Arcade gaming at its finest (Virtua Tennis (DC))

Member Name: ben_83

Product:	Virtua Tennis (DC)
Date:	17/09/00 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent control system (even though it was lifted from Game Boy's 'Tennis'), outstanding artificial intelligence, great mulitplayer, graphics a PC would be proud of

Disadvantages: Unrealistic scoring system (it's not a big problem though)

I'm not a big fan of tennis but when I heard that this game was as good as, if not better, than Nintendo's 'Tennis' on the Game Boy and Namco's tennis games on SNES and PlayStation, I just had to get it. I was not disappointed.

First, let's get all the periphery matters out of the way. 'Virtua Tennis' has three game modes: Arcade, where you simply play series of opponents; Exhibition, where you can set the parameters in a one- to four-player game; and World Circuit, a career mode where you win games and complete training modes for money to buy doubles partners for World Circuit mode and tennis shirts, players and venues for Arcade and Exhibition modes. There are a number of real-life players to choose from but don't expect any of the superstars, there's no Agassi, Sampras or Kuerten. The players in 'Virtua Tennis' tend to be the also-rans of world tennis. So, naturally, Henman's right there in the thick of things (he's also uncharacteristically good) but there's also Pioline, Kafelnikov and Phillipoussis to choose from, amongst others. The graphics are excellent (would you expect any less from Dreamcast?) and the sound is passable too.

Now you know all that, you can promptly forget it and we can move on to what matters - how the game plays. The short answer is 'brilliantly' but I am guessing you might want me to elaborate on that.

The control system is blindingly simple but it enables you to perform every single tennis shot you'd ever want to. It's a two button affair, similar to Game Boy 'Tennis', where 'A' hits a normal shot and a normal serve and 'B' hits a lob and a sliced serve. Direction and distance can be added to ball with the analogue stick and the player's position in relation to the ball also affects where it goes. The shot is affected by the height of the ball too. For example, if 'A' is pressed when the ball has jus
t bounced, a ground stroke will be played, but if the ball is above the player's head then he'll smash it.

The computer players' AI is nothing short of excellent. When you're playing against one sometimes you might be forgiven for thinking you're playing a human. Whilst they are often ruthless and certainly won't turn their collective noses up at a point, they can be just as fallible as human players, often mistiming moves towards the net and leaving the opportunity open for you to win the point. When computer players are your doubles partners, they are just as intelligent, moving across the court if you get in front of them and never impeding you or stealing shots that you could hit.

Of course, as with any sports game, no matter how good the AI, it's always better playing with and against real people. 'Virtua Tennis' is an excellent multiplayer game and, just like all the best multiplayer titles, can result in heated arguments, especially when playing doubles.

The only complaint I have is with the scoring system. Sega obviously thought that a full game of tennis took far too long for an arcade game and decided to score the games in 'Virtua Tennis' on a 'first to number of games' basis. This works to a certain extent and doesn't make the game totally unplayable (far from it in fact) but I would have liked the option to play a full game.

This really is a top-notch game and shows off how good Dreamcast really is. It's just a shame that gamers are buying antiquated 32bit machines that have a recognisable logo on them rather than cutting-edge 128bit machines with a not-so-trendy name on the box.

Summary: