Customer Reviews

Virtua Tennis 2009

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I love tennis, yet I have never owned a tennis video game before, so I took a look at the two "known" games on the market: Virtua Tennis 2009 and Top Spin 3. I won't go into a review of Top Spin 3, but I will say the differences are HUGE! First off, VIRTUA's graphics are PS2, at best. This really surprised me for being an XBox 360 game. The characters are very repetitive in their appearances, sticking with the same base model and changing only slightly. As for the "pros", forget it. They look nothing like the real pros (Top Spin does). The gameplay is unrealistic. Unforced errors are pretty much non-existent, so hit away. You can only get points off of aces and outright winners. The Career Mode is really poor in the fact that it takes a really, really, really long time to get through the various stages. For instance, you start out in the Amateur ranks at #100 and you must play many matches to advance. Typically, you will only advance one or two spots per tournament, depending upon whether you also play doubles or not. At no time can you move-up and challenge a high-ranking player. You have to stick with the players in your ranking bracket and move up from there. This process takes a very long time and the opponents offer you absolutely no competition once you get the hang of things. Once you reach the Top 10 of the Amateurs, you can then enter the Pro Tour. So, what's in the Pro Tour? More of the same, except you start at #150 and have to climb from there. Again, the competition is sad and boring. Thus, playing through Career Mode is completely boring. What's worse (or good) is that you do not play 5 set matches. In fact, you don't even play 3 set matches. Instead, you play 3 "game" matches. Although this does speed you up through the ranks faster than if you had to play alllllll of thooooooose matches while trying to win best-of-three set matches. All in all, just a really dull game. Now, if you're just trying to have some good old fashioned fun, then have at it. There are a variety of "side games" to play as well as simply entering the Tournament Mode and using one of the unlocked Pros. If you want realism in your tennis, then choose Top Spin 3 (However, be prepared for absolute realism. The game is technically difficult as all 2k games are.)

Virtua Tennis 3 is so much better then this. Someone stepped in and tried to make the game too real. In all actually they stripped the excitement out of the game. Where are the hard slams? The epic dives? I play the multiplayer with my co-workers religiously and this game is by far the biggest let down we've had all year. Avoid this game and stick with the previous version.

This year's version plays better and more fun than Virtua Tennis 3. The new developer seems to have responded to some of the criticisms of the previous game and fixed some issues but I'd still consider Top Spin 3 a benchmark for the tennis games so far. VT 2009 is a bit more realistic overall than VT3 with those silly dives taken out and the positioning of the players relative to the ball greatly effect the quality of the shots like in real tennis. The general crowd atmosphere is a nice touch with the tension building up in the audience during long rallies. The individual player animations are a lot better than the prev edition but still not totally accurate(the forehand topspin swing of nadal for example). There are other significant shortcomings regardless of the improvements to the game. First of all for simplicity's sake I guess, there are only only two types of main shots offered, slice and topspin. What happened to the flat shots that almost all of the tennis players use today? This is like trying to simulate a racing game but all the cars have a 4 cyclinder engine. Having those three basic shots modeled accurately in the game would increase the depth and variety greatly. Right now the game feels like you only hit the ball and run like crazy and that gets boring after a while. And there is no real life like passing or drop shots whatsoever! You can't really spice up your game like in a real tennis match. I understand the developer's instincts in trying to keep everything to a bare minimum in a game to appeal to everybody but that is still not an excuse to serve a half [...] baked tennis game. The overall presentation of the game is so so with a forgettable music and sound effects. The graphics are good but not great and a lot of the top ten players are still missing in the roster. The online play is fun but a bit laggy especially in doubles. This is basically still the same virtua tennis game from the dreamcast days with only a fresh coat of paint on it. We've been there, done that. We want something more!! Hopefully with the next year's edition, and the remaining issues adressed, we'll finally get a complete [...] virtua tennis game. Keep your fingers crossed!

I see a lot of low reviews for the game but once you give the game a shot it really turns out to be truly entertaining and fun to play. The graphics for the players are so-so not the worse and not the greatest but trust me there is worse out there in sporting games and what Sega has done for the graphics for the character players and tournament fields is very nicely done. Just remember if you're expecting incredible graphic details of the characters like with the Uncharted games or Splinter Cell Conviction than of course you'll be disappointed with the game but if you keep a open mind about what the game is and what it can do than trust me you'll definitely have more fun with the game...

Was alot worse than I expected. From reading the reviews I knew this wasnt the greatest game, but I was very disappointed. I would pass and wait for next year

There is so much lag when playing online., that it's not worth it. Sorry SEGA but this is a waste of money.

This is a really arcadey tennis game. If you are a serious tennis player and want a simulation, stay away or get Top Spin 3. This games is the tennis game answer to an online MMO. Win a tennis tounement and move up one place in the rankings. The games are just not realistic. You can reach balls that should just smoke you. Points go on forever, especially in doubles. I will stick with Top Spin 3 even though I just bought Virua Tennis 2009. Boredom has set in. There was something special about Virtua Tennis 3, but this is just a bad rehash to me, even though another developer made this product. They did get rid of the dives, and that is a good thing. But too much is weak.

I am really disappointed with the lack of understanding of most of the reviewers for this game here on Amazon, i feel like many people expect this game to be a simulator, when in actuality it is not, if you are looking for a realistic tennis game, you should look elsewhere because this game is not realistic. HOWEVER, the game itself is fantastic, i have no played the previous virtua tennis games. I bought this game for 10 bucks off amazon and got the free 2 day shipping with my amazon prime Free Trial and i couldn't be happier with my purchase. This game is an ARCADE game, with an MSRP of 29.99, not the usual 59.99 that most games cost. The MSRP price alone should be an indication of what you should expect out of the game. The mini games are fun, the game itself is fun, the multiplayer is great, although the graphics are sub par (again, its an arcade style game) it is still a great fun game, if you can get it for 10-15 bucks, i highly recommend it and i think once you play it you will enjoy it.

got this game for my wife and she loves it .She had been playing virtua tennis 3 and top spin 2 , she says by far virtue tennis 09 is the best gaME SHE HAS PLAYED!

I like the game. I like playing tennis outside and this game is realistic. I would recommended it especially with the outstanding online play.