I’m generally not into sports games, but after a day of playing it, Tennis Clash gave a heck of a solid first impression. It took me back to the times when I poured hours and hours into Everybody’s Tennis on PlayStation 2. I see the same appeal here.

When starting off, the controls may initially feel weird, but they quickly grow to become intuitive: you swipe to smack the ball in a certain direction. Swift strokes send the ball flying fast and low, while long-held swipes lob the ball high in the air. The length of the swipe itself will determine how far or near the ball travels.

The game retains a tie-breaker, but the overall scoring was simplified to (possibly) cater to the wider non-tennis audience. Each time you score, you get 1 point, racking up to 2, 3, 4 and so on. That’s a contrast to how traditional tennis scoring works — 0, 15, 30 and finally 40.

Since there are no sets, you only play one match per opponent, which on winning earns you both loot drops and currency. And being a multiplayer-only game, you can only play matches if you buy in. Each tier has a pricing point; the higher the tier you compete in, the bigger the buy-in (and the reward) is going to be.

Currency is split into coins and gems; although the most valuable, the latter is not terribly difficult to attain. And as is in the nature of free-to-play games, gacha has a strong presence. Free bags, free coins, lucky draws, special events — all serve to offer you new opportunities to earn more currency, and upgrade your characters or attributes.

The character roster is both aesthetically and functionally diverse. Each character offers a different “ultimate” power, with different attributes.

I unlocked Hope through the lootbox, and how I performed before and after changing characters were quite noticeable. But if you want more characters, you must progress through higher tiers, and earn them through drops.

The game’s quality surpasses that of the average sports game, let alone mobile. The stylised visuals and the simple UI borrow heavily from games like Overwatch, but do jump out among the waves of forgettable mobile games.

All that being said, the Free Draw gacha feels deceptive. It’s near impossible to randomly draw 25 rewards in a row without drawing a broken racket a few times. And when you do, you must pay 50 to 200+ gems to retain your progress.

If you give up, you lose all the items you drew so far. This is terribly unfair, and needs a rethink. It’s also unfortunate the game doesn’t have single-player, save for a limited practice mode.

VERDICT: Tennis Clash is a rare breed of sports games that offers long-term fun in an intuitive, pocket-sized fashion. I rate it a fair eight out of 10.