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Radioactive IT Review: Virtua Tennis 2009 - A simulation of grind?
Radioactive IT Review: Virtua Tennis 2009 - A simulation of grind? | Review: Virtua Tennis 2009 - A simulation of grind? |
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| by Mike Bantick | ||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 22 June 2009 | ||||||||||||||||
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Whilst I don’t know too much about how to play football, one sport I do know is Tennis, something I have regularly played for a number of decades now. Which brings us to SEGA’s Virtua Tennis 2009 , the latest in the acclaimed series that began on SEGA’s last console hardware outing the Dreamcast. And on the eve of that lawn tennis institution, The Wimbledon championship, what better time than to take the game out for a set or two? Let’s start with the visuals, the tennis matches look great in VT09, there are a wide variety of venues, from the hard-courts through clay and lawn. Clouds move across the court, and each of the linesman look remain cool as a green fruit of your choice as the dodge 200KMH serves. Each court plays subtly different from the other. Not in a totally realistic manner, but it is nice to see players slide on the clay with legs splayed and struggling to recover. If nothing more than a visual effect it is an immersive one. Audio is well done, with the ball and crowd effects nicely atmospheric, though I would have like more from the players than the odd grunt, an occasional Hewitt style “come-on!” would have added even more to the experience. Structurally, VT09 consists of a number of options: One off exhibition matches, where you can choose one of 25 recognisable world tennis stars from current and past eras. Each player looks a treat, with Sumo Digital obviously taking particular care in crafting the licensed content of player images. The main meat of the game is the World Tour, and here players construct an avatar of their choice to take on a globe trotting expedition towards the number one ranking. For the most part this is a large time investiture in grinding out minor tournaments to rise in rank from the starting amateur #100. It is a tough slog, in the beginning especially, as you play against dopplegangers of your own avatar (the character creation process not being a particular strong part of the game) in, what feels like, back yard events in such places as the Gold Coast. In between matches, your player must maintain Stamina by taking a week off here and there, though Stamina’s import on the game seems limited; there is no noticeable effect on game play, with only the risk of a time wasting injury being the result of letting you players energy level drop too low. CONTINUED on Page 2 |
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