Virtua Tennis 2009

Posted 3 years ago By - Zach R.

Once your player is created, it’s time to start training, which allows you to gain experience to level up your pro. Of course, the big draw to Virtua Tennis is that it’s focus is on a realistic game of tennis, but  it isn’t afraid to throw in some arcade action. The training is given a more obvious arcade feel. It’s here that you’ll be honing your skills by competing in various activities which range from knocking large Curling stone’s into targeted areas, to feeding penguins a tasty fish. The mini games are engaging, and offer quite a challenge in the later goings, but considering the realistic nature of the actual tennis game, it feels out of place. Of course, it breaks up the monotony of just playing straight up tennis, but it may be a bit off-putting to anyone looking for a more serious training regime. Thankfully, there is also the option to train at the tennis academy, which has you practicing certain types of shots, without the arcade-like premise.

Once you’ve leveled up enough, you’re ready to hit the court. You start as the 100th seed, and the obvious goal is to become the number one. When you first start out, only certain tournaments are available to you. The only way to move up is to win as many tournaments as you can. Thankfully, this is pretty easy, given that the controls aren’t overly different from other tennis games out there, so you’ll be right at home the minute you hit the court.

If you’ve played Virtua Tennis before, you know what you’re getting. The only major difference is that players no longer dive for every ball at the baseline like a fish out of water. Other than that, the gameplay remains relatively untouched, with the obvious exception of the controls.  

Graphics & Sound

Virtua Tennis 2009 is less an arcade title when it comes to the looks department. While the visuals here are obviously less pretty than the other console versions, there are some nice renders of all the pro players featured in the game. Unfortunately, during gameplay, there does seem to be quite a bit of jaggies present, which really take away from the visual polish. The animations are also a bit off when it comes to the motions you’re performing towards those shown on the screen. Once again, the MotionPlus doesn’t offer true 1:1 support, but your shots are mimicked quite well in spite of this. There’s also a weird frame-rate issue that can make certain animations look off. Your player will sometimes look like they’re completely missing the shot, only to have the ball pop back across the court because the frames are skipping.

The audio is quite similar to its XB360/PS3 counterpart, featuring very little in the way of voice-overs, aside from grunts and groans on court. The crowd is subdued, and the music is uninspired. Overall, it just doesn’t lend itself well to the atmosphere, and considering how much work went into the online and single-player, it’s just that much more disappointing to see how little was done to fix this.

Value

Great online and a nice single player game are enough reason to pick this up, but it’s definitely recommended to grab a MotionPlus to get the full experience. It’s also nice to see a good number of actual pro’s on offer here. There is a steep learning-curve here, and some may find that off-putting. It all comes down to how serious you are about your tennis games in the long run.

Conclusion

Without any doubt, the Wii version of Virtua Tennis 2009 bests its Xbox 360/PS3 counterparts The lacking visuals and sound may be a disappointment, but the awesome online and intuitive controls make this well worth it for any fan of the sport.