Virtua Tennis 2009 (Xbox 360)
The Sega tennis franchise shows up ready to play.
7/14/2009 6:02 PM | 2 Comments | Page 1 of 2
What's Hot: Energetic, arcade-style action; Goofy mini-games
What's Not: Frustrating user interface; Lack of guidance
There's always been something delightfully cheesy and overblown about Virtua Tennis. The shiny bodies and hollow-eyed faces on its athletes never make it seem like they're straining for victory.
"Relax," the athletes seem to tell you. "It's videogame tennis." No need to tear a ligament or break a sweat. After winning a doubles tournament, my partner and I held up our trophy platters to the crowd in soft focus and extra-slow slow-motion, and then did a double high-five. In
Virtua Tennis 2009, your tennis whites will never get dirty, you'll zip across hot pink courts, and synth rock will accompany your matches.
It's another epic showdown between Federer and Nadal, but this time the dreamier one emerges as the victor. (Does anyone think Federer is dreamier?)
In short, Virtua Tennis has always seemed to take the first word of its title seriously. It falls in some weird limbo between simulation and arcade, not quite as wacky as, say, Hot Shots Golf but not as quasi-real as the Madden series.
Still, everything your tennis avatar does in the world -- from training to match play -- consumes stamina. You can buy back stamina by consuming an energy drink or going on vacation for set prices, or you save money by resting at home for free. Adhering to a schedule feels like a nuisance. I know the feature is there to give some semblance of realism to the proceedings, but how much realness does one expect from a game that trains athletes with Shopping Dash and Blockbuster?
And for a franchise that's been around for more than 10 years, lots of things still feel clunky about the
Virtua Tennis 2009 interface. If you're in a mini-game and fail to advance, you'll have to back all the way out to the main menu to attempt it again. Having to spin the globe every time you want to find a match or do some training gets to be annoying, too. There's little guidance for improving your athlete's toolset, and you won't learn very much about playing Virtua's particular brand of tennis. Perform a drop shot, a Tennis Academy training exercise demands, but damned if it'll tell you how.
You won't be able to stop thinking about how dirty the ball-boys' knees must be getting on those clay courts. Don't let it throw you off your game!
But, you're here for the ol' back-and-forth, right?
Virtua Tennis 2009 delivers that in spades. You'll have epic points that stretch on for a minute or longer, and, in doubles play, your artificial-intelligence partner proves to be surprisingly smart and agile. At the default difficulty, I felt like a tennis prodigy in the early going.
The strange corollary to that, however, is that I didn't really want to climb through the ranks to face the top-seeded players. I had more fun with the series' wacky signature mini-games, which make a welcome return. You start off with three, with more and more opening up as you progress through the World Tour mode. Pirate Wars, for example, pits you against ships that you'll have to sink with return shots while you dodge cannonballs; and in Alien Attack, you'll have to repel waves of retro-style extraterrestrials with nothing more than your racket.
