 "Virtua Tennis 3")
Virtua Tennis and Virtua Fighter are perhaps the two most powerful franchises that Sega has, in today’s date, but while Virtua Fighter has been getting its due with souped up sequels hitting every console generation, Virtua Tennis seemed to remain at a standstill with rehashes of the same game releasing on every gaming platform out there. Hell! I’ve even played it on the GBA (and it was pretty good).
With Virtua Tennis 3, Sega has finally updated the roster to more current players and given the whole franchise a much needed overhaul. Oh! and a new World Tour mode!
The best thing about Virtua Tennis has always been the tight controls and the fact that the game, in general, is a lot more forgiving than the actual sport in terms of getting your ball across without any errors. That same arcade gameplay continues in this new variation of the game, with a few added tweaks that you slowly realize during gameplay.
On the base level, you can pretty much win a lot of matches by just moving your player around and hitting the ball with X and a direction button. But as you play more, you realize the significance of slicing, lobbing and learn how to control the ball speeds and making the most of your opponent’s weaknesses. It gives the player tremendous space to grow and that’s what I liked best about it.
The previous installments was very forgiving in terms of your player ever hitting a shot on the outside, but here, when playing on advanced levels, outside shots will get quite common if you don’t get your shot right.
Anyone one who has played enough of the older variations of Virtua Tennis will be familiar with the World Tour mode, where you create a character using the limited customization options and play out his/her entire career in the ‘Virtua’ world. It’s not as boring as it sounds though, as living out the career doesn’t mean playing needless matches with your coach and family till you get good enough for the real thing; instead you get to play a whole lot of mini games to hone your skills for the big time.
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Though there are only 10 mini games, there’s also a Tennis Academy with a good number of challenges to actually teach you different types of shots and gameplay skills. Playing all this will help develop your character’s skill, which in turn will make him a lot easier to control, and soon you’ll be hitting powerful shots with perfect angling and placement.
Being an arcade game, the controls of Virtua Tennis 3 are as simple as it gets. With the right motivation you can even get your non-gaming family members getting the hang of this in no time. This one is hands down the most accessible sports game on the console.
Graphically, the Virtua Tennis 3 on the PSP seems like a very lazy port. The game looks outstanding on the home consoles with a lot happening around and outside the court. The PSP version tries to cram all of that into it’s limited horsepower and does a fairly good job at it. The area around the court is well detailed to the extent of 3D buildings outside the court area and rows full of people. But, unfortunately it’s quite visible that a lot of the game’s visuals had to be drastically trimmed to keep a solid frame-rate going.
While the crowd looks decent in some parts, in other areas they look like giant pixels. Aliasing plagues everything in the game, and considering Tennis is a sport involving a lot of nets and meshes, you can imagine the damage it does.
With that out of the way, I’d like to add that though the jagged edges may be a bit bothersome, once you start playing a match, it doesn’t really affect the gameplay in any way. In fact, even with the above mentioned flaws, Virtua Tennis 3 is still the best looking tennis game on the console.
Like any other sports game, the best way to play this one is in multiplayer mode. Besides the regular matches you can compete with your buddies in various minigames from the World Tour mode, which is in my opinion a lot more fun. Internet play is sorely missing though, as nothing would have been sweeter than kicking someone’s ass (or getting your own ass kicked) from halfway around the world. Unfortunately Sega has denied PSP gamers of that pleasure and you’ll have to instead look for a PSP owning buddy with another copy of Virtua Tennis 3.
Though the core game is pretty much similar to what you may have experienced in the previous installments; the overall presentation, visual enhancements, better roster and the new and improved World Tour mode are enough to warrant a purchase of Virtua Tennis 3. The fact that its on the PSP makes it even more attractive because of it’s pick-up and play simplicity. Highly recommended!
*All screenshots are taken from the PS3 version.
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