Yesterday OperationSports was lucky enough to listen in on a conference call led by some of the developers working on SEGA Superstars Tennis. In on the call were Producer Steve Lycett and Lead Designer Travis Ryan from Sheffield, UK-based Sumo Digital. Sumo Digital development studio has worked on a wide array of games, more pertinently, the studio has developed a few recent tennis videogames: the 360 and PSP versions of Virtua Tennis 3 and Virtua Tennis World Tour for the PSP.

With this tennis game though, Sumo Digital is taking a bit of a different approach; they've veered a little more towards the casual gamer while developing SEGA Superstars Tennis and have thus tried to make the game more accessible for all gamers. They are not only trying to bring in a wider audience via gameplay design, but also by incorporating characters from other classic SEGA franchises such as the Sonic series, NiGHTS and Super Monkey Ball.

Of course the fact that Sumo did produce the latest Virtua Tennis game made answering a question dealing with how much VT there will be in SST a must. And Travis Ryan was sure to point out that while there would be some basic gameplay elements taken from VT, there would some simplification in SST to "make it more appealing to the users."

But that doesn't mean it's just a stripped down version of Virtua Tennis. Both Steve and Travis made mention of how each player in VT seemingly played the same style with similar A.I. However, with the 16 different playable characters in SST, each one will have a certain style that gives it an advantage in specific areas such as spin, power and speed. Also each character will come with its own custom moves. For example Sonic will be a speed player while the Monkey Ball characters will be trickier and will use a multifarious amount of spin shots.

To further immerse gamers into the "world of these SEGA characters," certain players will have their own custom courts replicated after a level or area from their games. Sonic was cited again as his "home" court is a 3-D recreation of the Green Hill Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Also included are custom music tracks from various classic titles, which hopefully bring people back to the good ol' days of SEGA gaming.

While there are 16 classic SEGA characters to choose from in this game, there were some characters that didn't quite make it in. For example Ryo from Shenmue was left out because he didn't fit in with the game due to being "quite a humanoid character." Steve Lycett and Travis Ryan also said timing was an issue since the more characters they added, the more customizing they had to do for each addition -- creating a ton of work. They did leave the door open for more characters being in any potential future releases.

SEGA Superstars Tennis is also the first Wii title produced by Sumo Studios, so Steve Lycett spent some time going over the controls. He said there would be 3 different control set-ups for the game, the first being nearly identical to Wii Sports tennis where you move the controller as if you are swinging the racket while the on-screen character moves to the ball automatically (though you can control the character if you want). The second option is a bit more complex since it involves the Nunchuk. You walk or run the SEGA character around the court using the Nunchuk, then use the Wii Remote to control your shot. The final option is the most traditional way to play as you simply hold your Wii remote horizontally (or use a Wii Classic Controller) and use the D-pad and buttons to control the hot tennis action.

SEGA Superstars Tennis will also include 8 mini-games geared around certain characters and titles -- they were really proud of the House of the Dead mini-game. All the mini-games are full single-player experiences that can also be played with up to four players. Unfortunately the mini-games are the only multiplayer aspects found in the Wii, DS and PS2 versions of the game as all three versions will lack the online capabilities that the PS3 and 360 versions have. They stated there was no online involved for the Wii version due to a lack of resources and because the console is really based around people playing together with friends and family; thus, they focused more on making the Wii version accessible to people of all ages and abilities rather than implement and online mode.

While on the subject of platforms, one thing to note is that SST will not be available for the PSP.

As the call wrapped up, the developers were mum on the possibility of downloadable content for the PS3 and 360 versions of the game. Lycett mentioned the game was all setup to receive DLC, but nothing was certain and it really depended on the success of the title.

Obviously SEGA Superstars Tennis will appeal to fans of past SEGA titles and franchises; yet, questions still remain about this nostalgia infused tennis title. How will it sell and play on consoles other than the Wii? Will the game be as big of a draw on a Nintendo console without the famous plumber running the baseline? If Sumo Digital is able to find a good mix of solid tennis gameplay and an enjoyable atmosphere based on classic SEGA characters then at least the first of those questions will be answered. How it sells is anyone's guess, but the game very well could be a surprise hit when it hits stores March 18th for the 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, and DS.

Also stay tuned in the coming weeks as OS will be sure to tell you all about the finished retail product.