Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1464 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sega
• Released on: 2007-03-23
• Platform: Xbox 360

Games Master
It looks stunning, plays just how we wanted it to

Customer Reviews

good but not so fun
I am not a pro gamer. So this review is for fun loving, part time gamers.

pros:
1) good graphics
2) fun playing in doubles
3) mini games and practices in career mode

cons
1) difficulty difference is far between Normal and Hard mode. It is tooooo easy to beat an opponent in Normal gameplay. Suddenly its damn tough in Hard! There has to be a middle level. It helps you to improve.
2) Player movements are uncontrollable. It is difficult to predict return ball in Hard game and in fraction of a second you need to decide your players move. So in this case you need something which let your player sprint. but no sir. the only option is keep A button pressed and your player will dive to reach the ball. and if he dives, obviously he takes time to get up and by then your opponent has scored the point. frustrating.
3) in Hard mode AI is over over smart and in result a poor game simulation. Explain you why. In real world sometimes players win a point quickly, many times he has to work it out. There are rallies and then one great shot to take advantage, then finish the point in magestic style. gives a statisfaction. Now I am not talking about myself, but AI should be doing the same. in Hard mode at least sometimes it should le me rally, should try to manipulate my game. But it happens in such a way that AI in hard mode, given even a little chance always play something unplayable for me. some amazing cross court shots, from anywhere!!! drop shots from any position !!! pissed me off.

anyway. that's all. it may be good for pros.

An awesome tennis experience
I am not really a person who plays sport games a lot. I did however absolutey adore Virtua Tennis 1 & 2 on the Sega Dreamcast and felt it was one of a few (crazy taxi, shenmue and metropolis street racer being the others in my opinion) truely classic games to grace that console. So when Virtua Tennis 3 came out I was immediately tempted but held off purchasing as I have not known many sports games that have great longetivity or a truely involving single player. However I was completely wrong to hold off this game is an exhilerating experience and completely immersive. I have also found that my girlfriend who rarely plays games that don't involve Johnny Depp and hates tennis has become completely addicted and in some cases way more competitive than even John McEnroe, I honestly believe she has never cared so much about a game.

The career mode is fantastic, creating your player working your way through the year calender and up the rankings, playing mini games and practicing techniques to improve your overall ability. It actually feels like they have really thought about how to make this game attractive to the solo player. You feel a real sense of accomplishment winning some of the higher trophies and it is completely immersive.

The graphics are also beautiful and it is amazing fun multiplayer. (I do not have Xbox Live so am unable to comment on the Live experience.) The only areas I feel it is slightly let down is the music, which is the same for every game and grates ever so slightly especially as you start to get addicted. This however can be combated by turning it down in the settings.

There has been a lot of complaints that the players dive to easily but this does only happen if you are too far away from the ball to hit it, as in real tennis if you cannot reach the ball you will have to dive to hit it.

A fantastic game for absolutley anyone. It comes highly recommended.

There are surely better tennis games than this
I purchased this game after reading quite a lot of favourable reviews and I have to say that I was disappointed. The graphics are quite good and there are plenty of options, but the basic gameplay is neither realistic nor particularly fun.

The overriding feeling I get when playing is that I'm not in control of the player. The movement is far too automated and simply pressing the A button when your player is within ten feet of the ball will result in them automatically lunging across the court and getting a shot back over the net. Control over the direction of shots is also highly automated - it's almost impossible to hit a shot into the net or out of the court - and this further detracts from the gameplay in my opinion.

Overall, I can see how some people might enjoy the game - particularly with a couple of friends - but for someone looking for crisp, fun, gameplay (or indeed, a realistic tennis sim) I'd advise looking elsewhere.