Virtua Tennis 4

I was quite looking forward to the release of Virtua Tennis 4. When it arrived, I set myself up to play the World Tour and, six hours later, it was over too soon. Essentially, your career lasts all of one season. What happened to a ten year career?

I was very disappointed and wouldn't recommend this to anyone!!!

I used to love the Virtua Tennis series, its playability was second to none and more importantly it was fun. Fast forward a few years and I guess Sega felt the game was looking and feeling a bit stale so decided to tweak it. Luckily enough the general gameplay has been left untouched with the exception that shockingly enough your player will now hit the ball out on occasion, for long term fans of the series this is a big shock! Then there is also the introduction of a super shot which in a game that was never that realistic before is a real nail in the coffin if they wish to attract tennis purists to purchase the game but I guess it will attract the ones that like their tennis games to have cuddly generic characters. However, the same tweaking wasn't applied to the world tour mode which if I'm honest was my favourite part of all the Virtua Tennis games until the developers approached the tweaking to this section with a sledgehammer and what is left can only be kindly described as a mess.

To start with your career now plays out like a big board game ... I kid you not! No more deciding which training sessions (mini games) you want to do because it all depends on what ticket numbers you have which in turn decide how many steps you can take on the board! I was actually in shock for the first 4 seasons as this played out in front of me and I really could not believe that this was seen as a good idea in whatever development meetings they had. It does however get worse while playing this strange take on the Game of Life, you play a number of tournaments, mini games and some strange sections where you get extra points for publicity appearances and the like, this actually affects your world ranking! At this point I just wanted to complete the game and move on to something else but there were a couple more curve balls that they wanted to throw at me before that could happen. The aforementioned `popularity' points which is what I refer to them as I refuse to acknowledge them as a proper world ranking are lost after you complete 4 years which in actuality is four major tournaments the only positive being that you keep your player stats apart from their stamina which goes down to a basic level if you fell the need to play through the game again.

I am now on my third or fourth play through trying to amass the 700 plus popularity points to get the number 1 status. Will I actually attain this I doubt it as everytime I pick this game up I feel like I am genuinely wasting my time.

If you have never played a Virtua Tennis game before or you are buying it to play online then I guess for a cheap enough price this is worth purchasing but to be honest there are better Virtua Tennis games in the back catalogue. On the whole I would say that this is a flawed attempt at tweaking a series which admittedly did need some freshening up but not in the areas that were amended. A more realistic attitude to rallies and players returning the ball would have been far more appreciated than the indescribable world tour as it now stands.

This game is awesome, the graphics are stunning on the PS3 and the game play is excellent but there are a few big time issues!

I bought this game solely for the move compatibility and yes it is amazing playing tennis like you are actually playing tennis, even though it is a little easy at times to be honest. I've played a few other tennis games and this one does really feel if on the court hitting a ball with the move controller. I think the move is a revolution, I am not interested one tiny bit in sitting on my chair with the dual shock working my way through tournaments for hours on end but the move with this game is incredible even though as I said its not pin point accuracy/control as with some games and it is a little easy if anything even on very hard, but its not about that its about the feel of playing tennis using your body and arm to strike the ball, doing back hands etc it is amazing, highly recommended. And it depends how much effort you want to put into it also you can work up a good sweat if you really going for it, my wife aches for days after it as she really goes all out playing the game.

The bad thing is the game is limited with the move control you cant play any sort of career with the game or tournaments you are just limited to exhibition or party mode. It is so annoying that you cant play the full game with the move it has to be done with the dual shock controller and I am not interested. So you are just playing a tiny part of the game with the move, also the main menu screen has to be selected with the main controller its as if the Move control is just an add on at the end when they were programming it, it's a disgrace in this day and age really come on Sega.

As I said earlier the move is a revolution so come on game developers make the most of it, it has the potential to be massive and walk all over the other systems. It took me ages to eventually buy one because the lack of support but I took the risk in hope. I would hate it to be just another white elephant as I think it is definitely the future of gaming enjoyment (and possibly indoor activity/sports).