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Dom Robinson reviews
Distributed by
Sega 
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 theyears, but I’ve rarely had as much fun out of a tennis game in the home sinceplaying Match Point on the good ol’ ZX Spectrum back in the early 80s.
(Incidentally, while playing VT2 on the Dreamcast, the wire-frame reproductionof the match being shown on the VMU isn’t a world away from the Speccy’sgraphics at the time 🙂
You’re not going to be able to make tennis a great deal different from theway it plays in the real world, so the best thing to do is the way it’sbeen treated here – allow you to play as a world-ranking sports personalityor create your own player within a few boundaries, then compete in tournamentsaround the world (although the option to position your home base was a bitdisconcerting 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. Examplesof these sub-games are Danger Flags (avoid the red balls being shot atyou in order to capture the flags), Bull’s Eye (shoot balls back intoa 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 bowlingequivalent). 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’vefailed it and want to have another crack at it, since the game has taken youback to the world map first.
Graphically and sonically, it’s difficult to find fault with VT2. Your playermoves effortless about the court with accurate shadows and lighting on displayand no clipping. A combination of realism and the perfect arcade feel isundoubtedly on view. In terms of the sound, it’s nothing that will test yourspeakers a great deal, but you’ll have to go a long way to match the atmospherecreated as you smack the ball back at your opponent and listen out for thereaction from the crowd.
Playability is first-rate given that the physics of a tennis game are recreatedbrilliantly. They were fine enough the first time round, but here refinementshave 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 indoorsurface when making tight turns. Really brought back the feeling of playingsquash 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, becauseWimbledon is months away… so watch Eurosport, where you’re bound to find atennis match most months of the year!
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ORIGINALITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALLVisit the officialVirtua Tennis 2website.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.