Virtua Tennis 3

Virtua Tennis 3
Publisher: Sega
ERP: £39.99

You’d think because Virtua Tennis 3 looks so realistic it would prove a trial to play. Instead this is one of the most intuitive sports games around; you’ll be returning serves within seconds, and performing decent cross-court volleys within minutes. It feels like you’re playing proper tennis, thinking in terms of real game strategies as opposed to contending with videogame idiosyncrasies.

Though arguably not as easy as waving the remote in Wii Sports Tennis, VT3 is easily the most accessible and fun-for-all game to be had on PS3 among its 30 launch titles. Of course if you hate tennis you’re screwed.

Singles or doubles matches are quick to set up with one or more friends, and you’ve the choice of 20 real-life players of which seven are female. The likenesses of Henman, Roddick, Federer, Williams, Hingis and the gang have never been so convincing, and we must say their high-definition shirts and socks are equally striking.

All the big names can be led out for the ‘Tournament’ option in either singles or doubles, but your rivals and partners are strictly CPU. For our money the most engaging one-player option is ‘World Tour’, in which you create characters to train them up before qualifying to play even one game. It sounds like an arduous task, but the in-game Tennis Academy makes training enjoyable and meaningful.

Both single and multi-player gameplay options make use of the seven ‘Court Games’, basically skill challenges with goofy themes that include Alien Attack (ground shots), Avalanche (footwork), Pin Crusha (serving) and Bull’s Eye (volleying).

Virtua Tennis 3 is a guaranteed fun game, and one of the best looking on PS3. If only we could say that it is reason enough to buy the console, however we can’t as the same thing is available for Xbox 360 with additional online versus and Leaderboard features among other, albeit minor, technical improvements.

Back to Playstation 3 Launch Special