Virtua Tennis

"Everyone must own this instant classic"

I've been looking forward to this game for a long time. And it was worth it. Make no mistake about it, everyone must own Sega Sport's newest masterpiece. It's as fun as a tennis game gets. Great single-player, great multiplayer.

Graphics
Like the other Sega Sports game, Virtua tennis looks very good, one of Dreamcast best looking games. The players look and move well and natural at 60fps. The attention to detail is fantastic, from the face expressions in a smash to the judge's head following the ball. However, it's not perfect, the net is really screwed up and jaggy (the top white line is really jagged) but I'm just nitpicking here.

Sound
Not much to talk about, except that the commentary is near non-existant, except when someone scores, the announcer tells the score in english, except whe playing in france, then he announces in french. Nice detail, but I wish they would do the same thing for every country. The ball sounds nice, nothing really special, and the music is ok, I guess, even though some people think it doesn't fit the game well... I couldn't care less about the music, because you only hear it in the menus.

Gameplay
This is the best tennis game ever, period. Button A hits the ball, button B/X lobs. You control the ball's direction with the analog stick/D-pad. Then depending on your situation the computer calculates what move the player will do, rarely you will do a move that you didn't want. Anybody can learn how to play the game in 5 minutes, but truly mastering it will take a while. Little details like ''when going after a lob, don't hit it hard, just lob it back or else it will hit the net'' that seem to be nothing, but it improves your skill a lot.. It's a lot of fun, but it can get frustrating, specially when somebody gets on the level 3 enemies in the world championship mode, but it's nothing that some good practice can't take care of.

Replay value
Pretty good. The world championship almost saves this game from being a ''multi-player only'' game. IT's kind of like the mission mode in soul calibur, you ''travel the world'' facing opponents, getting money and purchasing stuff. What is this ''stuff'' you say? New players, new courts, new uniforms, you name it. You can also play some mini-games to get more money, like bowling and ''lob the ball into the barrel'' They are all great, but it seems somewhat short, it will take less than a week to get to the last challenge.

Final Score: 9

Pluses
+ Great controls
+ Great gameplay
+ Great ''mission mode''
+ Great multiplayer
+ Great graphics

Minuses
- ''Mission mode'' a little too short
- Not any big-name players like Andre Agassi or Gustavo Kuerten
- The net looks screwy
- No official tournaments like Winbledon or Roland Garros
- No official courts

Final word: I can't wait for Virtua tennis 2... ^_^ Most Minuses are just nitpicks. You must own this game, even if you don't like tennis.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/00, Updated 07/19/00