Improve your ball skills!!! (Virtua Tennis 2 (PS2))

Member Name: MrTink12

Product:	Virtua Tennis 2 (PS2)
Date:	10/12/06 (895 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great gameplay, fine control system, fantastic depth, multiplayer = fun

Disadvantages: Jaggy graphics, bit out of date now

Virtua Tennis is a game franchise you may have come across at the arcades, and thankfully over the years various console editions have gone on sale. Today we will be reviewing the PlayStation 2 version of the game known as Virtua Tennis 2 (VT2) in Europe, released November 2002. In North America the game is called Sega Sports Tennis. VT2 is a game you can choose to play by yourself, or with 3 other people. It is game created by Sega, and it will be fully explained why this is such a quality title.


--------Gameplay--------
In this arcade-style tennis game you can play as one of 16 professional male and female tennis players, including the likes of Venus and Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, and Tommy Haas. This ensures that there is a great variety in the type of players you can control. For example some are strong backhand players (Thomas Enqvist), others are serve and volley specialists (Tim Henman), whilst several are powerful shot makers (Carlos Moya). Whoever you play against will determine the correct tactics to make use of. Lets say you face a strong forehand player; it is advisable to hit him/her to their backhand side. Alternatively versus a serve and volley specialist you should try and keep them at the baseline so they cannot use their strengths at the net.

As with the professional tennis tour, there are numerous surfaces to play on (grass, clay, hard and carpet). Just as in real life the ball responds differently according to the surface. For instance on grass the ball travels fast having hit the surface, but bounces low. The control system is ever so simple and responsive to use. Either lob with the square button, slice using circle, or do topspin shots by pressing X. Use the analogue stick or D-pad to direct the ball and choose the length of shots. One can hit the ball harder so long as your player is near the ball at the point of contact. As you improve you should be able to achieve drop shots as well as smashes.

The World Tour mode is where the bulk of the single player experience is to be had. At the start of this you create a male and a female player. One will customise these players - choosing their name, height, weight, hair colour and such like. Each player starts 300th in the world rankings with novice tennis ability. The objective of the World Tour is to play mini-games to improve your skills to enter progressively harder tournaments around the world to become world number 1 with both players. There are four main types of skills to be improved: (a) serve, (b) footwork, (c) volley, and (d) stroke. The total of eight training mini-games include dodging red balls whilst collecting flags (footwork), serving to knock down pins like in tenpin bowling (serve), and hitting powerful shots back at firing tanks to defeat them (stroke). After participating in a mini-game a screen with numerous player stats is shown, which increase greatly or marginally according to how successfully you executed the training. The RPG levelling up elements of VT2 are exceptionally well implemented since one can really feel how the players begin to improve. For example by choosing to play only footwork mini games, the player will become a fast runner, speeding around the court with ease. Having successfully levelled up one should enter some tournaments. Winning tournaments in World Tour improves your players’ rankings and bank balance. Money earned provides the opportunity to modernise your player’s equipment and clothing, buy new courts, and pay a professional to team with you in a doubles tournament.

To fully complete this game will take you quite a while – anything up to 30 hours. In addition to World Tour there are Tournament and Exhibition modes to enjoy. Tournament mode is very much what you may have seen at the arcade. In single player mode players have to win five stages in a Tournament earning prize money after vanquishing progressively harder opponents, or alternatively play a doubles Tournament with three stages to contest. Exhibition matches allow you to challenge the computer, or your friends to a single match of tennis. Doubles matches can prove to be fast and frantic affairs, which can provide a great laugh especially when human opponents are playing. Additionally VT2 includes a very welcome mixed double option to participate in.


--------Graphics, Sound and Music--------
The graphics are for the most part fairly decent. Some of the professional players facially look like they do in real life. In addition courts and players look colourful throughout, and the animation is slick.

There are some rather neat sound effects to enjoy in VT2. Trainers squeak on court adding a little authenticity to the game. Furthermore the match crowd respectfully clap after a point is won. What’s more the sound of racquet hitting ball sounds precisely like it would do on TV or whilst playing a match at your local sport centre. Players even grunt when striking the ball ultra hard. The techno background music fits VT2’s arcade style well, although it is not really my cup of tea.


--------Critical comments--------
Can be described as rather out of date since some of the players are long retired, such as Patrick Rafter, Monica Seles to name a few. Some may be upset to hear that tournaments and stadiums do not have official names. One can still accurately guess which tournament and/or stadium is being represented though. The English Championship competed on a grass surface clearly corresponds to Wimbledon for example.

The last few tournaments of the World Tour can be a bit of a nightmare to beat. However if you persevere for many hours and level up enough in the mini games you will prevail. Although once you have fully levelled up all stats and become world number 1 there is little more to accomplish in the World Tour.

When you play against the computer sometimes the opponent stops in their tracks and does not even attempt to hit or get the ball back. To avoid this it is best to play on the harder settings. Another significant reason to play on harder settings is that you can have some long, tense but satisfying rallies that provide a great sense of achievement when you win the point.

There are a couple of graphical issues which must be mentioned. Crowds can look a little ridiculous when shown after a point is won because they are essentially cardboard cutouts. Unfortunately the courts and players do not always look smooth, they suffer from jaggy edges. For me this does not ruin the great gameplay offered in VT2, but the graphical complaints are very obvious and will annoy many people.


--------Overall--------
Such is the quality of this title; people do not even need to be a tennis fan to appreciate it. Despite being over four years old, VT2 is undoubtedly the best tennis game available on the PlayStation 2, and ranks very highly against all sport titles. Ebay appears to be the best online way to purchase VT2 nowadays, with anything up to £7 needed for a successful bid. In my opinion due to the sheer amount of hours you could play this game by yourself as well as with friends on a multi-tap, £7 definitely rates as great value for money. After all, still to this day VT2 is a game that is sometimes played in my household.


>My scores:
- Gameplay: 9/10 - is very addictive from the get go ensuring a desire to play more and improve. It is a game that anyone should be able to pick up and play, and most importantly have a great time doing so.

- Graphics: 7.5/10 - not the best in all fairness, and beginning to show signs of old age now. Due to some aliasing issues VT2 can sadly be a bit of an eye sore.

- Longevity: 8.5/10 – playing against friends should provide many hours of fun. Additionally the World Tour has great depth, and should prove a real challenge to master even for hardcore gamers.

- Sound: 8/10 – all things considered this is very good, adding some atmosphere to the matches because the sounds used are like that of a real match. On the downside, VT2 suffers from some rather ordinary techno music.


Final Score: 8.4 out of ten


--------The Future of Virtua Tennis--------
The sequel, Virtua Tennis 3, is due in 2007 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation Portable. This will go some way to addressing some of the problems with VT2, namely a more up to date set of players, including arguably the greatest tennis player of all time Roger Federer, in addition to high resolution graphics. The future of the franchise looks very positive indeed.


Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.

Summary: One of the best sports games available for the PlayStation 2