My first time with the Virtua Tennis series was on SEGA’s ill-fated Dreamcast. I had a hoot with the game as it brought the world of tennis into my living room in a fun and very enjoyable manner. Since that time I have dabbled in playing other tennis games, including subsequent versions of Virtua Tennis, but none of them had the pizazz or zest that made me love the original. Well times are a changin’, and I actually have that same feeling I did when I first played the series on the Dreamcast. Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition is out on the PS Vita, and I have to say that I am wholly impressed by what SEGA has done here.
For those of you who do not know much about the Virtua Tennis series, it is an arcade based tennis game that puts more emphasis on arcade fun and skips most of the realistic and stat based gameplay of any other tennis games out there (e.g. Top Spin, Grand Slam Tennis). It is strictly about playing tennis against your opponent, while playing some mini-games to level up your character too.
As one would expect in a tennis game, there is a career mode that will take you some time to make your way through. You can create a custom player by taking your picture, or you can choose a generic looking character and fine tune their features for something that may, or may not, be a close resemblance to you. The picture option is a nice touch, but it is hard to get your own skin to match one of the eight shades that they provide in the game. I stuck to just making some random character and altering their features to get a slight, and I do mean slight, resemblance to me.
As you make your way through the career you will discover it is just not about going from match to match, as it has a “board game” feel to it as you make your way through each season. You are assigned certain cards that represent a number of spaces you can move. On the board are single or doubles matches, training games, autograph sessions, charity events, special matches, hotel stops, and even accidents that can take away money or stars (the latter being what determines your level). You can also land on management spaces which allows you to buy cards that give you an agent (more stars for each event), shuffle your ‘move’ cards, add a ‘one space’ card, or get a restore card (health). There are even gold management spaces that really give you some premium cards/items to use. As you navigate the map you will find that paths split into two and no path is the same. It adds a bit of strategy in terms of what you may want to do, so choose your path wisely. Your ultimate goal is to get to the season ending tournament at the end of each map in the allotted number of days.
The whole board game map adds a bit of randomness to the your career as you just never know what the map is going to contain. You can use a “view mode” and see what is coming up down the path, but you really don’t know what move cards (number) you will get so you cannot plan to move to specific spots until you know what number a move may be. As mentioned above, the whole strategy thing takes place here, as you can try to go down a path with specific matches, training games, or events, but you really never know if you are indeed going to be able to land on it for sure. Luck is important as you hope you get that one card to let you move a certain number of spots.
One of the main ways to level up your character is to earn stars, and the best way to earn stars is to play in singles and doubles matches that are found throughout each map. These can take the form of Satellite Tournaments, Special Matches, or Training Matches. Each of these can vary, with Satellite Tournaments being tiered, Special Matches being against high profile tennis players, and Training Matches are just random matches. Should you be online with your PS Vita as you play, you will randomly download player-created characters that other Virtua Tennis 4 players have made and leveled up. It was neat to get to play against characters that were created by other gamers out there. The higher the level that a player’s character is, the greater the in game monetary reward too.
The computer AI can put up a fight later on in your career. They definitely manage to make some great shots now and then and you will find yourself yelling at your on-screen persona to get the “damn ball”. Playing doubles can double (pun intended) the frustration too as your computer controlled AI partner can make some pretty damn poor shot choices at times. Overall though the skill level is manageable, and can be rewarding when you struggle with certain opponents and you finally manage to beat them during a hotly contested match.
Since its inception Virtua Tennis has been synonymous with some great mini-games, and Virtua Tennis 4 is no different. You’ll find some great games to level up your character during your career including keeping a rally going with huge wind fans blowing on you around the court, trying to keep a giant bomb from exploding on your side of the net, breaking clay plates, herding baby chicks, and even scoring on a soccer net with a goalie and defenders in the way. It is a nice way to break up your career path and the multiple difficulty levels for each mini-game makes it somewhat more addicting.
For those of you not looking to play through the career mode all the time, you can play the more simplified Arcade Mode, which is a four match tournament that is all about playing, and no need for leveling up or making your way through the Career game board. I found that this mode is quite difficult early on, as the matches ramp up quite quickly. Put the skill level on the harder level and you’ll even be in for a much more difficult time. Regardless, the arcade mode is simple and a great way to get a quick fix. Of course there is also an Exhibition Mode should you want that truly simple experience of one quick match.
The game’s controls were spot on. I was amazed how great the game controlled using the classic button setup including the left analog stick and the four face buttons. Not to just be content with classic controls, SEGA has added some touchscreen controls too. You will swipe to make your shots and use the touchscreen to move your player around. These Vita specific controls do take some time to adjust to, but they are fairly well implemented and add a bit of novelty to the game. If I had one complaint with them it was that I just wasn’t as good with the touchscreen controls as I was with the classic controls. They are definitely doable, but they just didn’t seem as accurate or natural for me personally.
For those looking for some multiplayer mayhem with real human opponents, Virtua Tennis 4 offers up some of this as well. You can head online and play against fellow tennis nuts. I didn’t play to much of this, but the matches I did play were pretty smooth and I managed to hold my own now and then. There was very little lag in the controls, but I did note that when I did hit some it was more of a poor connection with my opponent then that of the game itself. You can also use the Ad-Hoc capabilities of the PS Vita for person-to-person play.
It is also worth mentioning that some of there is a series of VT Apps (Virtual Touch) that allow you to really put the PS Vitas features to the test. There is a two player touchscreen match mode, a VR Match where you tilt the handheld console to move the camera and enjoy matches from the player’s point of view, as well as a game where you tilt a boat while aiming and shooting at targets. These are neat little tech demos and a nice change of pace now and then. I definitely didn’t mind them at all.
Visually I have to say that Virtua Tennis is a solid looking game and I was thoroughly impressed with the on-screen visuals. From the court surfaces to the stadiums themselves, everything looks fabulous. The shadowing and lighting are the stars here as playing under the mid-afternoon sun, or under the artificial lights during a night game, you’ll be amazed with how the lighting is done and how the shadows of the courts, and your on screen player, look. There is a nice selection of courts and stadiums too, from simple park-like courts to the main stages of the big four tournaments (France, London, Australia, and US). Unfortunately, SEGA does not have any official tournament licenses, so the names that are associated with these tourneys are not to be seen, but that is ok as the gameplay is great in these somewhat fictional settings. Of course the crowd is also prevalent as they get up and clap when a great play or rally occurs. They are not just backdrops as they are animated and lively.
Players generally look pretty solid, from Federer or Roddick, Wozniacki or Sharapova, to classic players such as Becker or Courier, they all look like their real life counterparts. Animations of these virtual tennis players are good, as each character, custom or in-game, moves across the screen smoothly. There are some strange animations now and then, such as AI opponents stopping as they go for the ball, but overall these are not that noticeable all the time and they don’t break up the gameplay at all. There are even small details like the ball boys running after a ball that hits the net and line judges making gestures when a serve is in or out of bounds. All in all Sega did a great job in the visuals of this game on the PS Vita, and it shows.
Finally, the sound is a bit of a mixed bag. The sound of tennis balls hitting racquets or various court surfaces sounds pretty darn good, and the crowd around the various sized courts and stadiums manages to cheer at the right times or sigh in despair during poor play. These aspects really do bring you into the game. Where I was somewhat disappointed was with the sounds of the players themselves. They are very quiet during matches. If you have ever watched a tennis match on TV you’d know that this is far from the case, especially the female players. There is no grunting or screaming during those really big hits, and when there is the semblance of some noise, it seems very generic indeed. I wished that the game had the actual noises these professional players made when hitting that cross-court smash, but instead you the odd canned voice effect if anything at all.
After playing Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition for the last week or so, I have to say that it is a very good game. One of the biggest things I found is that I wanted to play it more often than not, and that is a very good sign of a well designed title. With solid graphics, great control, and some addictive gameplay elements, these are only slightly hampered by some mixed sound. In the end you really can’t go wrong adding Virtua Tennis 4 to your shopping basket when you make that decision to buy a PS Vita, as it is a great sports title for any gamer on the go.
