Tennis Sim

I caught you a delicious bass.

Rich

After a classy debut in the arcades and on the Dreamcast, the Virtua Tennis series has kind of sullied itself in recent years.  Firstly, the series has descended started to update a little too often, which is kind of daft for a tennis game (you can barely justify it for football games which are by their nature a lot more complex) and you’ve got the weird naming; why wasn’t Virtua Tennis 2009 called 4 when it was as different to VT3 as this is to VT2009.  Then you’ve got the other recent annoyances such as the badly-balanced online play and horrific rock soundtracks.  Yep, Virtua Tennis has lost a bit of form in recent years.  Can Virtua Tennis 4 restore a bit of pride to the series?

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The early signs aren’t good.  The game’s intro is full-on, Erasure headlining at a pride rally levels of gay.  Now we at PEOWW don’t mind the bummingz, that’s why you love us, but this shit sounds like Justin Biebler covering an Avril Lavigne song.  Add to that the pastel art visuals and you’re a short step away from a civil ceremony.

Endure that torment and you’re presented with the usual menu options.  Arcade Mode is, as you’d expect, a series of five matches against various licensed professional players.  Standard fare.  You’ve also got your usual online modes which are best avoided given how fucking awful and cheap the players are out there.  Especially the ones who have unlocked the game’s best players.

The main meat of Virtua Tennis 4 is in the World Tour Mode.  As usual this is a mix of exhibition matches, tournament play and a collection of mini-games that serve as training for your player.  In all modes, regular play is the tried and tested stuff we’re used to.  You still charge your shots (still the best system for this type of game as it rewards your ability to read the game) and have your usual strokes, slices and lobs (the lob shots are more useful than in VT3 but less effective than those in VT2009).  A new addition is the ‘super shot’ which is mapped to the B button.  You build up your super meter with regular shots and, once it is full, pressing B will unleash a more powerful shot (complete with the camera zooming in unhelpfully to emphasise the point).  These are pretty good.  Effective but not entirely unstoppable.  The other headline is that this game also supports Kinect, unfortunately PEOWW doesn’t acknowledge that shit.  You want Kinect reviews?  Go to a site with less self-esteem.

The mini-games thankfully are all-new so no more bowling and the like.  Highlights include a football-style freekick mode, a chicklet collecting running mode and a bizarre poker variant.  As ever they all work quite well.   The tried-and-now-quite-dull World Tour formula has also been mixed up a little.  Instead of endless seasons of freely attending training events and matches, you are now placed on a ‘Game Of Life’ style path which you traverse using movement cards.  Initially this seems cumbersome and entirely fucking awful but it does help focus the mode, giving you more of a sense of purpose.  It’s not perfect but it is definitely my favourite incarnation of this mode in the whole series.  It helps that it is a lot shorter than usual as well.  Sports games usually overstay their welcome, VT4 doesn’t.

With excellent graphics as usual, a toned-down soundtrack (not great but at least it isn’t the unlistenable dogshit we got in the last couple of games) and just enough changes from VT2009, there are just enough reasons to recommend Virtua Tennis 4.  It isn’t groundbreaking but it’s still the most tennis fun you can have this side of watching Andy Murray lose in a final.

7/10