Virtua Tennis 2009 (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly)

This is a review for Virtua Tennis 2009 for the XBox 360. I've finished playing the amateur race (which is no quick journey, mind you) and I think I know enough about this game to give a decent review.

THE GOOD
GAMEPLAY: Since the original Virtua Tennis on the Dreamcast, the series has never failed its fans in delivering a fun fun fun tennis game. Unlike the Top Spins of the world, this game is VERY much an arcade game, rather than a sim. Players run faster than normal, the ball can whiz by you at rediculous speeds, etc. However, this game is fun and even if you're a technical Top Spin fan, even you could find fun in grabbing a controller and playing with friends. Furthermore, I am so happy that the team working on Virtua Tennis 2009 (referred to as VT2009 from here, on) finally fixed one of the major gripes about this game: players diving all the time! Yep, the players now behave and act more realistically. Gameplay is fast, fluid, and really just an overall beauty to watch.
GRAPHICS: This is a beautiful game. The graphics are simply okay in standard definition, but this game was meant to be played in HD (I played on both). Not only are the graphics simply smoother/clearer, but the shading and shadows lack the "contour lines" look on the SD counterpart. Anyways, the players look mostly like their real life counterparts and the stadiums and arenas are beautifully designed. In fact, I prefer a the smaller outdoor arenas to the big grand slam ones because of the little things like helicopters whizzing by and people stopping to watch you play.
STORY: This game brings back the World Tour mode of previous titles. However, this time, there are a few changes. First off, there's a tennis academy taught by Tim Henman. You can train, rest, buy clothing, play mini games, participate in a charity tournament, and work your way up both an Amateur and a Professional Race so you can truly transform your created character from zero to hero!

THE BAD
GAMEPLAY: Remember when, earlier, I said that they finally removed the dive... well I should have said that they MOSTLY removed the dive. While it is true that they removed the dive ANIMATION, they didn't fix the fact that if the ball is just slightly to the left/right of your player, you still go into the animation. However, this time, instead of diving it's this stumbling animation. It happens just as often and it pisses you off just as much when you don't want your player to do it, but he/she does it anyways.
GRAPHICS: Those SD graphics I mentioned? Well, that's the only bad thing I got for this game, as far as graphics. It's not bad, but there are areas on the player that just don't look right without the proper shading.
STORY: Remember when I mentioned Tim Henman's tennis academy, well he's... well, he's basically there just for looks. I was SO expecting to hear some audio clips of him telling me what to do, similar to the Tiger Woods' games. No such luck, not even text. Instead you just have a goal to achieve and Tim Henman's your opponent in achieving these goals. (example: Win 6 points from behind the baseline) Plus, another major gripe is that this time around, the World Tour mode is LOOOOONG!! Instead of combining the Amateur race with the Professional (see Top Spin 2), the way to the top in VT2009 is LONG. You have to climb from the ranking of 150 to 1 for the Amateur Race and 250 to 1 for the Professional Race. Mind you, the MAXIMUM you go up is around 4 places. And to do that, you have to play BOTH singles and doubles. There is no reason why this game has to be so long and tedious.

THE UGLY
GAMEPLAY: In World Tour mode, there is no sense of a scaling difficulty level. Yes, the last few tournaments are harder than the first few, but for the most part the game is quite easy. Then, out of nowhere, you play against a player that just demolishes you. I tried this one charity tournement about five times before calling it quits. That's five times I turned off my console at the last second to restart the game and try again. This random difficulty thing makes very little sense. However, there's something that's even worse: Randomly skipping weeks. Apparently, everybody I've talked to on message boards experience the same thing: sometimes, a week will just skip for no apparent reason. You may be preparing for a tournement or something, then suddenly, you're in the week ahead of the tournament and you have no shot at playing it until next year. Sega's releasing a patch to fix this problem, but still...
GRAPHICS: While most of the players look very nice in replays and during gameplay, there are a few animations of the player doing things for atmosphere, like getting clay out of their shoes, asking for a towel, etc. In those scenes, you can see a HUGE bug in the game: their teeth are BLACK!!! Not every player, but you could imagine my surprise when Maria Sharapova smiled with a jet black smile. It just ruins the graphics for you and sticks out like a sore thumb.
STORY: So, instead of building attribute points by training, winning mini games, etc. This time you win attributes by.... BUYING BETTER EQUIPMENT. Yes, you MUST buy a new racquet to improve. If you don't win the Charity Tournaments to unlock more clothing options, then you're just out of luck! There is zero sense of accomplishment with your player since all you need is a good racquet to proceed in this game.

All in all, this is VT3 with better graphics, legends, an Amateur Race in the career mode, and online play. If you really don't care too much about graphical improvements and playing online, stick with VT3. The world tour in VT3 made much more sense and was a much more fun experience than the one on this game. However, if you MUST play online (which was broken, last time I checked) then VT2009 is the way to go. It's hard to recommend this game, however, because there are only a few improvements from VT3. But, even with all the gripes, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun for the first few hours of career mode and playing with friends locally. Because of that, I give this game a 6/10.

nice, cheers for the review matey

I was considering getting this.... not so sure any more....I did like the last Top Spin but was too long and repetitive... May take a chance on EA's Grand Slam Tennis instead now!!!

I have been eyeing this up but I've never played one? Just remember it being a BoX fave for a while

EG0FILTER wrote:I was considering getting this.... not so sure any more....I did like the last Top Spin but was too long and repetitive... May take a chance on EA's Grand Slam Tennis instead now!!!

Yeah, I feel the same way. I'm waiting on more reviews for the Wii game before I make any decisions as to whether or not I will get Grand Slam Tennis when it comes out on the 360. So far, the few reviews out range from 90/100 to 50/100, so I'll wait until a few more people review the game. Hopefully, it's a good one so I can move onto a worthy tennis game.

id love a MWG tennis tourny but I'd much prefer the old Smash Court games from the old days. So much fun (the new one is poo Ive read)...

i loved the little mini games that were in the game and a MWG doubles tournie would be class

i have the old VT was a cracker

if we have a comp can i be mardy fish pls