Sega Nerds

Review: Virtua Tennis 3 (Xbox 360)

by Graham on April 8th, 2007

Well now that Virtua Tennis 3 has been out for a couple weeks and appears to have sold pretty well, considering some mixed reviews, it’s finally Sega Nerds’ time to give our opinions on the game.

First up for anyone who doesn’t know what Virtua Tennis is, or have never played them, I shall give you a quick overview and a slap on the wrist for not playing one of the greatest sports franchises ever.

Virtua Tennis was originally released in the arcades and (shortly after) on the Dreamcast in 1999/2000.  It soon became a hit on both platforms.  The Dreamcast version boasted a brilliant 4-player mode (doubles matches) and some extra modes and mini-games. The game has incredibly fast, fluid play and that great ‘pickup and play’ feel that one can only get from Sega games.  The beauty of the game is it’s also very easy to play, which encouraged younger and non-gamers to play the game.  As well has having the speedy standard tennis matches, the game also had some quirky mini-games which lengthened the average play time of the game and gave it some more “comeback” appeal.

Now Sega has blessed us with the serie’s third home-console game, though the N-Gage and PSP also profited from two different versions of the franchise a little while back. So technically, I think this is actually the fifth or sixth game in the series.  But let’s not split hairs, this is Virtua Tennis 3.

This next-gen game caused quite a stir on the internet a little while back, when Sega first announced it.  A lot of fans of the series had been dying to play a new version, so when it was announced, they all went into a bit of a frenzy.  The game has been released on several platforms this time round; arcade, Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP versions are all available to play.  Now I did actually do a preview of the arcade version a little while back, when I played it at the ATEI show earlier this year, but this time I have chosen to review the Xbox 360 game.

First off, for those who don’t know, even though the game goes by the same title, each system has a slightly different version.  From what I can gather (and have heard), the Xbox 360 version is supposedly the most complete.  The arcade version, (that I played at least), did not have a four-player mode nor did it seem to have any female characters.  The PS3 version has motion-control, (with the Six-Axis controller), but lacks the rumble feature and online multiplayer modes.  The PSP is stripped down slightly, as it is a portable, but I believe supports wireless and (possibly) online play.  But the 360 game has the full-online support and rumble features.

If you have played any Virtua Tennis game, you should know roughly what to expect.  The same games modes are available;

• World Tour: Create your own character and play through various mini-games and challenges to build up your stats. Then enter into tournaments from around the world, to become the number one ranked player.  This is a single-player mode only.
• Tournament: This is basically an “arcade” mode.  You select a player and then play against several players on the main tournament courts from around the world. This is a single player mode only.
• Exhibition: Play with up to four players and setup your own matches by selecting players and courts to play on.
• Court Games: Take part in the mini-games but in versus play.  This mode is for two to four people.  No single play mode.
• Xbox Live: Exclusive to the Xbox version (obviously), compete against real people from around the world or team up in doubles matches for some four-player action.

As you can see, a couple of new modes are here, but the others are just like the original two games.

Enough. How does the game play?
Well now, the game plays almost exactly like the original two games, but I have some issues with it.  The gameplay is essentially exactly the same as the other Virtua Tennis games - you hit the ball, move the control stick, hit back another ball, angle your shots - a bit like a modern version of Pong, some might say.  But I have found that the characters are a lot stiffer in this game.  Everything seems to take more time to do, like hitting the ball, and it makes the game feel slower.

Now some may say this is a good thing, it does make the game feel more realistic. But personally I don’t want realistic.  The beauty of Virtua Tennis is that the game feels and plays like a fast arcade game.  It is realistic to some extent, but the players can normally move pretty fast and dive a lot for the ball.  This doesn’t seem to be the case so much with Virtua Tennis 3.

Also, I swear blind that the computer characters cheat somewhat.  They seem to be able to move faster and hit the ball easier than yourself.  Perhaps it’s all in my mind, but in several games, I have caused my opponent to dive for the ball, then hit the ball to the other side of the court - well away from them - yet they still seem to be able to get back up, run across the court and hit the ball back at me with full power.  But if/when I dive for the ball, they have hit it back at me before I can get up.  Either the players I choose are too slow or the computer has an advantage.

Another issue I have is to do with the controls.  Now the controls are the same.  But in Virtua Tennis 1 and 2, I could get a pin-point accurate serve to where-ever I wished and also hit the ball back to almost any location I wanted.  In Virtua Tennis 3, I cannot.  The angles of your shots seem to be more restricted.

Despite this (possible) cheating though, the game is fun.  And in some ways the cheating computers mean that you have to adopt a different technique over Virtua Tennis 1 and 2.  The different game modes (mentioned above) do add a lot of play time to the game.  The main single player modes, World Tour and Tournament, really help to build up your skills and tactics.

Personally I am not a fan of World Tour mode at all.  I think its a great idea and the mini-games are fun, but I just don’t have the time or patience to play through it all.  Also Sega seems to have made this mode more realistic, too.  I didn’t play it much in Virtua Tennis 2, so perhaps it hasn’t changed, but as far as I remember the player needed to rest at home every so often and also had to make sure they keep their equipment in good shape, or they will become slower or weaker.  Virtua Tennis 3 seems to have taken this further.  You now have different ways of ‘resting’, one is just a sports drink, which recovers stamina, but also leaves you open to injury.  A week’s rest at home can help recover from any potential strains and a short holiday is also available to recover fully.  However, it is also now possible to actually do yourself a physical injury.  I played a few mini-games and then took a sports drink to recover some energy.  I then (foolishly) entered into a small contest, and I lost.  Not only did I lose, but I also damaged one of my tendons and was forced to spend something like 16 weeks recovering! 

Like I say, the whole premise of the World Tour mode is good.  But really I don’t have the patience for it.  I am a bigger fan of the Tournament mode.  It’s simpler and quicker to play through, its also more fun, especially if you just want a quick gaming fix.  But I also have one big problem with Tournament mode. 

For those who don’t know, the previous Virtua Tennis games had secret bosses, which you could face and then unlock to play as them.  Well the bosses are back.  I have faced the Duke and the King.  And I cannot beat them.  I haven’t even come close.  I managed to get one point against the Duke (who seems to only appear against the females) and that’s about it.  With the King, I can just about do a rally for about 20 seconds, before he destroys me.  I do not remember the bosses being so hard.

As I said before the best part about the Virtua Tennis games is how great the multiplayer is.  The good news is that this is still true.  And, more importantly, the Xbox Live modes are brilliant.  I have only managed to play a couple of singles games over Xbox Live, but the game played very well.  It is just like playing against someone next to you really; I noticed no lag or slow down while playing.  Also on Xbox Live, you can watch live matches taking place - so if your friends are playing, you can cheer them on.  They also have highlights for games that you can watch, in case you missed a friend play.  It’s just like watching Wimbledon on tv!

One big thing that has changed in the game are the graphics.  On the Xbox 360 and PS3, in particular, you can notice this.  The characters faces have been done up and their clothes have creases and also move as you play, it’s a lot better than the play starch clothes we are used to on the Dreamcast, but then again this is a much better system in terms of power, so it is expected.

Now, before you get too excited there are some pretty big flaws I found in the graphics.  Well I say big, they are small things really, but in this day and age, one would insist that they be dealt with. 

One glaring issue I have is with the crowd.  From a distance they look acceptable, but as soon as you go into a close up view or the camera pans around, you can see that the crowd is all pixilated and looks flat.  Really if you compare Virtua Tennis 3 to that of, say, Gears of War, you will say that Virtua Tennis 3 isn’t a very ‘complicated’ game and as such I would expect that the 360 and PS3 should be able to easily handle making decent looking 3d crowds- yet Sega haven’t bothered it seems.  The one good thing is that they are animated, but they look pretty blurry and its hard to tell what they are doing sometimes.

Another issue I have is with the character models.  Now on the whole the characters look great, especially the men (now don’t take that the wrong way!).  The men in the game all look like their real-life counterparts, at least I’d they do.  But the women don’t.  Some of the women look pretty decent, compared to their true forms.  But others look nothing like the real players.  Martina Hingis is one, she looks absolutely nothing like the picture they show next to her.  It’s quite shocking really.  If you showed me the games version of Tim Henman, I would say- “Hey that looks like Tim Henman” but you show me the image of Martina Hingis and I will say “Who the hell is that?”.  At one point I was playing as her and I forgot who I was meant to be, she is that bad.

 

This, believe it or not, is Martina Hingis…

(though this angle makes her look better than usual)

Also the women, in real life, have very different shapes to their bodies.  Not being rude, but they have different size thighs, breasts, shoulders etc…  However in the game they have taken one body shape, it seems, and used it on all the women, just changing the skin colour a bit.  I think if you were to give all the female players the same clothes, then you won’t be able to tell most of the apart.  I think that the men also use one body shape, but it is a lot less obvious, as the men don’t have such noticable features.  Also the mens hair and facial shapes vary more.  Most of the women have similar facial features and the vast majority have the same pony-tail haircut.  Also the womens thighs are all way too wide.  None of the women, I have recognised in the game, have such wide thighs in real life, yet Sega seems to have given them all ‘child bearing’ thighs.

 

…and this is what she looks like in real life.  See the difference?

Again though, once you get over some of the questionable character models, you can really appreciate the graphics of the game.  They are very good still and well detailed.  The courts in particular look great close up.  The grass courts look much better than VT 1 and 2.  But again, you would really expect this to be the case with a superior system.

The music and sounds in the game also suffer from some minor complaints, from me.  The sound effects are pretty solid overall, but all the players seem to use the same grunt sound clip, when they hit the ball.  Sure its not a big thing, but when you hear 20 grunts a rally, then it can be a bit annoying.  i would have thought that Sega might have tried to get the actual sound effects that the real life players make.  It would definitely add something to the game I think.

The music is good, but not brilliant.  I actually don’t know how it could be improved really.  It’s pretty fast and ‘pumping’, which heightens the sense of speed in the game.  I just feel it could be better.  Fortunately, one of the brilliant things about the Xbox 360 is that you can play your own music (from the 360, PC or iPod/Mp3 player) in any game you own, so the music can be changed ot whatever you want.  Though that should be no reason for a developer to include shoddy music in a game.

I do have one other totally random complaint about the game.  The Xbox 360 is the only version to support rumble (as I have said) - yet Sega seem to have tried to make it so that 360 owners forget this.  Everytime I start playing, even with my save file, I have to select the rumble option to ‘On’.  For some reason the rumble feature resets itself to ‘Off’ everytime you turn the system off.  It’s almost like Sega didn’t want to put it in…or maybe they are trying to make the PS3 owners feel better.  Still it is a minor complaint, but I like my rumble in games, I think it does add a little something to the play, and you can also tell how hard you are hitting the ball or how hard a player has hit the ball to you- by the ‘vibration’ (rumble) from the tennis racquet.

Virtua Tennis 3 is a great game though.  there is no denying that.  But its not as good as it could have been, I feel.  The Xbox 360’s online modes make the game a better choice than the PS3 version.  But if you don’t own a 360 and have a PS3 then that version isn’t bad either- it would just be better if it also contained the 4 player online play.  What would have been pretty cool would have been if Sega could have made it so PS3 and Xbox players could play against each other- but I’m not sure possible that is really.

One question that I have asked in the past, and I am still asking, is “Why the hell didn’t Sega make a Wii version?”

I did bring this up in an article a while back now, when the game was first announced. It seems crazy to me why Sega would not want to bring Virtua Tennis to the Wii, especially since the huge success Wii Sports has been in Japan (where the package is sold seperately from the system) and how well recieved Wii Tennis has been world wide.  It can’t be the graphical limitations, because Sega have also made a PSP version, and the Wii is clearly more powerful than the PSP.  And I doubt that it’s to do with Sega thinking the motion sensor idea is rubbish- because Sega have made the PS3 version with the controllers motion as part of the play, and also Sega made Monkey Squash (which is almost tennis) as a mini-game in Super MonkeyBall on the Wii!  I honestly cannot see why they wouldn’t have made a Wii version, and I also think the Wii version will be recieved better.  So far Virtua Tennis 3 has had mixed reviews (as I mentioned at the start) but the Wii controller can make quite mediocre games ou to be enjoyable.  It would also draw in more parents and sporty-type people who don’t usually play games, because using the Wiimote would be very similar to using real tennis racquets.

Summary:

To be honest I feel that some of my comments may have been a little harsh.  But at the same time, Sega have have had time to perfect the franchise over the years and with the new systems available, I expect developers to try and use said systems power to the full.

The final score I would say is for the 360 version only though.  As I say the Xbox Live play is great and makes the game just that little bit better.  If there were no online play we would be looking at a point or two less in the score.

A good game, great fun in multiplayer (offline and online) but nothing amazing, nor as groundbreaking as the first two on the Dreamcast.

Overall Score: 7/10

~G~

Tags: Virtua Tennis

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