| Developer: |
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| Hitmaker (formerly AM3) |
SEGA |
Out Now! |
Sports |
£39.99 |
1-4 |
3+ |
VMS, Vibration Pack, VGA box, Arcade stick.
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Game, set and match to Dreamcast!
| Ah, Tennis. When you think of tennis you think of small yellow balls and raquets, then you'll think of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and... (Oh, yeah!) Anna Kornikova! But that's a shame because these players aren't in this game but, you do get to play as Britain's Tim Henman! Which, er... isn't really that good, is it? Well it doesn't matter cos this game is BRILLIANT! Virtua Tennis is Simply the BEST sports game this year! And from none other than the makers of Crazy Taxi, Hitmaker (formerly AM3)! The game has superb graphics, realistic sound, reasonable music and amazingly playable gameplay! And the game will last you quite a while too! |  |
"Whatd'ya mean, this looks real! You cannot be serious!"
As you can tell from the screenshots the game looks amazing! Well, that's an understatment cos the game looks real! The players look just like they do in real life but in the close up shots it looks as if they could do with a bit more sleep. There are 8 players to select from at first all beautifully modelled and brilliantly motion captured. The graphics are extremely detailed right down to a coin being flipped and landing on the ground, a little cloud of dust being moved by a player on the clay court and even the cloudsmoving over cast a shadow on the court! This is exactly what Dreamcast has promised, incredibly realistic graphics.
Realistic Whacks and reasonable music!
The sound of the game helps make the game even more realistic with the whack sound when the ball gets a hard hit to the "miss-hit" kind of sound when the players stretch and only get it with the frame of their raquet. There is also a thump sound for when the players comically jump for the ball, miss, and land (Ow, bruises). There are also squeeks of the tennis player's shoes for the hard courses and crunchy kinda sounds on the sand courts. There is also the satisfying clapping and cheers from the crowd and the "Oohs and Aahs" when a player dived a seemingly impossible return and the "Jeers and boos" from a player's fans when a he hits the ball out of play. The choice of music for the game is questionable though, I mean, rock music for a tennis game? It doesn't quite work does it? The music is of a reasonable quality though.
Great gameplay!
The game has a superb learning curve that lets you in gently with a simple 2 button game system and is easy to pick up and play for beginners. When you start getting right into Virtua Tennis you will start to realise that there is a lot of depth in there. You can alter the way you serve, perform dropshots with backspin (by holding down as you hit the ball) that can catch baseline players offguard, lob players (by pressing B) that are net-dwellers, or try to hit the ball as hard as you can by having a good backswing (by holding the A button when the ball is coming to you) and putting plenty of topspin (by holding up as you hit the ball) on the shot. You can also guide which way you want the player to hit the shot (by pressing left or right) and also put topspin or backspin as you do so to catch out un-alert players. It is also possible to pull off a cheeky underhand serve (by pressing down, A and B simultaneously).
World Tour mode and Lastability!
The longevity of the game is helped by the addition of the exhibition mode and (more importantly) World Tour mode. The Exhibition mode allows you to choose a player in either singles or doubles and play in a court of your choice with rules of your choice. The World Tour has a Great challenge and you have to work your way to World No.1 from 300th. World tour, like Crazy Taxi, has a whole load of mini-games to perfect your skills like the Bowling game (very Crazy Taxi) where you have to serve and knock down as many pins as you can, Big wall, Return ace, Bull's eye and a few others there is also one (the one with the Giant balls) that takes place in the Tennis court from Crazy Taxi! The World Tour is very challenging and is almost to the point of being too challenging because once you pass a Level 3 training game that was probably due to pure luck and that's probably the only time you'll pass it but this doesn't make the game unenjoyable.
The Game Overall!
A highly playable and enjoyable game that is simply the BEST sports title this year! Buy it! Even if you don't like tennis! Yet another great game from Hitmaker! Virtua Tennis aces the competition!
The Mark!
 | Graphics 97%
Sound 94%
Playability 96%
Lastability 95%
Overall 96%
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Barry the SuperScot
OK now that's the review's finished. I'm expected on centre court in 10 minutes!
Pictures courtesy of Sega.com and Hitmaker.
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