Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Virtua Tennis 2009 Review for Xbox 360

Virtua Tennis 2009 Review for Xbox 360

Fault!

Virtua Tennis 2009 (VT 2009) would have been more aptly named Virtua Tennis 3.5. That’s because this latest version of the beloved tennis franchise is little more than a mildly tweaked edition rather than a full-fledged release. While this is often the criticism for many sports titles, it is exaggeratedly so with VT 2009. Gameplay is still compelling for fans of the sport, but anyone looking for a substantial offering over what they got in March of 2007 (or even what released for the Dreamcast in 2000 for that matter) will be, pardon the pun, poorly served.

Virtua Tennis 2009 screenshot

The expanded features of Virtua Tennis 2009 include online ranking, more pros (including a few legends), three more courts, six new mini-games, and a virtual store that allows you to further customize your player character in World Tour mode. That’s it. Everything else is exactly the same. I actually laughed out loud a few times in disbelief whilst playing through the game due to its unabashed aping of VT3’s menus, format, and gameplay.

That being said, VT 2009 does still sport solid tennis gameplay. Serves, groundstrokes, adding spin, carving shots, volleys at the net, etc. are all extremely satisfying due to the rock solid controls – whether playing singles, doubles, or online, the tennis action is still quite compelling. However, all the conventions and tropes developed before the turn of the millennia are still in place – this game hasn’t evolved one iota.

Virtua Tennis 2009 screenshot

Outside of challenging friends to a local competitive match, the World Tour mode is the most compelling game mode in the title. Creating a player, managing their schedule, improving their skill set, and moving up the SEGA Pro Tour (SPT) leaderboards is a lot of fun. Not only are tournaments varied – featuring different court types and stadia – but winning them is quite rewarding. Moreover, dealing with fatigue and building up your player’s skills through the Tennis Academy are realistic and satisfying, respectively. I also enjoyed the way the quirky mini-games are incorporated into the career mode. Rather than just working on standard technique drills through the Academy, players can take on these mini-game challenges in World Tour. This helps to keep gameplay fresh, as rising up in rank to number 1 in the world is an extremely slow process.

A few bits I found to be less than ideal in World Tour had to do with character customization and uniqueness. For starters, choosing the look of your player is very poorly implemented. The various customization options are so few and far between, not to mention artificial-looking, that your character will look strikingly similar to the hundreds of computer-generated players you’ll face along the way. This really hampers believability, and it also makes slogging through early tournaments feel like cookie-cutter obstacles rather than interesting challenges. Moreover, the item store is simple not rich enough to actually provide you with any real reward (other than stat boosts) for your earnings. In the end, getting money for the best racquets is all you’ll care about.

Virtua Tennis 2009 screenshot

The Court Games are as interesting this year as they were in VT3 – that is to say, they are mildly amusing. These “surreal” mini-games will have players knocking over barrels, taking out aliens, dodging waves of massive tennis balls while picking up fruit, feeding animals with well-placed returns, and playing billiards with your serves are just some of the fun options available. These games are a nice diversion during World Tour, but they don’t exactly hold up on their own. If you do find yourself truly engaged, eight of them are available to be played online.

Virtua Tennis 2009 screenshot

Speaking of online play, the ability to port your created player from Worl Tour online makes the competitive component more engaging this time around. Unfortunately, the lag present in online matches will prove to be unbearable to most players. If you do get into online play, a couple of game types await you. The SPT Online Tours have players from around the world competing in events in order to accrue Tour Points. These Tours last one real-world week, and at the end of the week, winners of the various events are awarded with medals and a new Tour begins. Naturally, ranked matches are also available, which will have you paired up with players of a comparable skill level. Overall the online component is barely serviceable, and it certainly adds nothing new or noteworthy to online sports gaming.

Visually, Virtua Tennis 2009 is admirable when talking about the courts, stadia, and the 20 professionals’ likenesses (for the most part). However, as previously mentioned, the randomly-generated, unlicensed scrubs are painful to look at – they are some of the ugliest opponents you’ll face in a sporting title, and player animations are frequently clunky. Music during menu screens consists of generic SEGA beats that have done nothing to motivate players since their introduction a decade ago. Ambient sounds are what you would expect from a tennis sim.

Truly, Virtua Tennis 2009 is little more than a lazily rehashed and less than polished iteration of what was offered in Virtua Tennis 3. I strongly urge players to save their money and pick up 2007’s version used for nearly an identical experience. Still, if you simply must have the latest SEGA tennis offering, Virtua Tennis 2009 controls great and offers quite a bit of whilst playing against friends on the couch.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.0 Graphics
The visuals are mostly admirable, but the ugly random player models and a lack of customization options hamper the title. 4.5 Control
Controlling the game is about as good as it can be, resulting in some very enjoyable gameplay. 2.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
An utterly unremarkable aspect of the title. 3.2 Play Value
There is a lot of fun tennis to be had with friends at home, but a lack of modes, a humdrum single-player option, and forgettable, lag-laden online action keep the value down. Moreover, the game is virtually identical to VT3. 3.0 Overall Rating – Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • All-new Tennis Store: With prize money earned in online tournaments, you can customize your character with over 800 items from the new store.
  • New player creation system: You can customize your character’s face, body, and clothing from a huge variety of options with improvements to hair, skin, and texture detail.
  • Enhanced World Tour: Challenge more than 20 licensed pros, from Roger Federer to Maria Sharapova. Vie for cash and trophies, and even compete in the all-new Davis Cup.
  • Additional players and courts: More than 20 of the world’s top players, including eight new to Virtua Tennis and three legends, take to the court in new arenas. Dubai and Shanghai have been added to the 40 existing courts for a huge level of variety, complete with 3-D crowds.
  • Tennis Academy: Learn footwork, ground stroke, volley, serve, and technique from the greats including Stefan Edberg and Tim Henman.
  • More court games: In 12 mini-games, six completely new, improve your quick reactions in games such as Alien Attack, Avalanche, and Meat Defender.
  • New online ranking system: Now fully integrated with online features, rise through the ranks and compete for the ultimate title on worldwide leaderboards.

  • To top