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You've seen the Pro. Now let's go for a tour and play a game
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As I've mentioned before in my Asterox 99 Pro review, Yonex is launching four models of the Asterox 99 at four different price points
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So we start with the Asterox 99 Pro, which is the top of the range, made in Japan, badminton racket, which is currently headlined
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by Kento Momota as well as Lee ZJ of Malaysia at the Sudaman Cup
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It is then followed by three other models, the Asterix 99 Tour and Game, which is made in Taiwan
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and finally the Asterix 99 Play Racket, which is designated as the entry-level Asterix 99 model
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and it's made in China. So if you've not seen my Asterix 99 Pro review, click on here to go and
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check it out and come back for this 99 Tour Game and Play Racket review. So similarly with the 99
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Pro, the Tour Game and Play Rackets also come in two color schemes, both in White Tiger and Cherry
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sunburst, although I am not sure if every single country Yonex is serving will have every single
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model or colour. So for example, you can see the pro and the game version on Yonex Japan's website
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whereas Yonex UK's website will have all four models, but the tour, game and play rackets will
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only come in cherry sunburst. In any case, I'll be showing you all eight rackets here
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four models in two colours each, so stay tuned all the way. Additionally, all the demo sample
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rackets I have here are in 4U G5 spec, so I'm very happy that I'll be able to get a consistent and
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reliable test for comparison here. So thank you to Yonex UK for lending me these rackets for the
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review here, much appreciated. So to set the scene before I go into the nitty gritty bits of each
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racket, I want to talk a bit about the price points that these rackets are representing
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I can see the retail prices from the UK site here, so we'll be using that as a reference
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So each country will be slightly different with taxes and pricing structure, but they should be
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comparable. So in the UK, the Pro will be retailing at £195, the Tour at £150, whereas the Game and
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Play would be at £105 and £60 respectively. So in essence, the Tour is almost 25% cheaper than the
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Pro, the Game is almost half price compared to the Pro, and the Play model is less than a third of
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the price of the Pro. So the key comparison for this would be the different price points and the
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performance amongst the models here and how each of them will work for everyone. So I believe the
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goal from Yonex here is to develop something with a similar design philosophy for a specific series
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and then make it at multiple different price points to suit the customer base. This philosophy
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is well demonstrated across many industries all around the world. Like Apple for example
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the iPhones. You have the top of the line pro model iPhones with the max pro and then the regular
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Pro, and then you have the regular iPhones and the mini iPhones. So again, four different price
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points, I can see a trend going on here. So from what I can see and measure, the Tour and the Pro
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share an identical design, at least on the outside and on the mold. But the difference being, the Tour
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is made in Taiwan with slightly less exotic materials such as having a Rexis shaft and NAMD not being fully used on the entire frame The game on the other hand goes one step down on the design ladder to
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reduce production complexity, hence a reduction in production cost, as well as even using even less
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exotic materials, for example with NanoMesh Neo. The player model then followed what the tour did
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with the Pro and have the same design as the game, but this time is made in China and again
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using slightly more affordable materials. So how did I come up with these two design explanations
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It's from the spreadsheet that I've made from all the measurements I do on each racket that I've
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tested on this channel. You can see the Pro and the Tour racket shares almost every single measurement
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on them with very minor differences, with a longer shaft and a slightly shorter wooden handle on the
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Tour compared to the Pro. But the frame height, width and thickness were identical, so even the
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shaft diameter were almost identical from the Pro and the Tour. So pretty amazing production quality
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for a supposedly mid-high-end racket. We then look at the game and play racket's measurements
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and for a second you can again see this trend of both rackets sharing almost every single
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measurements except they were made in different countries. They do however defer from the Pro and
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Tour model by having a bigger frame, but with only a half recess frame profile instead of a full one
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found on the Pro and Tour. Surprisingly, they do have an ever so slightly thinner frame compared to
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the two more expensive models here. So visually, besides the Tour, Game and Play decals on the
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rackets, the only other difference are the control support caps. The Tour has the same cap as the
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Pro, whilst the Game had the previous generation's Asterix 99 support cap, and the Play ended up with
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a super basic, no design support cap. Another difference would be the holographic sticker
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as well as the rackets' weight and grip size sticker. The Taiwan-made Tour and Game rackets
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had an oval Yonex holographic sticker and laser etched racket weight and grip size
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while the China-made Play had stickers on both. Long story short, I'm very impressed with the production quality of all these rackets
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and it's not my first time seeing Yonex's made-in-Taiwan rackets, but from my experience of seeing previous tour and game models from the 100, 88S and 88D series
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Yonex has set a really high standard for production and performance of these rackets here
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One surprise from the bunch was certainly the Made in China's Play model. Now, I'll be honest and say I don't necessarily come across plenty of Yonex's Made in China rackets
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as Yonex traditionally priced the rackets based on the country of production
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Japan for the top-tier rackets, Taiwan for the mid-to-low range, and China for the really low-end entry-level rackets
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And what I mean by low-end entry-level rackets are the recreational models that come, for example
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four in a pack for use in a back garden barbecue or at the beach at a super affordable price
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They generally are steel frame rackets, which will take a lot of abuse, but won't do very well if you're thinking about performance and feel
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And from experience of stringing some of these rackets, these frames don't do very well at tensions above 20 pounds
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So when I see the Play model being a made model there the thought of the previous experiences of Yonex made models and I have a slight reservation of oh my god is this going to be okay So as the rackets came
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factory strung with pretty rubbish strings and really low tensions, I decided to restring the
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Cherry Sunburst models completely with my usual playing string and tensions. So AeroBite at 26
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by 28 pounds in tension. So every single racket in the Astrox 99 range is rated up to 28 pounds
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and tension for the 4U models and would be £29 for the 3U models. They all have the same stringing
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pattern as well as having the four rows of bigger grommets in the 3 and 9 o'clock region of the
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racket. So from my experience of stringing them, they also share the wider gaps in the mains around
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the central area of the rackets too. So stringing wise, the Pro is extremely solid and very good
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frame to string. The Tour and Game also had no issues with stringing as well. But when it came
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to string in the play racket, I again had that, oh my god, is this going to be okay? Will it survive
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Ultimately, I decided to go with it and stick to my planned string intention of 26 by 28 pounds
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as this is a real world review, right? If it didn't hold up when it was rated for it
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then we need to know. So when I was stringing the play racket, I could certainly see the frame
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flexing the most out of the four, but this is certainly to be expected, as certainly less
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exotic materials were used to make this racket, but ultimately it came out perfectly fine. So I
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was very relieved but impressed at the same time, as in the thousands of rackets that I've done
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I've never done a made-in-China Yonex racket at 26 by 28 pounds in tension. So remember to hit the
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subscribe and like button whilst you're here and leave your thoughts down in the comments section
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below too. So when it came to testing, I started out with my usual 88D Pro just to refresh my
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baseline feel before heading to the 99 Pro and going down to the tour then game and ending with
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the play for each test section. And you all know my summary for the 99 Pro was a big sweet spot
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pretty fast, super head heavy sledgehammer, physically demanding to use and fast flat shots
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will certainly be tiring very quickly if you're not crazy strong. However there was plenty of power
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and stability on tap for the racket especially at the rear court but also pretty much everywhere
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else too. So when I moved from the Pro to the Tour, the difference was significant. The Tour
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was significantly lighter in the head. So George, who was my training partner here in this video
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also tried the Pro than the Tour and both came out with the same conclusion. The Tour is also
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faster compared to the Pro, especially around the mid-court area, and that will come from the
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headweight difference. However, it certainly did not feel as smooth as the Pro, but only ever so
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slightly. The difference in head weight was so apparent that for a moment I thought the tour
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racket did not have a power assist bumper, but it did. So imagine the racket without it. So another
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thing that stood out for me was the difference in feeling compared to the pro model. So the tour
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racket feels more hollow compared to the pro model and this has been a consistent thing for the made
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in Taiwan models. So I guess this might be from a specific material or even a production technique
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which is different to Japanese made models I believe the Japanese made rackets have something called a solid core hitting feel which perhaps is different from the Taiwanese made rackets So moving on to the game So the game is a touch lighter than the
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Tour and doesn't even feel head heavy at all compared to the Pro at this point
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But even with the head lightness it isn't any faster than the Tour model
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Also note I said in my 99 Pro review that the Pro has a new head shape for a
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bigger sweet spot. So the Tour has the same Pro head shape but not the game and the play. So this
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coupled with the traditional head shape for an Astrox with a half recess frame profile is the
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reason why the game isn't any faster than the Tour. It also shares the slightly hollow feeling that the
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Tour has but still plays amazingly well. So everything is fast in the mid-court area but
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certainly lack top-end power in the rear court. Stability at the same time isn't as solid as the
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pro but not too bad nonetheless. So it's a very happy racket to play with. So we now come to the
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bottom of the bunch, the play. And as soon as I started to play with it, I immediately told George
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that this one is my favourite out of the three. I was already impressed it held fine from the
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stringing and after a few hits the more familiar solid feeling that comes with the Japanese rackets
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are now back. It's not 100% the same but certainly close. Yes the play was a touch slower than the
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Tour and Game, but I thought it actually felt like it had more weight in the head than the other two
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The play also felt a touch stiffer compared to the Tour and Game models at the same time. So don't
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get me wrong, the Tour and Game rackets were very nice rackets to play with, but this play, I just
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cannot believe how nice it is to play with. It is super smooth and amazingly well built for an entry
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level racket that is less than a third from the Pro's price. The performance is certainly not one
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third of the pro model I can tell that much the performance difference from the play with the three
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other models were almost minimal compared to how wide the pricing gaps are I just kept going back
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and forth from the play to the other rackets and I just cannot believe how well built it was for its
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price it certainly made a big impression with me I can't wait to do a test like this with someone
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like Chris Sackle again when the rackets are all strung properly and I'd like to hear what he has
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say about the value of these rackets compared to how they played. One teeny tiny imperfection from
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the play was the racket weight and grip size sticker on the Cherry Sun Bruce wasn't stuck
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on properly, but this wasn't present on the White Tiger model, so this is just a one-off and something
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that is aesthetic and doesn't affect racket performance. All in all, if you want an easier
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to play version of the 99 Pro, get the game. If you have a bit more budget and wants everything
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just a few percent better, get the tour. If you want an amazing value racket that can take decent
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tension and plays amazingly well for the prize, go for the play. I'm sure lots of players are going
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to be very impressed with this model and I still cannot believe how good the play is considering
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the value. So just remember always to restring these rackets to a usual string and tension and
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you'll be impressed at how well they play. Until then, remember to subscribe and I will see you in
