Virtua Tennis 2009

Virtua Tennis 2009

Not so much of a new ‘spin’, but exciting improvements are ‘served’.

Probably the last time Sega gets away with updating this winning formula, and fans who already own Virtua Tennis 3 may decide to save their pennies. But there’s no denying the core appeal of Virtua Tennis 2009, building on the most accessible and proven successful of all racket ’n’ ball tournaments on console.

The big new-new thing is the new World Tour, enhanced with the ability to create a player and take him (or her) online to become Virtua Tennis Champion. Bragging rights withstanding, by entering online tournaments you also earn virtual prize money to buy performance upgrades and show-off accessories from an online Tennis Store.

Sega has introduced three legends to the roster, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, and
Tim Henman. You can take instruction from one of these guys to improve your game, which is quite an attractive approach to a vanilla Training Mode. In the end, though, your best training will be against other players online who know how the game really works, not just how it ideally works in theory. And this leads us neatly onto talking about the new player animations.

In Virtua Tennis 3 (upon which Virtua Tennis 2009 is certainly based) your players have a tendency to dive for balls that are only marginally out of reach. It takes an age for them to recover, by which time your wily opponent has thwacked a return ball across court. This really sucks and we’ve always hated it. The good news is that the diving antics are toned down for Virtua Tennis 2009. The bad news is that there is another annoying animation taking its place: bending down on one knee to return a lob. The first time you see this it’s cool, but when you realise it restricts movement you’re back to grinding teeth and squeezing the controller so hard you almost break it.

That aside there is scope for more strategic rallying this year, making your standard top spin, slice and lob work to your best advantage. In the one-player mode versus the console you’ll figure out how to lead them astray more effectively – they don’t read your mind like they used to. Not as much, anyway. So when you’re up against Andy Murray or Ana Ivanovic, take your pick from over 20 real-world players, there’s a better sense of wearing them down to earn your victory.

All of which ought to make competing in the newly added, officially endorsed, Davis Cup tournament that much more compelling. Also give reason enough to improve your game by practicing with the 12 Court Games that relieve the boredom of aiming shots by giving you animals to feed (Zoo Feeder) or ships to sink (Pirate War) etc.

Virtua Tennis 2009 is the most fun, and most accessible tennis game available for PS3 and Xbox 360. Maybe mark this down to a ‘3 out of 5’ if you already own Virtua Tennis 3 because the online rankings and downloads only make a slight difference to the overall experience in this update. If you’re new to PS3 or Xbox 360 and only just starting your collection however, there’s no better way to enjoy Wimbledon when it rains.

4 out of 5