Virtua Tennis 4
I had forgotten how much of an arcade masterpiece the Virtua Tennis games could be. After picking up Virtua Tennis 4 (for a quick ten minute play through), I was still playing four hours later and couldn’t put the controller down.
I have to make it clear that I wasn’t playing with the move controller, but after playing countless Wii and Kinect games based around the sport, I could safely say that it would just bring about even more fun to the already extensive gameplay.
The strong thing about this game isn’t necessarily the tennis (strange as it may sound), but more the addictive board game style play of the career mode. The world map acts as the board and you must have a certain amount of tickets to move on to the allocated spaces across it.
The tricky bit comes with time management; designating time to train, rest, meet fans and play friendly tournaments/exhibitions, all the while making sure you make it to the championship tournament in time.
As you play more matches and train, you collect more stars; the more stars you have, the higher up the world rankings you go. For an exhibition match you may win five stars, three for winning and two for having a near perfect match; how a match or training session goes will drastically change how many stars you at the end of the match.
This game mode is thoroughly addictive, and its scope is surprisingly impressive; rivals will challenge you, and stars will often ask to join as your doubles partners, unlocking new stars to play with you becomes a game in itself.
As if you haven’t already got enough, there is more for you to fill your tennis boots with; as you play matches you build up a currency, this can be used to unlock new gear for your created character. Although the create-a-character mode is limited you can still make a pretty good likeness of yourself.
Taking a moment to breath after telling you how impressively dense the campaign mode is (there is much more, you really have to experience it to understand its scope), the actual gameplay isn’t too bad either.
Feeling just like any other tennis game you’ve played, Virtua Tennis 4 doesn’t really pull any surprising punches (or trick shots may have been a better play on words?); but the tried and tested formula works very neatly, even simplifying the structure in places to allow support for the move controller.
The different players do feel surprisingly unique, each with their own play style that changes the flow of play. All of the current tennis world-class players are here to choose from, including Federer, Nidal and Roddick; each specialisation they have in the real world translates well to Virtua Tennis 4, making each player a new challenge to master.
Of course, there is a multiplayer mode of which one to four players can enjoy on one screen. After playing (and winning) a few rounds against my flatmate, it became quickly apparent that I was much more interested in furthering my personal career on the one player mode. There is no doubt that this Is a great get together and play through quickly game, but after a few games sets and matches it quickly loses its unique selling point.
The game is presented very well, with bright colours and sharp details. The players themselves animate nicely, but the game doesn’t look as good as a Crysis or a Gears of War.
So I shouldn’t really compare this tennis game to a high end shooter game that has had money poured into it, but surely as a tennis game it doesn’t need as much processing power for the gameplay; they could really spend more time on the character and court models, this could have looked a bit more incredible than it currently does. Ok, so it is only an arcade game and I should give it a bit off credit because of this, the hyperactive menus and techno soundtrack hammer home the arcade feel.
An arcade mode, exhibition mode and fantastically addictive career mode gives this game a long lasting life. A pick up and play feel, slowly becomes a technically decent tennis game, which is sure to be a must-play experience for both fans and foes of tennis.
Verdict: 8/10
Platform: PC, Wii, xbox360, PS3 (compatible with motion controllers)
Genre: Sports
Publisher/developer: Sega
Release: May 2011
Female First - Edward Lewis