Virtua Tennis

"Something about those green balls I can't resist"

The call of the score keeper ''15-0''. Your thinking ''What the hell, do they forget 1 throw 14?'', no they don't. Those people can‘t count and just not many companies go and make tennis games. Though why? It has blood, injuries , money, and lies all tied to it. Is it because they don't threw rackets at each other? Jump the net and tackle each other for first down? Grab the opponent and pull at their shirt, then start pounding the competitors face in? Probably not, though fun to think about anyway.

Doesn't means that you will get mad and not throw your controller at the TV screen. Since the latter matches are pure hell. The extreme downfall to Vitrua Tennis, the difficulty. When you start up the game, and begin you’ll think “Wow this is simple”. Not for long, as the game seems to soar in the ability of kicking your ass. What makes it so hard? The A.I seems to always know where to hit the ball do you can’t get it. What kind of hits are there? Lob, regular hit, and smash. Lob is the pointless hit, just pop it up in the air for the opponent to smash back at you, that leads to the problem of you can’t run fast enough to get to the ball. I feel like I’m Jarred before the Sub-Way diet. Then a smash is when the ball is high in the air, and you just smash the hell out of it, making it hurl it’s way into the oppositions court at high velocity. How about that regular hit. It just is well, a regular hit. You can aim this by moving the directional pad the way you wish for the ball to go. If you get to the ball quickly, with out delay you can hit return the ball faster; vise versa. Running out of bounds is not recommended.

Just as important as hitting, is footwork. How you position yourself on the court is extremely important as I see many have left this out when they speak of this game. The A.I have a habit of returning the ball where you’re not standing, this will cause anger at the game. You can prevent this by picking a speedy character that can run across the court quickly.

There are many different types of characters to choose from. From powerhouses that move like people that have broken legs , too others that make Michael Johnson feel shame. Aside from most tennis games that just have fast/weak, slow/powerful characters. Virtua Tennis has all around characters and people that just suck too. All of them are based off real life professionals that have played or are playing in tennis. That adds a sense or realism to a genre of game that is usually bent out of proportion to make more fun. What is out of proportion is the stages.

You got stages that are made of clay and concrete. Clay ones lets your character move slower. While the concrete ones, in contrast, let you move faster around the court. These courts are pre-picked in exhibition mode. Exhibition mode lets you play the game regularly. You can set how many people you want on your team, too if you want deuces. Have versus mode which allows you and your buddy to smack talk and play at the same time. World Circuit is a mode in which you go around the world and play events at major cities of the world. The events get boring and repetitive real quick. You have to lob balls into giant trash bins , knocking giant balls out of a ring to score points. You get to go to the pimp store with your points, maybe not. Actually you proceed to a store that appears random over the world. They re-string your racket so you can hit the ball better, get you equipped with the latest gear. Buying new stages here also cost a damn arm and a leg. New players aren’t cheap either.

New players all look different, and rightfully so. The power of the dream cast really propels them to a new level. Levels look real and occasionally a cloud or two will come by casting a shadow on the court. To bad they didn’t have little Budweiser blimps come by, cheap bastards, can’t pay for the sponsorship. All the textures look real and not fake unlike other dream cast games where the designers didn’t take enough time to produce such great graphics. *cough*blue stinger*couhg*.

“Fault” calls the godly voice. You then start to think bad thoughts in your head to get revenge on the game. Well not to worry, there isn’t much sound to listen to. Elevator music might be the term I’m looking for. It tries to get you pumped but in the end it just makes you want to turn it down and put on some good old por…….Beatles. You got the sound effect, just like in porn “Uggh” “Out of bounds”…..that last one scares me. To bad Sega has to half ass the music, slackers.

So after you’re done with a go or two with Vitrua Tennis. You’ll feel as though you’ve played one of the best tennis games to date. In that matter, best tennis game ever. My fanboyness is about to explode in about 2 minutes….can’t hold back…..ughh.. GET THIS GAME NOW ON EBAY FOR 5$!

Final Verdict

Gameplay-8
Graphics-10
Control-9
Sound-4

Final=7

Buy or rent?
Buy…

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/05/03, Updated 07/29/03