Sega Nerds

G-Spot: No Wii Virtua Tennis a mistake?

Posted by Graham. Filed under Nintendo Wii. Tagged with Exclusive, G-Spot.

Sega has always been well known for its brilliant sports titles on all systems, and they found huge success and world-wide acclaim in the form of Virtua Tennis in the Arcades and on the Dreamcast.

So it isn’t surprising that so many people, including myself, have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Virtua Tennis 3.

Since Virtua Tennis 3 was first revealed to be in development, the game was originally said to be for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. But more recently, Sega has revealed that the game will also be appearing on the PSP. All good things I say.

The 360 and PS3 players get to see some high-definition Tim Henman volleys (Hey, I’m British - I’m always going to be backing the home team!). Whilst the more outdoor going gamers get to play some fantastic tennis on the go, anywhere without the need for carrying anything bigger than a pencil case - with the PSP version.

It is here though that one must beg the question: “Why not the Wii?”

Before, when the game was first put into the public eye, the game was only set out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 - the thought of the Wii probably never even entered into people’s minds; I’m sure most of you were thinking either “Oh cool, Virtua Tennis 3 out on the 360 and PS3!” or “Oh great, another tennis game…”

The Wii was such a highly-kept secret that most people didn’t even know about it at the time, which is most probably why no one has questioned the lack of development of such key games, until now.

We all know the Wii and what it’s capable of, well, you should do by now! Some sceptics may argue that there is no Wii version in development because the Wii isn’t powerful enough.
Well, certainly the Wii isn’t as powerful as the Xbox 360 or PS3, but what about the PSP? Comparing the Wii to other consoles, we can agree that it lies somewhere between the power of the Xbox and the Xbox 360/PS3. It’s definitely more powerful than the Xbox, though not all games show it right now, but other than that, we know very little about the Wii’s true potential (graphics wise). But what we should all be able to realise is that the Wii can handle more than the PSP.

Sure the PSP version won’t be the same as the 360 or PS3 versions. No doubt Sega has many cool features to implement on either versions. We also know that Sega is using the PS3’s tilt functions to add to gameplay, which just furthers the question: “Why not the Wii?”

The Wii has pretty much been proven to be a great experience and a way forward for many gaming genres- especially sports titles. With the Wii controller, you feel more involved in the game. No longer just pushing buttons, gamers now actually have to swing to hit balls or throw to bowl a ball, a bit like real life. But here, even weedy geeks get to hit a homerun. But enough of this - you all ready know this!

With Sega showing their use of Sony’s new tilt functions for their controller, why Sega would shun the prospect of a Wii version makes no sense to me.
The Wii version of the game could be enough to keep the Virtua Tennis series feeling new and fresh - gamers actually having to “hit” the ball across court. Some say its gimmicky; they said that about the DS, which is still outselling all competition world wide by a long shot. They also said that about the Sing Star games on the PS2 - of which they have successfully developed about six different versions. Even if it is gimmicky, it wouldn’t turn people away if the game itself is good enough, and so far, the Virtua Tennis games have all been good fun. If anything it would draw more interest in the game.

I for one can tell you that I would rather play a sports title on the Wii. Just from playing Wii Sports I can tell that the unique controller does add something to the gameplay. Even the basic Wii Golf is 10 times more fun than any other golf game I have encountered.

The only issue, which I skimmed over briefly in a previous post, that could cause some concern is the lack of power the Wii has. But how advanced are the graphics on a Virtua Tennis title? The Virtua Tennis games always look good, great in fact, but I highly doubt they are using all of the 360’s power - all 3 core processors to produce two players and a ball.
From the recent screenshots that have been shown, the graphics look good. But really they aren’t making you weep with happiness are they? If they are, then I suggest you play Gears of War or Oblivion, because your eyes will start melting. From what I have seen, the graphics would easily be done on the Wii. If not though, like I mentioned before, they are also making a PSP version…..a stripped down Wii version could certainly be more fun than the 360/PS3 version.

Sega probably aren’t fussing too much anyway, they know that Virtua Tennis will sell, and it will be popular. But will it really?
It seems there are so many sports titles flooding the market these days that it is hard to keep up and since the birth of Virtua Tennis, many other tennis games have been drifting onto the scene that it’s probably not long now before the fickle market of gaming starts to turn its nose up at sports titles. It’s hard to see how Sega could have advanced the series much past that of Virtua Tennis 2 (aka- Tennis 2K2) on the Dreamcast and World Tour on the PSP.

Indeed if you look at Sega’s official website, it claims to have new features such as “New World Tour mode: Create your own superstar and enjoy a host of new mini-games, tournaments and challenges. ” … sorry that’s not new. That was done on Virtua Tennis 2. Perhaps the mini games are new, but no doubt they will keep a few old favourites in, and mini games either get annoying of bloody boring very quickly.

So what could be a good way to keep the franchise fresh and exciting for us gamers with low attention spans and fat wallets (the latter isn’t so true for me)??? How about a new system with a totally unique and new way of playing games?

Sega, it seems, says no.

A mistake? Only time will tell really- roll onto March/ April 2007 and we will see what the sales figures yield. But still it could only really benefit Sega’s wallet to produce the game for the Wii. Couldn’t it?

Wii-Sports. This simple game has proven to be very fun and quite addictive. Possibly the closest thing to Virtua Tennis Wii owners will be seeing for a while…