Virtua Tennis 3

Published on: 6th May, 2009

Virtua Tennis 3  | read this item

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This will make you love tennis. No, really. Even if you loathe the sport and grit your teeth when Wimbledon distorts the TV schedules, Virtua Tennis 3 is so realistic that it forces you to appreciate the sport’s intricacies – in a stealthy education dressed as addiction. And while the latest game in the much-loved series is no massive departure – it’s still a tennis game, for instance – there’s enough new gameplay tweaks and content to tempt veterans as well as newcomers.

It looks like an absolute gem, with stunning dynamic lighting and some of the most impressive player models yet seen on 360. There’re over 20 real competitors, including Federer, Nadal and Roddick, plus the likes of Sharapova, Hingis and Hantuchova for those who prefer their tennis lady-shaped. Up close in replays, these pros look almost photo-realistic – expertly capturing everything from Henman’s snaggled-toothed grimace to the flirty wiggle of Sharapova in her prude-baiting mini

But to accurately simulate a quick-fire sport like tennis, the animation has to be ultra-responsive and VT3 delivers. Everything from a topspin lob to a desperate baseline lunge looks spot-on and even if you change your mind mid-stroke – switching from a backhand down the line to a cross-court volley – the animation is rapid enough to keep up with you, making for incredibly fluid gameplay.
The speed of the action is aided by the control system, a leftover from the original Virtua Tennis on Dreamcast. You don’t mess with perfection, and the beautiful simplicity of topspin, slice and lobbing, holding the button down to get the desired power and directing the shot via the analog stick still works amazingly well. Brave souls can, if they wish, switch to SixAxis control – and it’s decent – it’s fun for a while, but lacks the accuracy to use throughout the game. However, get a gang of you SixAxising it up in multi-player and it’s comedy gold, with the random jerks and thrusts resembling some kind of broken robot dance routine.

Out on court, the only real change is the improved opposition – just when you think you’ve dispatched a winner, your rival will launch into a full-length lunge, somehow keeping the rally going. With points lasting that bit longer, more tactics come into play as you spray shots around to try and move your competitor out of position – which only adds to the satisfaction when you finally unleash a thunderous winner.

Another improvement is the increased focus on the way different surfaces play. Grass courts have an accurate low bounce, making serve and volley tactics a much better bet than strokes from the baseline. In contrast, the clay courts are bouncy like a castle, producing longer rallies.
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