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An utterly awful review I wrote 4 years ago

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

"Very fun but very frustrating"

Virtua Tennis is a simple and fun tennis game that anyone can pick up and play. However, there are two major problems with the game. They are the computer AI and the overly difficult challenges near the end of the game.

Gameplay: 7

Virtua Tennis has three different modes of play in which you can play both singles and doubles matches. In Arcade mode you basically play five tennis games. If you want to move on to the next opponent you must beat the current one. If you lose one match you are eliminated. In the Exhibition mode you just play one game with the players and court of your choosing. In the World Circuit mode you must travel the world and play matches of increasing difficulty. There are also training stages. In these you must do things like knock bowling pins down and smash boxes off of the court.

There are only two buttons in Virtua Tennis. The A button button is a regular shot and the B button is a lob shot. Lobbing hardly ever works. About 90% of the time you try a lob shot your opponent will smash an impossibly hard to hit shot back in your face. You can also dive for the ball. This almost never works. If you are lucky enough to be able to hit the ball when you dive it will usually go out or leave a very easy shot for your opponent.

At first there are eight players to choose from. By playing through the World Circuit you can unlock eight more. Each of them have their own strengths and weaknesses. While some of the players, like Tim Henman and Mark Philippoussis, are fairly well known, none of them are huge superstars. I really don't care about that though.

There are also ten courts to choose from. There are four different court surfaces that play quite differently. This is a very nice feature because your strategy slightly changes depending on what surface you are playing on.

Virtua Tennis can be very addictive. It is easy to sit down and spend many hours with this game. I found it hard to put down the controller after playing.

One flaw in the game is the computer AI. When you are playing the computer it seems like most of the time they have a pattern. Whatever side of the court you hit the ball from the computer usually hits it to the other side. I frequently found myself sprinting to the other side of the court before the computer player would even hit the ball. Your computer partner in doubles is even worse. He simply doesn't do his job. I have felt like throwing the controller through my TV screen many times because my partner would just stand there and let the ball pass him. The computer will also sometimes lunge into your side of the court to hit the ball.

Another thing I don't like about the game is how absurdly hard it is to get some of the special outfits. I have spent about five hours trying to get one of them but I still have not been able to do it. It's so frustrating it has actually given me a headache before.

Graphics: 8

Overall the graphics in Virtua Tennis are good. The courts are incredibly realistic looking and the players are pretty well done even though their reactions repeat frequently. The audience looks very bad when you see them up close. The backgrounds don't look very good either. The court looks so good that you probably won't often notice these things.

Music and Sound: 5

The music in Virtua Tennis is awful. You hear the same terrible rock music constantly while you play. It seems like it is the same music playing over and over again.

The sound is better. The noise the ball makes when it is hit sounds realistic. Each player makes a different sounding grunt. The announcer does nothing but announce the score after every point. Luckily there are no commentators.

Length: 6

The length of the game is fairly short. The World Circuit should probably take a few days to complete and the Arcade mode can be beaten in less than ten minutes.

Replay Value: 9

The game is so fun that it can be played over and over again without getting boring. I have played the World Circuit through twice and enjoyed it both times. It might start to get a little easy after a while though.

Overall: 7

Virtua Tennis is a good game with a few faults. It is definitely worth the price it now has.

Tennis Evolved

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is so hard it's not even fair. But the World Circuit mode will knock you down so far that it makes you want to try and beat it. The training mini-games are incredibly addictive and the low ranking you start with gives you something to aim for. This is a great game and is a true winner, even though its insanely difficult to master.

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