Previous Next

Competently boring.

Man, what the hell happened to Virtua Tennis? I played a ton of the original on Dreamcast, and even a bit of the second one, but I managed to miss out on any follow-ups or ports over the years, so I'm not sure if there's been some noticeable degradation in quality over the years, but why is this game so bland? Not only that, but I can't say it's the best outing for the new Wii Motion Plus add-on either, but thankfully players with that device have a few other options available at the moment. It's not that the game is fundamentally broken in some fashion, but it's really, really boring to sit down and play, and that's not the experience I remember from the original.

In Virtua Tennis 2009, you'll start off as a Tennis Amateur, using the player creation process to put together a player and send him off to various tournaments, and as you win you'll start to rank up from 100th place. It takes a good, long while to get anywhere near the top spot, as each tournament will only net you a jump that puts you a few spots ahead of where you were, and oftentimes you'll only go up one rank, even if you're playing against guys that are 8 or 9 ranks ahead of you in the tournament. While you're not playing tourneys, you can participate in various mini-games or rest up at home to rebuild your stamina, which drains after every event you participate in. It's a pretty basic sports set-up, one you can most likely mix and match with various other titles in the genre, and I don't have anything particularly negative to say about it here, other than the fact it's a really slow grind to that number one spot.

However, since it is such a slow grind, it'd be nice to see a bit of challenge tossed in. The problem is, there isn't any, at least not where the CPU controlled opponents are concerned. They're not challenging in the least bit, and even when you finally start to hit the higher ranks, they rarely pull off anything amazing when you're pitted against them. I went match after match, pulling off near flawless wins every time, and after a couple dozen tournaments, the appeal really starts to wear off, and you feel like you're just playing to get to the end, rather than playing to have some fun with the title. The developers did toss in a neat idea of playing online to boost your rank, so you have the option of playing against human opponents, but I often had trouble finding a decent match to get into, with various lag and other technical hang-ups occurring, or people that would rage quit or just drop out of a match mid-game. It's a great idea in theory, but the execution wasn't quite there for me.

The mini-games are decent, and they're certainly something I remember from the previous titles in the series. There's some new things tossed, like Billiards for instance, but there's also some old favorites, like the block destroying mini-game. They have about 8 levels apiece, with around 12 mini-games to partake in, so there's plenty to keep you distracted from the main game. There's also some bonuses unlocked that'll affect your player, giving out special stat boosts that can unlock abilities, but at the same time I'm not sure I noticed a tangible difference in how my player performed with these skills active.

The controls are fine, and are probably the best aspect of the game. The motions used are pretty intuitive, and with most of the movement being automatic during gameplay (your character will chase the ball without you inputting anything), just about anyone should be able to jump in and play. You can direct movement if you want with the D-Pad, and during some of the doubles games, and online play, you'll find it to be pretty necessary, but with most singles matches you'll rarely need to touch the D-Pad at all. There's about 3 or 4 different strokes, and your on-screen player will provide enough visual feedback to let you know whether you're doing the motion as intended. Serves are easy to perform, but I did find it more challenging to do a full motion swing as opposed to a downward wrist flick when I was going to hit the ball. I'm not sure why I missed more the other way, but I had far better luck without doing the full range of movement for that one particular hit.

Visually, the game borderlines on awful, and I was really disappointed in the overall look. The character models are ugly, and while the options for the create a player mode are decent, it's hard to get anything created that you'll want to look at screen after screen. These models really stand out prior to a match when they're loading up the half body avatars for the vs. screen, but they're not much better in action. The courts lack a lot of detail, and the visuals just have this muddy, blurry look to them that do little for the eyes. Likewise, the soundtrack is disappointing, and no commentary speak is a shame. The overall presentation is almost as bland as the gameplay, and certainly not what I was expecting from a Virtua Tennis title. I had hoped the series had transitioned better into this generation, but apparently they're still a little too old school for my current tastes.

I'd say that if you absolutely wanted to pick up a Tennis title for the Wii this year, you might want to search out another alternative, rather than pick up Virtua Tennis 2009 on name alone. Sure, there's some novelty in the Wii Motion Plus control set-up, but it's also not the only title out there that supports it, and I can't say the game would be worth picking up based on compatibility alone. It's a pretty lackluster effort overall, and not at all what I was anticipating. I'll stick to my fonder memories of the original, and hope that at some point Virtua Tennis can bring back some of that excitement and fun that I had with the series when it began.