Virtua Tennis : World Tour Review (no fat)

Game Description

The Virtua Tennis franchise visited many platforms during the last years. Probably the most renowned would be the excellent classic Dreamcast version. This was ported to PS2 and now it moved to the PSP handheld console with Virtua Tennis World Tour. The PSP version isn’t very different from the Dreamcast installment, except introducing some new game modes and mini-games but this is not a bad thing. It has kept the simple yet addictive gameplay of it’s predecessor and it’s one of the best sports games available for the PSP.

Virtua Tennis WT Gameplay

Well you might say that tennis is not interesting. So except tennis fans, no one should be interested by this game. You couldn’t be more wrong though. This game is very easy to learn, it has numerous ways to motivate you with addictive gameplay and long term challenges.

First of all it’s ideal for short 5-10 minute gaming sessions because you can choose the Quick Play game mode and play through a short match with random players and random court. When you have more time on your hands you can play a tournament with one of 14 well known tennis pros or you can start your path to becoming the world’s best in World Tour mode.

Virtua Tennis WT Role-playing

The World Tour mode is definitely the most interesting game mode available…merely because it incorporates many role playing elements. First of all you have to create a pair of players, a male and a female. You don’t have a lot of appearance options to choose from but they are sufficient to create unique characters. The role playing elements come into play as you’ll have to train your player. They will have pathetic skills in the beginning and bringing them to the top will take a lot of hard training and winning tournaments.

Training takes place through numerous challenging and fun mini-games. Each mini-game raises certain attributes like strength, speed, footwork etc. and you can develop your character. Your character remains unique because of the choices you make during training sessions.

You will have to spend a considerable amount of time playing these mini-games. However, this is not a real problem considering they are quite a lot of fun. As you get better you will be able to enter tournaments and success in tournaments will result in better world ranking.

As you progress you will also be able to buy better outfits, and racquets to help out your player. The only drawback you could find in this game is the amount of time you’ll need in order to climb to the top. Tournaments are very difficult for a novice player and you will need quite some practice to finish in top spots.

Virtua Tennis WT Multiplayer

Of course such a game cannot exist without a multiplayer option. Virtua Tennis World Tour has up to 4 player Wi-Fi multiplayer and the game runs smooth and relatively lag free. You can only play the multiplayer game in the Quick Match mode which is really fun, but being able to play the mini-games too would have been nice. The only small annoyance in multiplayer is the slightly different handling of players, especially during serves.

Virtua Tennis WT Graphics and Sound

Virtua Tennis has excellent graphics for a handheld game. The character models and tennis courts are detailed and you can see smooth textures everywhere. The motions are also fluid and lifelike. This is accompanied by a slick interface so there’s almost nothing to complain about. The only slight annoyance encountered would be that the visibility of the ball is low when playing at night in lighted courts and this can cause a bit of frustration until you get used to it.

There’s not much to be said about the sounds in the game. We can hear synthetic background music reminiscent to the classic Dreamcast version. The sound effects aren’t many as they’re not needed. The sound of hitting the ball, the occasional shouts of players or the applause's of the tribune are realistically implemented.

Virtua Tennis WT Summary

Virtua Tennis World Tour is definitely a very fun game and it’s worth playing even if you’re not a tennis fan. This holds good for quick bursts of playtime or when you are looking to play long hours. Virtua is one of the best titles for the PSP console, so it’s worth giving a try.

Virtua Tennis – Cost

Virtua Tennis : World Tour currently retails at the price of $29.99US at the time of writing.