I normally do a decent enough job separating my obsession with sports from my work here; but this week, the temptation was simply too strong. In addition to playoff basketball and hockey, we’re in the midst of the French Open and on the verge of the World Cup, and this week’s top free iPhone apps list conveniently includes apps to follow the last two of those events.
Touch Tennis: FS5 (Free) earlier this month, as I thought it’d be nice to mention it along with the French Open app I talked about in this article. The problem is, though, that Touch Tennis is really an updated version of Pong that bears little resemblance to anything that will happen over the next few weeks at Roland-Garros. The app does make an effort at being a tennis game, with racket sounds and gameplay that takes place on a court. You can also adjust the size of your racket and tap it when returning a ball to put a little something extra on your shot. The game also has a two-player mode that works via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or by playing on the same device. The paid version (99 cents) simply takes away the ads, so when you take into account the timelessness of a game like Pong, this isn’t at all a bad game. But calling it a tennis game is a mistake.
