The best sports sim available (Virtua Tennis (DC))

Member Name: xeeb

Product:	Virtua Tennis (DC)
Date:	13/03/01 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent world circuit mode, good longevity, licensed players

Disadvantages: Soundtrack could be improved

After playing this in an arcade on holiday I was extremely impressed and my first thought was will there be an arcade conversion for the Dreamcast, I didn’t own a Dreamcast at the time so I bought one along with Virtua Tennis on it’s DC release.

The impressive line-up of licensed players are Tim Henman, Thomas Johansson, Carlos Moya, Tommy Haas, Cedric Pioline, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Jim Courier and Mark Philippoussis with each player having his primary attribute. There are eight other characters which you unlock by progressing through the world circuit and one character named “MASTER” which you unlock in the arcade mode.

There are three game modes namely arcade, exhibition and world circuit. The arcade mode uses the traditional “win and advance” style, you play against the COM in five stages with a sixth stage only possible if you have won every game of the previous five matches – in singles this game is a challenge from the secret character “MASTER” meaning if you beat him you can use him in arcade and exhibition mode, in doubles the same thing happens except “MASTER” is alongside his team mate “KING” who isn’t relevant. In exhibition mode you can play against the COM or a mate, you have the choice of choosing your players starting positions for example if you would like to start the game at the top of the court, you have the option of changing the rule settings to your liking; 1: the game count which is the number of games needed to win a match, you can choose from one game to a full set 2: play Virtua Tennis with or without deuces 3: determine the strength of your COM opponent - these are easy, normal, hard and very hard, if your playing doubles with a COM partner you can determine his strength – these are normal, strong and very strong. Exhibition mode also allows you to select which stage to play on.

The world circuit mode is the best - tour the
world taking part in trial matches and earning money, the number and difficulty of trial matches increases as the game progresses. The world circuit is a good opportunity to sharpen your techniques with several training stages; 1: cannon ball - hit all the balls using the yellow balls 2: smash box – knock the boxes off the court with a smash shot 3: drum shooter – use a lob shot to hit the balls into each drum can
4: pin crasher – just like bowling but you serve to knock the pins down 5: bull’s eye – aim for the targets on the floor with the balls that the COM serves up 6: return ace – return the COM’s serves to hit all the targets 7: big wall – turn over all the panels 8: giant ball – use strong shots to push the giant balls beyond the baseline. The difficulty for each training stage increases as you progress. The progression method of the world circuit mode is you earn money from everything you do (including training stages) and use this money to contract players for use in doubles matches, buy new arenas for arcade and exhibition mode, buy new strings, buy new attire to be used in all game modes, buy new players for arcade and exhibition mode or buy a recovery drink – all of which increase in price as you progress. The more matches you complete the more matches/training stages become available and the higher you’re ranking. Every trial match has a certain “trial shot” for you to attempt, you win a lot more money by winning points using trial shots – play as many trial shots as possible to win the maximum amount of prize money.

The game isn’t too difficult especially if your into sports sims – levels are easy, normal, hard and very hard, on the easy level the COM simply hits the ball straight back to you. There’s a massive difference between hard and very hard with opponents moving faster, serving faster and the level of AI (artificial intelligence
) is some of the best I’ve seen in sports sims.

Apart from the traditional tennis sim point of view, Virtua Tennis can be played from a “first person” perspective giving a fantastic feel of realism especially when used with the compatible vibration pack – Virtua Tennis is also compatible with the arcade stick and Visual Memory Unit. Gameplay is smooth with players movements looking and feeling real, the attention to detail is impressive with ball boys/girls watching the balls every move and line callers dodging the ball when needed.

I’ve never experienced a game with such a high level of playability – especially with the four player mode.

Summary: