Game, Set and Match- Virtua Tennis! (Virtua Tennis (DC))

Member Name: markwpage

Product:	Virtua Tennis (DC)
Date:	14/09/00 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Learning Curve, Options, Longevity, Multiplayer

Disadvantages: No females, No online features, Slightly dodgy music

Virtuaaaa Tennissss shouts the announcer as the Virtua Tennis title screen appears on your TV screen. The game appears so innocent but you are unaware that it is about to change your life for the next few months. The menu appears and you are faced with the choice of four options. Arcade, Exhibition, World Circuit and Options. If you've never played the game before in the arcades then your safest bet is to go to the Arcade mode immediately. If you do so you get the choice of 8 players who are Tim Henman, Thomas Johansson, Carlos Moya, Tommy Haas, Cedric Pioline, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Jim Courier and Mark Philippoussis. A fine selection to say the least but there are more to come but I'll come to that later. So, you've picked your player and now your off. You start in Australia (There are 5 levels in all. Australia, France, USA outdoor, England and USA indoor.) and as soon as you serve the ball using the power bar you'll be hooked, no questions asked. At first you'll play basic shots that go forward and then you'll discover that you can angle your shots by holding the shot button (A) and the direction you want the ball to travel. The longer you hold the direction the higher the angle will be. Very easy. After you've won that round you'll be transported to France where the commentary is in French, a fine addition. This is where you'll lose first. You need to master the controls even further which is the beauty of this game. To put it simply, it's easy to pick up yet hard to master. And even when you have mastered the sumptious control system you'll be downright out-done by the amazingly good artificial intelligence. The AI is to put it simply, extraordinary. On further levels the computer uses amazing tactical gameplay to summon you into the corner and smash you out leaving you standing there gobsmacked by the fact that you lost to a piece of plastic and metal.
So now you have heard about Arcade mode, what goes on in Exhibi
tion mode? This is basically where you play by your own rules. You can select how many games to play, how difficult the CPU will be and if there is to be Deuce or not. You get to select your character and the computers character and you also get to select your stage. But why just play against the computer? You can play against up to 3 mates (That's 4 in total) in a doubles frenzy where you'll all be hailing abuse at each other like you were at war. The multiplayer is quite frankly, one of the finest ever made. It is as perfectly crafted as the 1 player mode if not more so and you can have some great battles and you may even get obsessed with it, betting real money for the match. This is multiplayer gaming as it should be. If there is one small shortcoming of the multiplayer it is that there is no tournaments to take part in that would make it even better.
So, now that you have played Exhibition you'll have to try the World Circuit mode. This is the most outstanding part of the game. You choose one player of your choice and play matches against opponents around the world. This earns you money which you can use to spend in shops that are located around the globe. The more difficult a match is, the more money you get. In the shops you can buy a variety of things. You can buy new players to use in all of the modes. These people aren't real but they each have their own strengths and weaknesses like everyone of the real players. You can also buy extra stadiums over the originals in the Arcade mode. These range from the dirt court of Spain to the hard, blue court of Sweden. Germany has a particularly fantastic stadium with a glass top roof and a nice, bright court.
Aswell as players and stadiums you can buy a doubles partner, several extra clothing styles for more variety and new strings for your racket and a recovery drink. So now you've visited the shop let's check out what else there is in the world circuit. There are infact, tons of chal
lenges in different countrys ranging from doubles matches to training exercises. The training exercises are very good ranging from knocking over bowling pins with your serve, to lobbing the ball into dustbins. Indeed, the developers Hitmaker have thought of everything.
Graphically, Virtua Tennis is ground-breaking. The players are motion-captured so the animation looks fluid and realistic and the players are accurately rendered so they really look like their real life counterparts. You can even see their individual teeth! The graphics overall are crisp and clean and run at 60 fps throughout. The stadiums look fantastic with advertisement boards dotted around as well as an entire colour, animated crowd who react to your play and even flags on the top of the stadium that wave in the wind.
The sound too is no real slouch. It features real recorded sound effects and the game feels really authentic when the crowd gasp when you dive across the court and do a fantastic lob. The music is a bit cheesy but that is what you'd expect from a Virtua game.
So overall, the graphics, sound and gameplay are excellent. The learning curve is perfect and will appeal to Hardcore and Casual gamers alike due to the fact you can take it all at your own pace. This game will last you ages because of its extensive amount of addictive, fun gameplay. All games should be like this and it is an example of genius programming.
The best sports game ever and one of the best games on any format ever. Game, set and match!

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