Dom Robinson reviews

for

Distributed by
Sega

Price: £29.99 Players: 1-2 Tennis - on TV it's about as much fun as watching paint dry, but not when playing good console games like Virtua Tennis 2. I don't know what it is about most tennis games that have appeared over the years, but I've rarely had as much fun out of a tennis game in the home since playing Match Point on the good ol' ZX Spectrum back in the early 80s. (Incidentally, while playing VT2 on the Dreamcast, the wire-frame reproduction of the match being shown on the VMU isn't a world away from the Speccy's graphics at the time :)

You're not going to be able to make tennis a great deal different from the way it plays in the real world, so the best thing to do is the way it's been treated here - allow you to play as a world-ranking sports personality or create your own player within a few boundaries, then compete in tournaments around the world (although the option to position your home base was a bit disconcerting when I was able to place it slap bang in the middle of the sea!), create a tour calendar and then enjoy the mini-games. The latter helps with your techniques and to get your skill levels up. Examples of these sub-games are Danger Flags (avoid the red balls being shot at you in order to capture the flags), Bull's Eye (shoot balls back into a target to score points within a tight time limit) and Pin Crasher (serve balls to knock down pins instead of doing the usually ten-pin bowling equivalent). Success in some of these will result in hidden items being unlocked. However, I did find it annoying the way a training level has to re-load itself back in once you've failed it and want to have another crack at it, since the game has taken you back to the world map first.

Graphically and sonically, it's difficult to find fault with VT2. Your player moves effortless about the court with accurate shadows and lighting on display and no clipping. A combination of realism and the perfect arcade feel is undoubtedly on view. In terms of the sound, it's nothing that will test your speakers a great deal, but you'll have to go a long way to match the atmosphere created as you smack the ball back at your opponent and listen out for the reaction from the crowd. Playability is first-rate given that the physics of a tennis game are recreated brilliantly. They were fine enough the first time round, but here refinements have been made such as to force your lob and also slice the ball back. Also, in a sub-game, I loved the way my player's shoes squeaked across an indoor surface when making tight turns. Really brought back the feeling of playing squash indoors, since that's more of an indoor activity than tennis. You could say that November's an odd time to release a tennis game, because Wimbledon is months away... so watch Eurosport, where you're bound to find a tennis match most months of the year!

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