Virtua Tennis 4

Virtua Tennis 4 will leave those who have grown with the series slapping their hand to their forehead for the sheer lack of ambition shown on the part of SEGA.

Reviewed by Fishdalf on Jul 25, 2011

I deeply enjoyed Virtua Tennis 3 which was my first game of this series and I couldn't wait to play the sequel. And I did buy Virtua Tennis 4 at the first week of its release. I must say have have a mixed reaction about this game which some of you didn't get a chance to read at my blog on this game.

Virtua Tennis 4 is improved in many ways. Those who are familiar with this series will be very pleased to see how the game looks graphically. It has been vastly improved. Sounds effects were somewhat similar to the previous game but there are of course many new additions. The gameplay itself if improved, as you can set a tactics from 20 different ones and build your style on it. Let's not make things usual anymore and head straight towards my usual reviewing style.

The Good:

- Excellent graphics and variety of character sounds to pick.

- No more overhead or tale view. 3 different camera angles make things most realistic.

- Players kits have been extended to its max level. Even after finishing the game 4 times, I couldn't unlock all the kits available.

- You have to travel throughout the world to take part in 4 major championship. It's not as easy as it sounds, the newly introduced ticket system makes things more interesting and difficult too.

- Character customization is also very good. You can make yourself [I play as a female there ;P] look very sexy at the court. Why shouldn't you though? Tennis is after all a game of beautiful and sexy people.

- Each count looks different than other and there are more than 10 different types of courts including the practice courts.

- You can pick your double partners by playing them in a practice match.

The Bad:

- The map system makes you go crazy once you pass half of your career journey. Makes you miss important games and charity events to pick up some extract cash or star.

- You need to play plenty of tons of practice games to increase your stamina and skills. Which makes things a little repetitive when you get to play the same type of practices with only extended difficulty system.

- Injury during a big tournament is something you'd never want to face. Even if you had your health bar filled, there is no way you can use your healing ticket to fill it up while you are inside a tournament. The injury mostly comes during the last match and that's what most annoying. Because you can't go back and play so many matches again and be at the final. Even if you do, you'll still have to face the injury.

- Controlling is better but not always. Sometime when your opponent lobs anything and if you are playing with real time camera angle, you can hardly catch that lob for a return. Player running across the court is leggy too.

- In the grand final (King's cup) and the USA Open, you play against a male opponent even if you are playing as a female. Trust me, this makes things really difficult out there.