Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9242 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sega
• Released on: 2005-07-28
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: Sony PSP

Amazon.co.uk Review
Video games publishers have an uncanny knack of ensuring that the only time of year a new tennis game is never released is during the middle of Wimbledon. Of course, in the case of Virtua Tennis: World Tour they had to wait until the PSP hit the shops, so its autumnal appearance is largely unavoidable.

What is curious though, is that despite being regarded by many as the best serious tennis simulation, the Virtua Tennis series has only made fleeting appearances on the current generation of consoles. It’s getting in on the ground floor with the PSP though, with what will likely become the definitive portable tennis game.

The gameplay is largely the same as the previous Dreamcast and PS2 versions with an apparently simplistic arcade style control system revealing surprising depth and subtlety over time. It translates well to the PSP controls and the graphics are almost identical to the home console versions.

Virtua Tennis features three basic game modes -- World Tour, Exhibition and Tournament -- plus four mini-games and a 16 player (although obviously not all on the same court) wireless multiplayer mode. You can create and customise your own character but 14 "real" tennis players are also included, such as Roger Federer, Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, Lleyton Hewitt, Lindsay Davenport and Tim Henman. Obviously you’ll need at least a passing interest in real tennis to really appreciate the game, but as long as that’s the case there’s no need for new balls here. -- Harrison Dent

Manufacturer's Description
Video games publishers have an uncanny knack of ensuring that the only time of year a new tennis game is never released is during the middle of Wimbledon. Of course, in the case of Virtua Tennis: World Tour they had to wait until the PSP hit the shops, so its autumnal appearance is largely unavoidable.

What is curious though, is that despite being regarded by many as the best serious tennis simulation, the Virtua Tennis series has only made fleeting appearances on the current generation of consoles. It's getting in on the ground floor with the PSP though, with what will likely become the definitive portable tennis game.

The gameplay is largely the same as the previous Dreamcast and PS2 versions with an apparently simplistic arcade style control system revealing surprising depth and subtlety over time. It translates well to the PSP controls and the graphics are almost identical to the home console versions.

Virtua Tennis features three basic game modes -- World Tour, Exhibition and Tournament -- plus four mini-games and a 16 player (although obviously not all on the same court) wireless multiplayer mode. You can create and customise your own character but 14 "real" tennis players are also included, such as Roger Federer, Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, Lleyton Hewitt, Lindsay Davenport and Tim Henman. Obviously you'll need at least a passing interest in real tennis to really appreciate the game, but as long as that's the case there's no need for new balls here.

Customer Reviews

The best portable Tennis outing
Sega's Virtua Tennis series has never been one to dissappoint, although one of the few criticisms of the series is how little it has changed over the years. Those hoping for a revolutionary reshuffle of the series should turn elswhere, as this differs little from past outlets of the series. What it lacks in originality however it makes up for in finesse and style of gameplay; this is one of the deepest, most intense tennis outings to date. The gameplay is slick and smooth, offering a decent variety of playing styles, and the Ai opponents vary with a near perfect degree of difficulty. Not only that but the in-game animation is as slick and as smooth as we've seen from the PSP, almost rivalling that of its PS2 counterparts.
The first option available is a one off Exhibition mode, where you can choose between sixteen ATP and WTA players including the likes of Federer, Roddick, Hewitt and Maria Sharapova. Each character is classified according to their strengths, and this is uesful when choosing the right player for your playing style. The exhibition mode also allows you to choose any of 29 World Tour locations, the majority of which have to be bought in the World Tour mode before they are accessible for exhibition matches.
The World Tour mode features a character customisation feature, where you create a male and female player, tweaking everything from their build to their hair colour. The players begin with abysmal levels of skill, which is increased through mini-games designed to tweak certain aspects of your players' style. This is a great feature, as it allows you to develop your players' style to your own customisation, right up to the 'master' classification of maximum stats all round. Getting to this level is a rather time consuming process however and repetitive mini-games until the cows come home may not be to everyone's taste. You gradually increase your ATP/WTA ranking by winning singles and doubles tournamants- higher ranking allows you to compete in more difficult tournaments leading up to the World Tour final in Japan.
Virtua Tennis has always been a series about multiplayer however, and four-player doubles matches with your friends are quite undoubtedly the highlight of the game. The multiplayer is as good as ever, allowing up to three friends to join in with multiplayer exhibition matches in either singles or doubles.
To summarise then, if you are looking for a clean, slick, intense Tennis outing, then Virtua Tennis World Tour is certainly not a title to be taken light heartedly.

Positive And Negative

+ Slick, well balanced gameplay

+ Detailed character animation

+ A large World tour mode with over 29 locations

- Screen occaisionly momentarily freezes in-game

- Some music feels dated

In A Nutshell:

GRAPHICS: 82% Detailed character animation and good enviroments

GAMEPLAY: 86% Nothing's changed, but that's not exactly a bad thing

SOUND/MUSIC: 75% Decent sound effects, but some music feels dated

LIFESPAN: 87% There's loads to do. Large World Tour Mode with plenty to unlock


OVERALL: 86% A commendable Tennis outing for the PSP. Very much deserving of its platinum status

what a buy
i bought virtua tennis on a whim being a fan of tennis games and almost immediatly i found it fun and easy to pull fantastic shots. challenging but fun i would reccomend this to anyone who is thinking of buying a psp game.

Game, Set and nearly Match
A really easy to use entertaining game. The graphics are great (but then again i'm not a computer junkie so you can beg to differ!) the game play is easy, though some of the characters are outdated. Play a tournament as Roger Federer or try to become World No.1 yourself (which can get tiresome). There is one thing that i have against this game is that it will freeze for a split second mid shot or move and it really is annoying! Otherwise a great game to play.