awoolcott's Full Review: Virtua Tennis for Dreamcast
Personally, I really don't like tennis that much. I can never get into it. Perhaps it's because I seriously suck at it, but tennis isn't on the list of favorite sports. However, I've always liked a good tennis game for a video game machine. After all, a tennis game is nothing but a pretty copy of the famous Pong game. Unfortunately, most tennis games out there are either not very good, or too cartoony for my tastes.
Enter Sega's Virtua Tennis. Made by the same people who created the equally addictive Crazy Taxi series, Virtua Tennis is crack burned onto a CD. Since it was bred in the arcade, it maintains a fun, fast-paced feeling, and combined with real players and almost real looking graphics appeals to the realism-inclined folk (like me). Tack on the fun, yet somewhat bizarre World Circuit mode, and you get yet another incredible Dreamcast title. It's great for multiplayer, as well as single-player; and even though there is a few things missing, and a quirk or 2, you can easily forgive these oversights.
Different Doses of Addiction - Virtua Tennis consists or 3 play modes - Exhibition, Arcade, and World Circuit. The exhibition mode is pretty straightforward; you can pick between singles and doubles play, pick your players, choose your court and surface of play (which truthfully doesn't make much of a difference), and off you go. You can play up to 4 player mode using the 4 DC ports, for maximum multiplayer fun. There are also a lot of assorted options to adjust, like amount of games needed to win, a difficulty meter, and that sort of thing. It's very customizable.
Arcade is a 5 tier ladder tournament - you win, you move on. All the matches are in real settings, even if the names aren't; you play in Australia, France, the US, and England. The final is in Japan. You can play it in both singles and doubles, and your score is ranked by how much money you make. That varies by your performance in each match.
The meat of VT is the World Circut mode. Virtua Tennis' attempt at a career mode, you spend your time playing in various locales and completing various training exercises. If you don't, you can't advance. It's kind of similar to the Mission mode in Soul Calibur. With your earnings, you can buy players to use in the other 2 modes, extra courts in exhibition, get a doubles partner for WC doubles matches, and buy extra attire for looking good on the court.
It's not as easy as you'd think - each level you defeat gets tougher and tougher, and the Training games are very challenging. And strange. Remember, the same people behind Crazy Taxi are behind this, so the weird modes like Crazy Box & Pyramid are par for the course. There's even a bowling Training mode, where the goal is to get a set amount of points. Strange indeed. Each one teaches you a worthwhile skill, like the CT minigames, thus are essential for mastering.
If you make it to the top, you get the honor of being the world's number one ranked player. You might even get a cookie too. The only thing different is a real, true career mode that lets you create a player, participate in real tournaments with seedings, and work your way up in that way. Perhaps this fall's sequel will make this possible. Not having this really kills replay somewhat -once you finally do complete the game, there isn't anything new to do.
On The Court - Of course, all this means jack if the game plays badly. But, saying it plays pretty good would be a massive understatement. For one, the controls are as simple as you can piece together. There's a button for a regular hit, and one for a lob. Using the analog or digital sticks, you can somewhat direct the direction of the shot, or set up a point-winning smash. And that's about it. It's incredibly simple. Which is why it's so addictive.
Since you don't have to worry about making sure you're hitting the right button, you can concentrate on playing the game. It's a pure twitch feeling, thumb killing, life-taking over experience. It's amazing how cool it is to serve, then hit the return shot back to the opposite corner for the point, or diving at the ball to save it from going past you (but sometimes you set yourself up for a smash by the opponent). It's fun in singles, but in doubles it's even better. Both require strategy that is unique to each other - in doubles you have to learn how to cut off the court and let your partner help out (and the CPU partner is pretty smart) or set yourself up for a loss. In singles it's a little different; you have to learn how to control your shot and try to sneak it past your opponent, and play the entire court.
It's at its most fun when you're trying to get that match point and get into a back and forth fast-paced war. Once I had about 20 straight returns back and forth until I finally got the winning point. My thumb hurt, but it felt pretty damn good to FINALLY get that last point! It's that addictive, fast paced, easy to pick up quality that makes Virtua Tennis so much fun.
Thankfully, the control is spot on, with no delays or strange quirks. If the control was off this game would have some problems.
Is It Real, Or Am I Hallucinating? - Graphically, well, it's awesome. Except in one area, this is almost a lifelike game. Each court is unique, and the major ones, Australia, etc, are almost perfect replicas of the real deals. During gameplay, the point of view and lighting make it look just like you're watching a real game of tennis. All the various courts, like grass, clay, hardcourt, or carpet each are distinctive and easy to tell apart. The various animations, like diving for the ball and the big smash, are all well done and are lifelike touches.
The players themselves look good - until you look at the faces. These guys look straight out of Resident Evil. Really creepy. Only a (blind) mother could love these faces.
Smashin' To The Beat - The music is distinctive Sega, with quasi-cheese rock riffs that can be pretty entertaining. It's really not bad at all. There are a lot of touches though that is a testament to the terrific attention to detail (look at all those T's. Say that 10 times fast!). For instance if you're playing in France, the announcer dude in the background will speak in French. In Australia there's an Australian accent, and same with Germany and most of the others. I think in England they use a US English announcer, I can't recall. That would be the only oddity about it.
The rest of the effects are standard fare, with the cheering crowd and typical tennis sounds like thwacking the ball back and forth. No news is good news in this situation.
A Pun-free Finale - Virtua Tennis is a smash hit for Dreamcast, if you'll pardon the pun. Despite it not reaching its full audience perhaps because of it being tennis, VT stands as one of the best DC games released. It's addictive and simple to pick up and play. And hey, it's 20 bucks. If you're rounding out that Dreamcast collection in preparation of the slow demise, check out VT, tennis fan or no. You'll be as surprised as I was.
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