Re: Virtua Tennis 4 Free Download
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Virtua Tennis (Power Smash in Japan) is a series of tennis simulation video games started in 1999 by Sega AM3. The player competes through tennis tournaments and various arcade modes. While originally released for arcades, all games in the series have been ported to other platforms, including most major consoles.
In 2006, a new entry, Virtua Tennis 3, was released for arcades using the Sega Lindbergh hardware. The game was ported to the PlayStation 3, with SIXAXIS controls incorporated into the gameplay, as well as to the Xbox 360, the latter port also being handled by Sumo Digital. While working on it, Sumo Digital was instructed by Sega to feature Sonic as an unlockable character, giving them the idea to make a tennis game consisting of Sega characters from various franchises. This was released in 2008 as Sega Superstars Tennis, which ran on the Virtua Tennis 3 engine that Sumo Digital developed for the Xbox 360 port of the game.
Already I am annoyed with this game. I got to the first clay shooting mini-game in Japan and I thougth it would be a great chance to practice controls. It turns out that I only get one attempt before being forced to move on. Not a good way to get a casual player or a newcomer to tennis games to enjoy your game if you can't go back for another try in a freakin' practice session.
Despite the success of tennis in Wii Sports, the Wii hasn't seen many follow-up tennis games that take advantage of the groundwork already laid down. Virtua Tennis 4 from Sega doesn't seem to even try to capitalize on the success of Wii Sports, but it nonetheless it delivers a fantastic tennis experience from top to bottom.
Virtua Tennis is rooted in gameplay that is over a decade old. This is not a bad thing; the core gameplay of the series has always been rock solid, especially in 4-player doubles. Indeed, the tennis part of Virtua Tennis 4 feels very familiar to anyone who has played a Virtua Tennis game before, dating all the way back to the original arcade game in 1999. The key is positioning; you can dive from halfway across the court to return a volley, but the better the position when you take your swing, the less recovery time you will face afterward, and the stronger the return will be. The focus on strategy, rather than precise swings, makes the game easy to pick up for just about anyone. Early on in the Virtua Tennis experience, you start working out strategies in your head on how to lull your opponent into a false sense of security so that you can hammer a shot down at the best angle possible. Virtua Tennis was incredibly fun 12 years ago, and it's incredibly fun now.
Much of the depth of the game revolves around the World Tour mode, which has been completely revamped for this iteration of the game. The mode begins with a robust create-a-player system that allows you to shape your character as you see fit. Once that is done, the tour consists of four separate seasons over which you build the skills and fame of your created tennis superstar. At the end of each season is a tournament, which you must both arrive to on time, and also qualify for by becoming more famous as the season progresses. The World Tour mode is navigated by playing a board game; each season is laid out in a directed track, and you must progress along that track by choosing one of three randomly chosen movement cards, which allow you to move either one, two, three, or four places. The movement in the game is therefore slightly random, but you can purchase modifiers that give you just a little bit of control over where you land. he spaces on the board that you land on will determine whether you play a mini-game to level up your character, attend a charity event to become more famous, play an exhibition match to practice your game and also earn more fame, or buy items from a marketplace to help your character's progression. It's a much more locked down version of the World Tour mode from Virtua Tennis games of years past, which helps keep the experience tightened down and focused.
The game looks quite good, as Virtua Tennis always has. Although some of the facial modeling could be improved, from a distance the game nails the television style presentation that the original game patented. The character animation is fluid and the frame rate never falters; even the menu system is clean and responsive. The visual presentation in the game is far above the level one expects in a third-party Wii title. The audio, however, is unmemorable. Bland techno music plays during the tennis gameplay, and can only be adjusted through the main menu options. Aside from that, you merely hear the grunts and groans of tennis players running around, as well as the announcer declaring who has won each match.
The biggest question for a tennis game on Wii, however, is the control scheme, and this is unfortunately where Virtua Tennis 4 on Wii really misses the mark. First, motion control is more or less unavailable. That is to say, the only mode you can use motion control in is an exhibition mode that is completely segregated from the rest of the game. The motion control works okay, but seemed difficult to adjust to. Occasionally I could get a good shot in, but as the mode takes place from a first-person perspective, it seemed quite hard to know how to swing to get the reaction you needed. Wii MotionPlus is supported, but not required for the motion gameplay.
Virtua Tennis 4 might very well be the deepest and most complete tennis experience on Wii. The game is still a lot of fun, and has all of the features you would want in the game. The lack of analog control, however, runs the risk of ruining the whole experience for longtime fans of the series. For casual fans of the franchise, this game hits most of the nails on the head, and will be a great addition to a Wii library.
I consulted the flimsy manual and read about the different buttons, 2,1,B,A which represented top-spin, slice, lob and power move, respectively. Now I was getting somewhere, I rationalized, not only was I learning how to play the game, but now I was learning about the actual game of tennis. Two birds, one stone. I felt ready to play.
Virtua Tennis, called PowerSmash (パワースマッシュ) in Japan, is an arcade game developed by Sega AM3 for the Sega NAOMI arcade board, as either a ROM board or a GD-ROM. It is a tennis game where the user can play as a number of real-life professional tennis players of the era competing in a number of real tournaments. Initially released in 1999, it was ported to the Sega Dreamcast in 2000, and Microsoft Windows in 2002.
At the time of release it was widely regarded as the most realistic tennis simulator ever produced, and received very positive reviews from critics. It has since been followed by a number of sequels, starting with Virtua Tennis 2 in 2001 and ending with the recently released Virtua Tennis 2009.
Sega's tennis series has had a multitude of names over the years: Virtua Tennis, Power Smash, and Sega Sports Tennis. While the names may differ depending on location and year, the games have always been easy to pick up and play and hard to put down. Virtua Tennis 3 is a great game that holds true to that winning formula. There are some new minigames, and the career mode has been fleshed out, but it's clear that the developers were focused on refining the gameplay rather than reinventing it.
Virtua Tennis' biggest lure is its career mode, which is deeper than in previous games but still pretty basic when compared to most other sports games. You start by creating a male or female player using the game's character editor, which doesn't hold a candle to the one found in Tiger Woods but still gets the job done. After you select a spot on the globe for your home, it's time to start on your 20-year quest to go from the 300th-ranked player to the top-ranked player in the world. But you can't just rush out and take the top spot; you'll need to start by training your player. This can be done by going to tennis school or by playing minigames. Going to tennis school is a great way to learn the basics while at the same time leveling up your player. Here you're given a task, such as to hit a maximum-power forehand or finish a point with a smash. If you can do the task three times in the given time limit, the skills that you used in the test will be increased.
Tennis school is fun, but not as much fun as the minigames, which, as always, are fantastic. Each minigame focuses on one of four aspects of your game: ground stroke, serve, volley, and footwork. A few games return, but most are slight variations or altogether new. Avalanche has you collect fruit and dodge large tennis balls that roll out of the back of a dump truck. In Drum Topple, you try and knock over stacked oil drums by hitting ground strokes. Prize Defender places you in front of a table filled with prizes, and you must protect the items by volleying away shots from the ball machines. In Pin Crusher, you try and knock down bowling pins with your serve. Each of the minigames starts easy, but as you get better, the games get more difficult. They're pretty punishing on the highest levels, but you can always choose a lower difficulty setting. This yields fewer points, but it keeps the game from being frustrating. If you really love the minigames or want to play them with your friends, a handful of them can be played with up to four players on the same console.
But even the lone tennis player is in for a treat, with a ridiculously entertaining single player 'World Tour' campaign mode that has you battling for the number one world ranking across a variety of singles, doubles and training matches - some of which are incredibly addictive, and for the most part actually help improve your game, testing you in how accurate you can place the ball, reaction times and so on. The really committed player will eventually unlock a host of extra stadia, and even hidden players that will become deadly weapons in multiplayer contests.
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