other Kairosoft games.
With that being said, it does become a bit grindy (like an RPG Tactics game) especially once you start adding more players, you're going to have to develop each one and also teach them how to coach and that means, making more money, earning more management points and practice points.
I do have to say that I love the nod to Seishun Gakuen (for those familiar with the manga/anime "Tennis no Ojisama"/Prince of Tennis), as one of the better clothing gear are the Seishun Gakuen style of tennis gear.
But I am enjoying this game and slowly trying to get everyone up to level 20...that is a grindfest on its own. But I am enjoying this game a lot.
And while it's one of their older games from 2015, one thing about Kairosoft games is they still look fresh and new because it's pixel-based.
"Tennis Club Story" is a game that will entice those who love tennis done Kairosoft style and are into management-based games.
Recommended!

baul...