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WOW!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 16
Date: April 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is a great tennis game , the graphics are amazing , is easy and is very real. I hope the Dreamcast version is going as well as in the Arcade Version that is bye

Great Graphics and a great game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 13
Date: May 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I have played the arcade version and I love it, so I know the Dreamcast will do a nice job with this game. This game is non stop fun and it never gets boring. It has superb graphics and sound. GO buy this one!

Great in the arcades, I'm sure it'll be great on DC

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: July 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Dreamcast, lately, has not delievered an excellent game since Dead or Alive 2, and this dissapointed me, since I trusted Sega to deliver. But now it has, by giving me the oppurtunity to buy this game. It's absolutely one of the greatest console games of all time... simply because it's the first really, really, good tennis game.

If you like tennis and like DC, this is a must-buy game.

Terrible game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 17
Date: July 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the worst arcade to console translation ever. The control is sloppy with either the digital or the analog control pad. AND THE COMPUTER CHEATS ALL THE TIME! I would give this game zero stars if i could, but one star is the best I can do. The people giving this game five stars obviously haven't play the game yet. Terrible, terrible game.....

"ACE"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is one word, WOW! I cannot believe the detail on the faces and even you can see their teeth. The stadiums are amazing and look like the actual ones. The crowd is amazing too. The gameplay is great, players actually make grunts and such and actually walk in with their raquets. This as real as tennis will get. In doubles the players talk to each other. The modes are exhibition, where you can play singles or doubles and use up to 4 players. Arcade mode you go through a mini tournament and the players get tougher as you go on. Then the beauty of the game is the World Circuit Mode where you can go to famous tournaments like wimbledon, us. open, etc. and win big buck on the way. You can buy stuff with your money such as sports drinks, strings, raquets, and even more players, stadiums, and outfits. This is the best tennis game ever, and two words... BUY IT!

A Good Game, Despite It's Many "Faults."

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 32 / 35
Date: July 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Since being an avid tennis fan (and player) for over 11 years, I have always looked forward to a new tennis release regardless of which console it was for. When I first heard about Virtua Tennis coming to the Dreamcast, I could hardly wait to get my hands on it. When I did get it, my first impressions were nothing short of awe. The stadium renderings, player animations, and sound effects were mind blowing (similar to the effect that NFL 2K had on me).

The menu setups were easy to navigate and I was able to get started within 30 seconds. Load times are extremely fast with virtually no waiting time. The game menu is set up with exhibition matches (for 1-4 players) and a World-Circuit (1P) which features a training mode and tennis shop. Training matches help you to learn ball movement, shot power, shot selection, and other skills required to compete with top circuit pros. These training matches are conducted using simple yet inventive drills that you must complete within a certain time frame before moving on.

I was highly impressed with player movement where a player could not stop on a dime, turn and run the opposite way of their forward momentum, and still hit a good return. I also liked the way a player would lunge forward to hit a short ball which would cause him to stagger a bit before a complete recovery. I noticed that players tend to dive for just out of reach shots a bit too often, including on a hard court surface. Ouch!

Many little details can be found in this game which are great. For example: when on clay, temporary footprints are left and dust clouds are visible with each step. During instant replays, a player will fix his sleeve, chat with his doubles partner, grit his teeth, or pump his fist. While the player animations are cool, instant replays aren't all that spectacular due to the brevity of the cut scenes

The actual game play is very simple. While the simplicity is good for those who are casual tennis fans and is very easy to pick up (learning curve about 10-20 minutes), it can be somewhat annoying for those who want more simulation type game play. For instance, there is no distinction between a topspin offensive lob and a defensive lob. Two very different shots which you have no choice of selecting. There is no slice/chip shot (as a defensive recovery shot or a chip and charge) selection either. The A button hits the ball, the X button lobs the ball. That's it! There is no drop shot or drop volley as well.

The movement of the ball is easy - hold the stick or D-Pad to the left to hit it to the left, move the stick or D-Pad to the right for it to go to the right. A problem develops when you want to control the depth of your groundstroke. To do this, you must move the pad or stick "up" for greater depth into your opponent's court or "back" for a shallow shot. When you press up for a deep shot, your player tends to move forward as well - and if you hit several consecutive deep shots, you will find your player in "no man's land" right around the service line. So, you constantly have to adjust your player by bringing back to the baseline after every deep shot you hit (or, back up to the baseline if you were hitting short balls). As far as judging the ball from the recipient's standpoint, gauging the ball's trajectory is fairly simple.

Another problem I have is the serve. While it is easy to perform a serve, there is virtually no distinction between a Mark Phillopoussis service and say, a Jim Courier serve. Everyone looks to have the same speed serve depending on how high your service power meter is. You will never beat a player on a speedy serve (because they are all the same). Utilizing angles is the only way that you can ace an opponent.

One of the biggest drawbacks of Virtua Tennis is the lack of players to choose from. I can't comprehend how Sega can put in every MLB and NFL player in their respective Sega Sports titles but only include 8 real life male tennis pros (with a few non selectable fakes). And these guys aren't exactly players that have a huge fan base: Jim Courier (now retired), Mark Phillopoussis, Tim Henmen, Cedric Pioline, and Yevgeny Kafelnikov, are probably the most popular of the 8. You can't tell me that Agassi is still under contract with Tekmagic or whoever made that horrendous Genesis title back in 1991(?). Where is Patrick Rafter? Pete Sampras? Jan-Michael Gambill, and the others? The option of creating a player would have been a great idea. That way, I could perhaps "create" an Agassi or Rafter. Sega has never been shy on spending cashola for a top name for their sports titles. What happened here?

Conclusion: The speed is just right and the player movements and sounds are pretty sharp. Despite it's drawbacks, it is a very fun and fast paced game to play. It does offer alot of replay value with the two-player mode but I fear the AI on CPU opponents will cause the single player mode to grow stale after a month or two (they aren't very bright). If you like tennis and are searching for a simple and realistic looking tennis title, then look no further. However, if you are searching for a tennis sim - like I was, you may want to rent Virtua Tennis first. But if you DO buy this game without having played it first, I am pretty confident you will still enjoy it quite a bit. It's a pretty good game despite its "faults." I guess I just had my expectations too high. I would give this game 3.75 stars.

Great game play, but not realistic tennis

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: July 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I read all the raves about this game, and, being a huge tennis fan, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this game. After playing it, I realized that all of the reviews that I read must have been written by people who didn't watch much tennis. Otherwise, why would they have failed to mention a huge factor such as that THE MAXIMUM LENGTH FOR ANY MATCH IS ONLY ONE SET? I was into this game at first but my jaw dropped when I first realized this travesty. Why in the world would someone make such an outstanding tennis game featuring professional men's players and not let you play best-of-five matches like in the pros? It's like making a football game in which you can only play one quarter! All gripes aside, the game play is outstanding, and I picked up the controls instantly. The World Circuit mode is exciting and original, and should keep me busy for a while, but it would have been nice to play an entire tournament of complete matches at each grand slam instead of one match of only two games (? ). Bottom line, the average gamer will eat this game up. Its beautiful graphics and superb game play make it one of the best sports games I've played in a long time. But real tennis fans be warned, the format leaves a lot to be desired.

Virtua Tennis- Video Tennis Can Be Fun.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The problem plaguing past video tennis efforts has always been the same. They were repititious by nature. After a day of playing the AI would become predictable. Too easy or too hard. This problem has finally been adressed and adressed wonderfully in Sega Sport's Virtua Tennis. Instead of 3 set matches that can take hours, the early round sets in VT are shortened to two games. Every thing you do in the game rewards you with money. Even losing gets you a little!. And you will need that money for almost everything in the game needs to be unlocked. (Players , stadiums, mini-games.)Oh yes , the mini-games. These are the most fun mini-games I've ever played. And the mini-games have progressively difficult levels, making them worthy of a game in themselves. Real players are duplicated excellently as are the graphics in general and animation is superb. Although instant re-play is not a must in video tenns, the replay is not selectable and is very short dropping my score for Virtua Tennis to a 9.5 .

Virtua Tennis

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: July 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoyed this game at the arcade. My brother and I have gotten in heated matches and can't wait for the DC pre-order from Amazon to arrive. Being too old by videogame standards, I lose regularly to my bro in all fighting and sports game. The beauty of this game is that it's easy to pick up and play, yet simulates pro tennis in a fun way. There are no zillion combos to pull. Even I can play and have pretty decent games against younger players.

Great game, not focused solely on versus mode

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

When I bought this game I expected that the crux of the fun would be found in the versus mode. Don't get me wrong, my friends and I were getting pretty worked up over a few close matches. However, the single player world tour is amazingly fun. You get to contract on a doubles partner, buy new equipment and earn new levels and players for the versus mode. There are also various training exercises that get increasingly harder as you progress through the game. After your matches reach level 3, the opponents get CONSIDERABLY harder and more challenging. The sound and graphics are top notch. Most interesting to me though is that the game controls seem easy to pick up at first until you get to more advanced competitions and realize that there are many subtle twists in the controls that you must master if you wish to be number one in the world. Go buy it!

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