Harman Patil (Editor)

Virtua Tennis

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Developer(s)
  
Sega AM-3

Composer(s)
  
Chiho Kobayashi

Publisher(s)
  
Sega

Series
  
Virtua Tennis

Virtua Tennis

Platform(s)
  
Arcade, Dreamcast, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, N-Gage

Release
  
Arcade 1999 Dreamcast 2000 Microsoft Windows 2002 Game Boy Advance 2002 2003 N-Gage 2003

Virtua Tennis (Power Smash in Japan) is a 1999 tennis arcade game created by Sega-AM3. The player competes through tennis tournaments in an arcade mode. For the home console market the game was expanded with the introduction of the campaign mode. It was later ported to Dreamcast in 2000, and for Microsoft Windows in 2002. A Game Boy Advance version was also released in 2002.

Contents

A sequel, Virtua Tennis 2, was released in 2002 and was later updated and ported for the PlayStation Portable, under the name Virtua Tennis: World Tour. 2006 saw the release of Virtua Tennis 3 in the arcades (using the Sega Lindbergh hardware). Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PC versions were released in 2007. Virtua Tennis 2009, was released on June 9, 2009 on PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii platforms. The latest addition to the franchise, Virtua Tennis 4, was released on May 10, 2011.

Players


1Included in the Dreamcast and PC ports only. 2Mark Philippoussis was removed from the PC version as he was already featured in a licensed tennis title for that platform.

Courts

Grand Slams

  • Australian Challenge (Australian Open) – Melbourne – Hard
  • French Cup (French Open) – Paris – Clay
  • US Super Tennis (US Open) – New York City – Hard
  • The Old England Championships (The Championships, Wimbledon) – London – Grass

    • Special Tournaments

  • Sega Grand Match (Los Angeles Open) – Los Angeles – Carpet
  • SPT Masters (ATP World Tour Finals) – Tokyo – Grass

    • Other Tournaments

  • Sweden Grand Prix (If Stockholm Open) – Stockholm – Hard
  • Germany Men's Indoor (BMW Open) – Berlin – Hard
  • Russian Tennis Classic (Kremlin Cup) – Moscow – Carpet
  • Spain International (Barcelona Open BancSabadell) – Barcelona – Clay

    • Arcade

    The player must win 5 matches played on different surfaces and venues to win a tournament. If the player performs well enough, he is challenged by Master, one of the game's bosses.

    Exhibition

    This is a single match in which the options are customizable.

    The match can be played as singles or doubles with up to 4 human players (2 for singles). The duration can be varied between one game and one set. Other options include the court that the match is played on and the skill of the opponent(s).

    World Circuit

    This is the main mode of the game. Users have to win matches and complete training exercises in order to progress and unlock new ones. The user enters with a rank of 300th, which improves as matches are won. These matches are unlocked by completing easier matches or training exercises. The focus of the training exercises are to be fun, rather than realistic. Each exercise has three levels, with the difficulty increasing progressively. By completing the hardest difficulty with a certain amount of time left or points scored, an outfit is unlocked, which players can wear in all modes.

    Network

    This mode is available for the PC version and it allows multiplayer gaming via LAN.

    Reception

    Virtua Tennis received very positive reviews from with the UK version of the Official Dreamcast Magazine rating it at 9/10, as well as overwhelmingly positive reviews from users [1]. Players were pleased with the quick learning curve and the wide variety of training exercises available. The game became one of the few Sega All Stars.

    It has been ranked in the top 100 games of all time by IGN both in 2005 (#91) and 2003 (#89).

    In Japan, Famitsu magazine scored the Dreamcast version of the game a 33 out of 40.

    References

    Virtua Tennis Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA