Ball boys and ball girls, you’re attention please
Format: PS3 (version played), Xbox 360, Wii, PC Dev: Sega Pub: Sega Out: 29/04/11 Players: 1-4, 2-4 online
Tennis doesn’t get the same video game treatment as football or even golf. There’s no annual instalment constantly tweaking and perfecting the formula. A tennis fan gets what they’re given, and what they’re given is either Virtua Tennis or Top Spin and this year they got both. So is there a FIFA/PES rivalry between this two? Well, I’m not sure. If there is Tennis fans are certainly less vocal about it and probably just stick to their preferences.
Virtua Tennis 4 focuses very much on the core gameplay, creating more of an arcade sports games than a simulation. There are no stats to rack up and no complicated leagues to go through, but there is a lot of Tennis to be played. The way it should be.
The gameplay mechanics work well, though I’m no expert on Tennis games. The face buttons do everything from top spin to lobs, doing away with any shoulder button combos and stripping it down to its basics. This is definitely a pick up and play game.
Virtua Tennis 4 offers an odd career mode that takes form of a worldwide board game. You select numbered cards and advance a certain amount of spaces on the board, the point you land on decides what you do (training session, sign autographs, exhibition match, etc). All of this allows you to acquire stars which increase your fame and qualify you for tournaments. I appreciate Sega trying to incorporate some sort of campaign mode, but this is really not enjoyable. The board game design gets tedious almost immediately and if you just want to play tennis and level up your character there’s an awful lot of rubbish to go through. I’d recommend the arcade mode for anyone who just wants to play the game instead of going through all this, but on that mode you can’t buy fabulous shorts for your character so it’s win-lose.
Multiplayer is here and it’s a real blast to play with your friends. Party mode makes a return to the series offering a variety of mini-games but none of them as fun as just playing a simple tennis match. Besides from an online multiplayer and PlayStation Move game mode there isn’t a lot to keep you coming back. Virtua Tennis 4 isn’t an immersive, time consuming simulation that keeps you coming back to get your character or team a little further up the ladder. It’s a pick up and play arcade Tennis game best suited to a round with friends with strawberries and cream.
Dan Key
Tags: playstation move, sega, Sports, tennis, virtua tennis
