Virtua Tennis World Tour (PSP)

[bignds]

I picked my PSP late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, with THUG2 Remix and Virtua tennis, i thought to review this first as its not out in the US yet, and THUG2 has been for some while. I'll have my PSP hardware review up in a week or so.

Tennis games are renowned for being fun, fast and addictive.
Handheld games should be fun, fun fast and addictive- so its only right Sega's famous Tennis series to appear on the PSP in true style.

When you initially boot up the game, the loading time can be in the regions of the 10 seconds but that also includes it reading your memory stick, from then on its plain sailing.

Menus are nice and easy on the eyes, and are also pretty easy to navigate.

The games modes are split in to- Quick match, Tournament, Exhibition, Ball Games and Multiplayer. Quick match does what it says on the tin and lunges you straight into a match with a randomly selected player. This mode is perfect for the odd quick game here and there, and can be accessed pretty quickly as its the first mode you come across once you start the game. Tournament is the standard and so is Exhibition.
World Tour is really the main part of the game and is its "career mode" if you will. In this mode you will create a male and female player and work them towards world number one in their respected gender. Character customisation isn’t very deep but what ever is lost here, you can make up at the "Shop" here you purchase new racquets, clothes, accessories new level contracts and also sign top pros to partner up with you in doubles tournaments. All things purchased here are used with the money won in tournaments. Both players are started off ranking in at 300th, along way to go before you reach the top. During this mode you'll have a calendar to tell you when each of your players next match is, and depending on their ranking- what tournaments they can enter. At the start you will only be able to take part in "Challenge" tournaments, so you'll have to work your way up in these before trying to enter any legitimate cups. Obviously you wont have a match every week, so to pass time and build up your stats are little mini games, each with its own purpose to manipulate a certain skill of your player so you can improve upon said skill. Speaking of which stat building does play a certain aspect in the game and there’s a lot to improve upon if you want to "be the best". If all this seems a bit much take time out to play the fantastic mini games in "Ball Games". These have more depth then the ones in World Tour and are some what different and the high scores will keep you coming back.




Controls on Virtua Tennis WT are pretty straight forward- move- D-pad/ analogue stick, X- top spin or other wise normal shot, O- Slice and square to lob. As simple as it sounds it does get very challenging and knowing when to do what and when not to is the key at times. The game is very responsive to these controls and never lets you down in the heat of the moment.

Graphically this is superb. There is no other way to put it. Courts are done right, players look pretty life like and the only complaint is the lag at times. The games sound isn’t too far removed from the rest of the series, this means the arcade style music, which is perfectly suited to the game.

If your looking for a multiplayer game to take full use of the wireless features of the PSP then this is it. Four players can take part in a game with only one UMD.

In conclusion, this will last you a long time, I believe the career mode does go on as log as you like and even if you tire of that, the mini games, exhibition matches and multilayer will keep you coming back for more. Its a brilliant game, very well put together and personifies what handheld gaming should be- Fun, fast and addictive.



Gameplay- 9.5- handheld gaming cant get much better then this.
Graphics-8- very good looking game but the occasional lag does let it down slightly.
Sound-8- solid sounding game, it suits it well.
Multiplayer-9- portable multiplayer at its peak.
Life span- 9.5- its a huge game, no doubt about it, the career mode will last you months, you wont really tire of the exhibition matches, beating your high scores on the mini games and multiplayer is always there.
Over all a 9/10

[/u]

[Euan]

Hehe, your a Virtua Tennis fanboy, you are!

Good enough review, explains why you love Virtua Tennis so much I guess, and now I've heard it all, I may think into getting it if/when I get the PSP. See what you do to me, Biggy =(

Nice review. ;)