REVIEW
Virtua Tennis 3
PlayStation 3
SEGA
Reviewed by Jared Fretwell
Sports like Basketball, Football, Baseball, etc are already popular among North America, but what about Tennis? Actually, Tennis is becoming a very popular sport that younger people are starting to get into. But from a video game perspective, is Virtua Tennis as much fun as other Tennis games like Wii Sports Tennis?
Gameplay
Virtua Tennis is not one of Sony's most popular PS3 sports games, but If you're a hard core Tennis fan, you will probably find this game good for its money. Now that I've covered some of the basics, lets jump into the fun. When the game starts, a promo video starts playing. One of the things you'll notice is the super repetitive music, but I'll tell you more about that later. There are 3 main modes: World Tour, Exhibition, and Tournament.
Exhibition: If you're looking for a quick match, you will probably want to enter exhibition mode. You can choose how many sets you'd like to play, along with games, etc.
World Tour: This mode is actually one of the most exciting modes that this game offers. First, you actually get to create your own tennis player. You will be able to choose things like hair styles, clothes, lefty or right, skin tone, facial features, and more. Once that complete, you must start training your avatar so that his basic skill level will increase. There are many different ways to increase your avatars skill level, but the most popular way is with mini games. Some of the most famous mini games that this game offers is bowling and trying to knock down objects via hitting the tennis ball. Once you level up enough, you will be able to play in beginner tournaments, but make sure not to expect too much from your player. What I mean is that your avatar compared to a real player like Nadal on the game will be extremely different in terms of skill level. Your player will be very slow, so make sure to work on those things.
Tournament: This mode consists of about 5 or 6 matches vs. other players in this game. Even if you set the mode to "very hard", your first tournament match will be fairly easy, so don't think that you have it in the bag yet! Round 2 is a bit more challenging, but you get the idea. I've made it to the final round many times, but I only remember winning the championship once or twice on "very hard".
Now if you're in to doubles tennis, this game also has something you might be interested in. You can match up your genders anyway you'd like. One problem with this game is that the women hit just as hard as the men. Now, I don't mean to sound like a sexist pig, but that does take a bit of the reality away. The PS3's AI is actually used well in this game, because you wont find your partner making too many foolish mistakes. If you decide to cover the net, he/she will take the baseline. This does not however mean that you can play stupid and leave your side open. The AI will take advantage and hit the ball there.
Virtua Tennis 3 is a pretty recent game, but has some non recent players. It does have the current top 2 male players in the world ( Roger Federer & Rafa Nadal ), but where is number 3? If you buy this game only to play as your favorite tennis player throughout the whole game, you better check to see if he or she is included. Including men and women, there are only about 20 people to choose from altogether, and I found that disappointing.
Last but not least.. The music is so annoying. It is this very hyped up rockish type music, and it plays while you're in the menu. Not only that, but it plays while you're in your match! I know that Virtua is known for its "arcade" type of feel, but a lot of people who played this game with me got turned off by the music itself. You might say, "no big deal, just turn the music off"..well if it were only that easy. Once you mute the crappy music from playing, it decides to stop any music from playing, even with the intro video. I thought that was one of the lowest points of the game.
Graphics
Gameplay
Virtua Tennis is not one of Sony's most popular PS3 sports games, but If you're a hard core Tennis fan, you will probably find this game good for its money. Now that I've covered some of the basics, lets jump into the fun. When the game starts, a promo video starts playing. One of the things you'll notice is the super repetitive music, but I'll tell you more about that later. There are 3 main modes: World Tour, Exhibition, and Tournament.
Exhibition: If you're looking for a quick match, you will probably want to enter exhibition mode. You can choose how many sets you'd like to play, along with games, etc.
World Tour: This mode is actually one of the most exciting modes that this game offers. First, you actually get to create your own tennis player. You will be able to choose things like hair styles, clothes, lefty or right, skin tone, facial features, and more. Once that complete, you must start training your avatar so that his basic skill level will increase. There are many different ways to increase your avatars skill level, but the most popular way is with mini games. Some of the most famous mini games that this game offers is bowling and trying to knock down objects via hitting the tennis ball. Once you level up enough, you will be able to play in beginner tournaments, but make sure not to expect too much from your player. What I mean is that your avatar compared to a real player like Nadal on the game will be extremely different in terms of skill level. Your player will be very slow, so make sure to work on those things.
Tournament: This mode consists of about 5 or 6 matches vs. other players in this game. Even if you set the mode to "very hard", your first tournament match will be fairly easy, so don't think that you have it in the bag yet! Round 2 is a bit more challenging, but you get the idea. I've made it to the final round many times, but I only remember winning the championship once or twice on "very hard".
Now if you're in to doubles tennis, this game also has something you might be interested in. You can match up your genders anyway you'd like. One problem with this game is that the women hit just as hard as the men. Now, I don't mean to sound like a sexist pig, but that does take a bit of the reality away. The PS3's AI is actually used well in this game, because you wont find your partner making too many foolish mistakes. If you decide to cover the net, he/she will take the baseline. This does not however mean that you can play stupid and leave your side open. The AI will take advantage and hit the ball there.
Virtua Tennis 3 is a pretty recent game, but has some non recent players. It does have the current top 2 male players in the world ( Roger Federer & Rafa Nadal ), but where is number 3? If you buy this game only to play as your favorite tennis player throughout the whole game, you better check to see if he or she is included. Including men and women, there are only about 20 people to choose from altogether, and I found that disappointing.
Last but not least.. The music is so annoying. It is this very hyped up rockish type music, and it plays while you're in the menu. Not only that, but it plays while you're in your match! I know that Virtua is known for its "arcade" type of feel, but a lot of people who played this game with me got turned off by the music itself. You might say, "no big deal, just turn the music off"..well if it were only that easy. Once you mute the crappy music from playing, it decides to stop any music from playing, even with the intro video. I thought that was one of the lowest points of the game.
Graphics
Compared to other next gen tennis games, Virtua is up to par on graphics. The players look very close to the real thing, but its not like you would mistake fake Federer for the real one. There are about 8 different courts you can play on, and all of them have very good detail. Since this was on a Blu-ray disc, I thought that they could of put a bit more detail into graphics though.
Online Features
Online..what online!? Unlike the 360 version, the PS3 version did not come with online capability! This was another disappointment, because online could of taken this game to another level. I know that the PS3 online could use some work, but that's no reason not to include it. I'd rather them wait a few more months to release the game just so they could add online.
Controls
The controls for Virtua are very, very simple. Anyone could pick up a PS3 controller, and start playing with someone almost instantly! Of course if you would like to be a more advanced player, I'd advise you to read up on the controls, but compared to games like Madden, this is a piece of cake. Virtua also took advantage of PlayStation's Sixaxis. If you're thinking Wii, its nothing like that. You pretty much tilt the controller up and down, side to side to move...and a quick shake to complete a swing. Its cool that they wanted to include Sixaxis, but I preferred buttons.
Closing Words
If you're looking for a hardcore tennis game for the next gen system, this will probably be the right choice. If you want a fun tennis game to play with friends at parties etc, I'd suggest Wii Sports. After reading this review, I'd say that both are very different in obvious ways. We also learned that Virtua struggled with music and online features. If you're in no rush, I'd wait for Virtua Tennis 4, but overall, Vitrua Tennis 3 is a great game.
Gameplay: 6/10
Graphics: 7/10
Controls: 8/10
Appeal: 7.5/10
Editor's Score: 7.5/10
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