Sega Sports Tennis

"If you like Virtua Tennis, this is a great game"

If you ever played Virtua Tennis, you will not be disappointed with this game. It's an exact replica, but it's improved so much that it makes the game so much more.

Gameplay-
The game is very easy to get used to. The ability to hit back and forth is so intuitive, so there is no problem to just jump in the game and start a rally. I liked using the analog stick to move the character because it was more fluid.

The coolest thing is joining the World Tour. Where you play against professional tennis players and try to climb the rankings from 300th to 1st. You start out by creating a male player and a female player. You switch between the two as you play in tourneys and skill drills to improve your players. Everything is set to a 4-week month that shows you when there's a match. You have to watch out because you have to meet the ranking requirements to enter all the matches so as you wait for tournaments to open up, you must play the skills games to improve you player. Some are easy to get used to, some are pretty difficult, but they all help you play the CPU players.

Graphics & Sound-
Graphics aren't as good as I thought they'd be. I was expecting a little more, but nothing that will gouge at your eyes. Most of the time you're away from the player so you can't notice all the little details.

Sounds are fine, nothing extraordinary or mind numbing. It's funny to hear them all grunt when they hit the ball though.

Replay Value-
Should be a game you'll want to play over and over. It's an easy game to get into, but very hard to master. I tried certain things like go cross court and then rush, but the CPU learns and can beat you very easily if you try to stick to the same tactics.

Overall-
Tennis 2k2 is a great game, if you liked the Virtua Tennis series, you won't be disappointed. This is the premiere tennis game of all the ones that are now currently out.

One of the cool features is to play right behind the player. I think this is the best way to play because it gives you the best angle at returning the ball. The high-overview cam is too much as it's harder to pay attention to where the CPU is going when you're at opposite sides of the court. And I hated playing in the top part of the screen after side changes, this gets rid of it.

Enjoy.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/05/02, Updated 08/05/02