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Fun tennis game for a week

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: April 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Nice graphics and use of real life players. A lot of pretty well designed mini games. Career mode is fun but could be a lot better. I do like the ability to improve your player to the top level.

The game control is okay, but it feels kind of fake and limiting.

Overall, I enjoyed this game for a week or two, but after that it just seemed like the same game over and over. I had fun with the game for a little bit so gave it a 3 rating for fun...but only a 2 overall rating because I expect to enjoy a game for more than a week or two. Other games (like golf) are similar where I take a break with them but I always come back to play them because of the skill and fun. This game however, I traded in for credit for other games as I never had the need to play it again.

Buy discounted or used if you want to just try it out...but I would recommend renting or not purchasing at all.

Steep Learning Curve

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: December 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The learning curve for this game is rather steep. Learning how to serve the ball and get it in play is a challenge in itself. This is a game that's probably best experienced on a home console. It's not ideal for those random moments that you sometimes have to play a game. You wouldn't want to take this game along on your briefcase so that you can play during your lunch break. It demands more concentration and dedication than that.

As always, I try to keep my focus and my perspective in their proper places whenever I'm evaluating a video game. Is the game of good quality, meaning the graphics, controls, mechanics, and game engine? I would have to say yes and give this game 3 stars. On the more subjective question of fun, I give this game a 2. Again, this latter being more subjective than the former. In my humble opinion, this game is not much fun on a portable console.

From my perspective, a portable game should be designed for a different use than a home console game. A PSP game should lean more towards casual gaming, with a not-too-steep learning curve. This is one of those games that would be more enjoyable on the PS2.

Fun, but some slight issues

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: November 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game because I enjoy tennis and figured I would probably enjoy a tennis game. The World Tour portion of the game is probably the most fun part of owning the game.

The World Tour - The Meat and Potatos of Single Player
Creating a player for the World Tour isn't as indepth as I would've liked, but it does a good enough job. You create both a male and a female character and can switch between the two to raise their stats. To raise your stats you must play mini games that increase your skills in serving, volleying, footwork, etc. You gain experience for the minigames and, depending on what skills you used more over the course of the game, your skills go up. Completed challenges give multipliers to the experience so it behooves you to win.

To raise money, you can play in tournaments. You start ranked last at 300 and then slowly make your way up as you win tournaments. Tournaments are much quicker than real life tournaments (thankfully). Most usually consist of a few "best 2 out of 3" matches. Doubles tournaments require you to spend your winnings on contracts and pairing up with some of the top tennis players. The computer controlled players actually did way better than me... which was kind of disconcerting.
The game was very entertaining from a tennis fan's point of view though there were two issues that I had with the game that keep it from getting that last star.

General Gameplay Issues
The first issue I had was the overall sluggishness of the interface. There was constant loading in every part of the game. Starting from the create a player interface to the world map where you choose what to do. And it just slowed down the process. It would've been nice if failed attempts at minigames would give you a prompt to see if you wanted to try it again instead of reloading the world map and having to reload the levels again. Though the fact that i would play the same minigame over 10 times in a row should show how addictive it can become. The slowness may be attributed to the firmware version 1.52 that i had installed (ver. 2.00+ is out), and I don't have another PSP to try the game out on.

The second minor issue I had was with the minigames. True, they're fun and addictive, but they don't really change much as the game continues. The levels remain the same. They just add a few more objectives and keep the time limits the same. Some just seemed extremely difficult given the lack of control you have in the beginning.. but they were still keeping me coming back for more so I suppose the issue isn't as big a deal. But the difficulty coupled with the loading times were an annoyance worth mentioning.

Conclusion
I recommend the purchase to anybody wanting a decent tennis game to play on the go (The tiny ball on the screen sometimes gets hard to track). Otherwise you'd probably be better off buying a console version of Top Spin (better graphics and faster loading).

Must Have for PSP!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: October 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Besides some minor framerate issues on the main menu, this game is perfect for the PSP platform. With short mini-games as well as deep RPG elements in the World Tour mode, this game has lasting appeal for hours on end. A must-buy for the PSP!!!

Wow! This game is a blast!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked into my local Videogames store and saw this on sale for $19.99! This game is surely one of the current and best value priced and fun games on the PSP now! In a time when most other games are staying in the $40 to $50 range for up to 10+ months, I guess dropping the price on this one was due to lacklustre sales? Don't know why, because every videogame fan knows what a blast this series is, and this newest Sega outing is no exception.

The first thing I noticed, when firing up the game, was its true to form comparison to the previous releases on the DC and the Playstation 2. The music is still there, as well as the fantastic gameplay. All of the minigames, are there as well. While I couldn't find any additons or changes, I'm certain they exist due to the extra extention on the name for the PSP version.

I give this game SUPER high ratings, and look forward to playing as Venus Williams or Maria S (don't try to get me to spell her last name.) Two very enthusiastic gamer thumbs up.

Great...for the tennis fan

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: February 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game. Me, being a huge tennis fan and player myself, really enjoyed the real life players you don't get from games such as mario tennis. This game is one of the reasons I decided to switch to sony myself. Here are some pro's and cons with this game.

Pro's:
-Graphics: They are great for a portable. The game is bright and vibrant, and just looks fantastic.
-Gameplay: It's just great. There are some flaws (see cons) but overall, it's great. I love the three buttons for lob, slice, and topspin. I also love how every players actual shots are in this. Like how Roger Federer has that biting slice backhand, this is in this also. Also, Roddick has the best serve, Hewitt's the fastest, and so on. It's just great.
-Replay Value: It's always so much fun to just start a short tournament with your favorite pro. It only takes about 10 minutes for an entire tournament, and that's great for the casual gamer like me.

Con's:
Sound: Yeah, sound isn't that important but there is only like one song in the whole soundtrack. It just gets a little boring. Also, Sharapova and Williams don't do their signature grunts, I didn't expect it, but it would've been awesome.
Gameplay: A couple times, the game just stopped on me, like a computer freezes. I had to reboot the whole system, it was really annoying.
Lack of modes: World tour mode is good...sort of. Until you get to the really good part, the match play, its very boring. The mini games are so repetative, and are just so boring. I would've liked to have seen easier tournaments against worse players in the beginning ending with a big 3 setter against #1 Roger Federer. Yup, that'd rule.
Multiplayer: I like ad-hoc mode, but besides that, there's nothing. I would've enjoyed the online one, because a lot of times, your friends don't own the same games as you.

Overall, it's a really fun game. It's great for the tennis fan, but even the casual gamer would like it. If you can get through the mini games on world tour mode, it's a great addition to this game. Great game!

Fun, but very difficult

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: March 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you're not a person who likes stat-building, this game isn't for you. You need to practice practice practice to win the World Tour events, but when you do, you feel like you really accomplished something.

Great graphics and sound, however the inter-menu load times are annoying. Virtua Tennis will test your patience but is ultimately rewarding.

A litle bit of enterteinment...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Good graphics, some "extra" option games, a good option for this kind of games

Buy It Even If You Are Not A Tennis Fan!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: December 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

My friend has this game, so when I played it, it shocked me by surprise! I'm not a tennis fan, acually, I HATE tennis. But surprisenly, it's fun! A must geet for any mad psp fan!!!

Virtua Tennis PSP

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Overall the game plays well with very nice graphics and sound. Being a tennis player, I appreciate the variety of shots you can make, though making a certain shot can be 'hit or miss' at times.

There are several modes including quick game, exhibition, tournament or world tour. There are also a number of different surfaces including carpet, hard court, clay and grass and venues, including Tokyo, Melbourne, London and the USA.

One downside for me though is, even though I've created a custom player in World Tour mode, I still haven't been able to build up enough skill to actually play in any of the tournaments - the mini games to improve your skill seem quite difficult. You need to improve your skill so that your custom player can take part in the world tour mode.

Overall it's a pretty nice game and it's fun to play, but don't expect to be able to just pick it up and get to the final of wimbledon in one sitting!

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