Despite some minor frustrations with the jump between difficulty levels, and the apparent obsolete nature of injuries within games, AO Tennis 2 is a game that will keep tennis fans happy – not only during the Australian Open, but during the whole tennis season.

AO Tennis 2 is a solid and comprehensive simulation. The lackluster role playing elements prevent a higher rating, though.

Overall, AO Tennis 2 plays and runs really well - this being one of the few tennis games on PC that does - it's just a bit of a shame that it falls flat in a few ways. The missing major players are a downfall: not having Serena Williams or Novak Djokovic is a bit odd in a game that's all about the Australian Open but tennis is probably a licensing nightmare. Play ending with one bounce is also quite a bummer, but I'm sure that's something that will be fixed if people have even noticed that. I also tired to play multiplayer at the time of review and the game would crash and close itself so it still needs to be patched a few times. The single player career experience is where it's at though. AO Tennis 2's solo campaign is a thoroughly enjoyable time and it's here where I would say that is scores an ace.

Not everyone will find AO Tennis 2 fun since it asks the player to adapt to its peculiar gameplay, and even after a dozen hours of practice and playing, you’ll keep missing the court because of its whimsical guides. But if you look past those frustrations, you can have a good experience, especially playing with friends.

While AO Tennis 2 improves upon many features from its predecessor, but the unbalanced challenge and short tutorials make the game quite inaccessible. The mechanic of good and evil seems like a unique idea, but its implementation is superficial at best.

AO Tennis 2 is a blatant rehash of AO International Tennis, posing as a false new game. It improves bits of gameplay and career by a really small margin, but still prevails in its weird and unrealistic gameplay that is neither arcadey nor simulation-based. It never tries to rise above it and just presents basic and lazy short-term tennis experience.

It's hard to fault a game with so much love put into it, but AO Tennis 2 constantly feels like its missing something. A little extra oomph that would bring people back. Mario Tennis Aces has the cast of characters, the charm, and special moves. Wii Sports' Tennis had the motion, the so-easy-your-grandma-could-do-it gameplay. AO Tennis 2 is just tennis, made like a simulation complete with a headache inducing soft-rock soundtrack. Stripped of all its charm, the game doesn't offer anything except to the average Australian Open attendee. To everyone else... you might as well play Pong.