Tennis 2K2

"Holy crap this game is good."

If you've played Virtua Tennis the original, you'll absolutely love Virtua Tennis 2. If you haven't played the original where the heck have you been? Seriously though, even if you're not used to the Virtua Tennis series, you'll still absolutely love Virtua Tennis 2.

Virtua Tennis 2 combines the simplicity and great graphics with even more simplicity and even better graphics. The game includes a bunch of male players, like the original, but now also has female players. Serena, Venus, and Lindsay...they're all in there.

Being able to pick female players is pretty cool, and is a pretty big improvement, but what I noticed changed the most is the gameplay. The gameplay is MUCH FASTER now which, trust me, is a good thing. I found that players that said were good baseline players were, actually, good baseline players.

I mentioned it before and I'll mention it again. The speed in the game is a tremendous increase over the original Virtua Tennis game. It makes the game a billion times more exciting (not to mention a billion times more frustrating when u miss a shot :) ). Serves that are labeled 120mph actually seem 120mph and are nearly impossible to hit, compared to 80mph serves.

The player animations are also greatly improved. It's hard to focus on a specific kind of animation, because practically all the player animations are that much better.

Finally, the World Tour mode is so awesome. You get to create your own player, then have him or her practice to get better at certain areas of his or her game. The coolest part is that you can practice one area more than others to make that player that type of a player. Here's an example: I created myself in the game. I can have myself practice the volley more than the stroke and serve, and the player I created will turn out to be a net player and will be good at hitting volleys.

One thing bothers me about this game. When you serve, it's really hard to aim where you want the serve to go. If you hold left like you could in the original Virtua Tennis, it goes out of the box. This definitely shouldn't stop you from buying this game right now. Remember, no game can be perfect, but trust me, Virtua Tennis 2 comes pretty close.

I've played this game over and over and over again. Virtua Tennis 2 is probably one of the best, if not the best game ever created for any system.

GET VIRTUA TENNIS 2 NOW. I REPEAT - NOW. NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW. GET UP OFF YOUR BUTT AND GET THIS GAME NOW.

You can thank me later.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/01, Updated 10/31/01