ACE – Tennis is Life

Yesterday Monte Carlo, today a sausage stand.

Victoria von Arndt is young, rich and on her way to the top. Champagne for breakfast, a butler called Ambrose, a convertible outside the villa on the Riviera. Then the doorbell rings: tax investigators. Her father is arrested, the accounts are frozen, the villa goes under the hammer. Victoria ends up in Germany's old coal country, the Ruhr, with a suitcase, a racket and nowhere to stay. All she has left is the one thing nobody can take away: her tennis.

Arcade tennis that feels right

Topspin, slice, lob and smash, plus diving saves for balls that should already be gone. You time the shot, Victoria runs to the ball. On serve, it is all about hitting the top of the toss. A commentator follows every rally, and the crowd jumps up when a winner lands.

Moneyshot and Broke Mountain

Good rallies fill your special meter. In act one Victoria unleashes the Moneyshot, a shot as expensive as her racket. After the crash it becomes Broke Mountain: broke, but with the force of a blast furnace.

36 tournaments, no two courts alike

Pick your next tournament on the world map: twelve majors from Monte Carlo to New York, twelve small-town tournaments in the Ruhr and twelve completely crazy venues. Play on clay, grass, hard courts, red ash and even cobblestones.

• A cruise ship with swell and headwind
  
• Bielefeld in thick fog, where the ball shows up late
  
• Zermatt, where the thin air sends every ball further
  
• A motorway services with potholes and parked trucks
  
• A funfair with a Ferris wheel, a farmers' market, a tiny North Sea island, Lapland and many more

20 venues have their own rules, from wind and heat to ice or a low hall ceiling.

Training you won't forget

Twelve training games make Victoria better and keep things fun: tennis bowling with giant pins, knocking down a champagne tower, target hunt, net blitz, lob baskets and kiosk delivery. After the crash the champagne tower turns into a pile of dented cans on a beer crate. Many tournaments also come with their own warm-up challenge.

A fully voiced comic story

The story unfolds in 28 hand-drawn motion comics across three acts, fully voiced in English and German. Meet Kim from the sausage stand, a big-hearted landlady with a plate of currywurst, the kids from the local tennis club and a tax raid with a surprising number of cardboard boxes.

Choices that matter

Dance until dawn at the yacht party, or in bed by ten? Coach the club kids on Saturdays, or "I'm a pro, not a nanny"? 20 events ask for your decision, and the game remembers. The shop sells carbon rackets and tailored suits, but after the crash the tax office takes 85 % of your prize money and anything else worth taking.

Doubles with Kim

In act three Victoria and Kim play every tournament as a doubles team. Their shared prize money goes into the kiosk, which grows step by step from a tiny corner stand into the biggest kiosk in the world. Until a corporation turns up wanting to buy the lot.

In development

• More opponents as their own 3D characters
  
• More life on the courts, such as a turning Ferris wheel, carousels and moving boats
  
• Polish for animation, controls and balance

ACE – Tennis is Life is in development. Everything you see is in-game footage from the current build and may change before release.