Review: Virtua Tennis 2 (PS2)

Long hard strokes, women in short skirts and balls flying everywhere. Tennis is a sport you either love or hate. Me, I hate it. The trauma of having all your hopes on Tim Henman every year is simply too much for my fragile nerves and I stopped watching the sport a long time ago.

Now Tennis as a game on the other hand is a completely different proposition, and Virtua Tennis was one of the finest conversions of the sport ever made. Nothing is perfect however and the Dreamcast eventually ended up with a sequel (that due to appearing towards the end of the Dreamcast’s life, never did very well). Fortunately however, those lovely people at Acclaim are now giving us a second set on the court, with the splendid Playstation 2 conversion by the game’s original developers, Sega’s Hitmaker.

One of the biggest gripes about the Dreamcast original was the lack of female players, this has now been rectified for the sequel, and you now have the likes of the Williams sisters, Mary Pierce and Monica Seles to choose from. Just like in the first game, all 16 players are beautifully motion-captured and share a strikingly similar likeness to their real life counterparts.

The actual layout of the game is pretty much identical to the first; once again you have the options of Tournament, Exhibition and the jazzed up World Tour to ensure you keep playing till at least the next Wimbledon. While the first 2 modes have remained pretty much unchanged (especially the sublime four-player mode); the actual World Tour is a lot different to its original counterpart.

For starters you now have both a male and female character to build up and doing this definitely adds to the overall longevity of the game. Many new sub games have now joined the likes of “Pin Crasher” and “Bull’s Eye” and all the originals have now been subtly tweaked. A calendar lets you know whenever a new tournament is available, and while this is a good step in allowing you to plan out the coming years training - each event is designed to boost a certain set of skills. The downside is that you have to wait a long time if you fail to win (each game requires a minimum ranking to enter).

You can get around waiting for the next event by switching players or resting to regain lost stamina, however the ratio of games to sub-games does not seem very well balanced and appears to be a small oversight on Hitmaker’s part. Another aspect of this sequel is that it seems a much tougher beast than its predecessor was. Many of the mini-games are very unforgiving and all have tight time limits. Perseverance does reap its own rewards, but new players my find the steep learning curve (ball) a bit too hard to hit.

Get on the actual court, whether it is the grass of Wimbledon, or the Tokyo stadium and straight away you realise just how good a Tennis game can be with the right developers behind it. Every back swing, player grunt and returned ball just screams quality. Controls are amazingly simple and within moments you’ll be tearing around the court like a young Agassi. Your player responds perfectly to the analogue stick, and as with many of Sega’s sports games, increased play sees new moves and techniques being discovered.

Dreamcast owners were astounded with the visual content of the original offering. The game at times looked so realistic, that double takes would be needed to remind yourself, you were just playing a video game. Hitmaker have ever so slightly improved the original game engine, and the end result is something that is extremely easy on the eye. As already mentioned the motion captured players look simply superb, the animation is wonderfully dynamic and is some of the best ever seen in a sports, let alone Tennis title. Every misstep, out of reach fall or smashing serve looks simply wonderful and is as slick as the actual game. Replays appear whenever a point is scored, or a particularly decent shot is pulled off, and these are also of a very high standard. You can easily identify the players and they all show a pleasing range of emotions depending on how good or bad they are doing.  

Sound is also improved with the ball itself sounding especially realistic as it is belted around the court. Every grunt and groan of the more vocal players is heard with stunning clarity and even the tunes are of a very high standard. The crowd still seems strangely subdued (although they do come to life in the more exciting plays) but this is probably the only fault to be found in an otherwise flawlessly presented title.

Ultimately Virtua Tennis 2 is the best representation of its sport available and is a welcome addition to the Playstation 2. It features flawless animation, a massive World Tour mode and is one of the best multiplayer experiences currently available on Sony’s machine. The initial frustration of the World Tour is soon overcome, and the end result is an absorbing title that will give you many months of pleasure and help while away the coming winter months. At least until Virtua Tennis 3 turns up.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Darran Jones