Virtua Tennis 2

You might have not thought of it but if you mull over for a second you will find that the first ever tennis game was Pong. Those of you out there who are unaware of Pong, Pong was a antiquated tennis game with a little exception, it had no net. Pong was a huge success and up till now very few tennis games have made their mark, among those Namco’s Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament is prominent to some extent. Not even the big names such as Electronic Arts have not been able to develop a tennis game.

But one thing revolutionized the tennis games forever and that thing is SEGA Dreamcast. SEGA released arcade styled Virtua Tennis and it really hit the spot but due to SEGA’s hardware failure only few people were able to get in touch with it. but later on its sequel was also developed on PlayStation 2.

And to make it more exciting for your taste buds SEGA has gotten the rights of 16 real players names and comprises both male and female players such as Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Magnus Norman, Lindsay Davenport, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Patrick Rafter, Ai Sugiyama, Mary Pierce, Alexandra Stevenson, Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario, Tim Henman, Carlos Moya, Tommy Haas, Cedric Pioline, Monica Seles and Thomas Enqvist.

Top Spin 2

The developers at Indie/PAM and publisher 2K Sports were right about giving a bit of extra time to Top Spin 2 before hitting it to the market, must have derived this tactic from Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter as they made the decision to delay it. The preview of Top Spin was not captivating and little hard to be appreciated but for those who have affinity towards tough, demanding game of videogame tennis, the Top Spin 2 is out.

Top Spin 2 is the successor of Xbox’s game, Top Spin. Top Spin borrowed a lot from Viruta Tennis series which was SEGA’s tennis game and was a very renowned tennis game. Virtua tennis basically revolutionized the world of tennis. It manifested that how you can create spontaneous controls and making hitting the ball as easily as perceived. With its arcadey style and tight gameplay SEGA’s game helped triggering many tennis games but no one was as good as SEGA’s. But Top Spin takes Virtua Tennis to the upper level, offering simple mechanics that are easy to go along with and takes more than simple arcade mechanics to master them.

Top Spin 2 offers variety of courts to play upon, almost 19 courts. Offering over 24 licensed men and women pros and four modes of play that are exhibition, career, party games and Xbox Live online play.

Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2

When Smash Court Tennsi Pro came out on PS2 in 2002, it nailed two things with. One being having ridiculously long name and second the ever game on PS2 which reflected the real world tennis. But it could not hold its ground against Sega Sports Tennis, which showed how you should make a real Tennis game. The developers are adding another title to the franchise the Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2 with the little longer also comes some good new features and modifications, with the attempt to try to reclaim the throne.

So does this game really have what it takes to be? Does this game provide hard competition for the other consoles out there? So many questions indeed but unfortunately the answer is no. Although, the game provide a fine tennis experience and has no competition in the market either.

There have been some changes to the game which include an augmentation to the visuals. The experience as a whole graphic wise has been modified. The courts have been made better especially the grassy courts and their worn out areas. But there is one slight thing that has not been altered and it’s the audiences. Another thing is the fluency of the controls and that has been made better, any novice player can get hold of it by practicing few hours.

Slam Tennis

After the success of Virtua Tennis which came out on Dreamcast, many tennis games have been released based on the features of Virtau Tennis and some came with their own specific features. But the main hot game remains the Virtua Tennis. After the arcade style of it we anticipate the insertion of real players, multiple modes, unlockable secrets and multiplayer thrills.

Just like Virtua tennis the Slam Tennis offers magnificent gameplay, the controls are pretty simple and easy to get along with and with some arcade approach it feels even better. Besides the gameplay and controls almost half of Virtau Tennis are in the Slam Tennis too, Tim Henman, Carlos Moya and the Scratch heavy hitter Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Other than the cast you can make your own player either male or female.

The graphics of Slam Tennis are too shabby but it could have more good if they have put some fine graphics but as a whole the game feels good and you will not regret playing it.

As mentioned above the Slam Tennis takes a lot from Sega’s game. Another thing that it takes is the mini games that allow you to improve your skills for instance you can do the serve practice to improve you serve which primarily depends on timing similarly you can hook up to other game to ameliorate your shoots.

Hot Shots Tennis

If you are familiar with the Hot Shot franchise or even if you have heard about it then you should be aware of their trademark and that it accessibility. The game is designed is such a manner that it is so easy to play and to begin but at the same time it offers profound gameplay and requires tones of hours to gain access to perfection. Hot Shots were able to live up to their tradition but failed to compete with the Tiger Woods-like image of its brethren.

As far as controls are concerned, they are pretty simple and basic. For different types of shots you need to hit different button, X button is to shoot topspin, hit the circle button and the player will do slice shot and lob is done by pressing the triangle. For the Backhand and forehand shots, well, they depend upon in what position the player is facing the incoming ball. As far as the serving is concerned, all you need to do is timing and similarly for different types of serving there are different buttons, X is used to serve flat, circle is used to serve slice and for underhand serve triangle is used. The sounds and graphics are pretty much good rather satisfying.

Sega Sports Tennis

Since my high school started, I used to prefer playing tennis, considering it as a proper sport. Now I am older and wiser and have intellectual thoughts, I really love tennis especially women tennis. In modern era, people used to play sports which are translated to video games. Seeing many youngsters as play station 2 addicts and very much giddy about Sega sports tennis. Dreamcast has also provided few extra bonuses, intuitive to play and has gain huge respect among the best tennis games on all systems.

I just recommend scraping those tight white shorts, bye bye to jimmy Connors and Chris Evert and welcoming top professionals dressed in backward baseball Caps. With buffed biceps and fastest reflex on the planet you will see serious sporting forearms and stylish miniskirts. Those who have experienced Dreamcast Version follow the same format as Tennis 2K2 with slight changes.

You can choose players among 16 top ranked men and women with variety of singles and doubles tournaments. It should be worth noted that first Sega game has no female players while this game is presenting both male and female players equally stylish and with professional game play. Over all I am giving 8 out of 10 despite very few valid complaints, the game is very challenging and structured in such a way to make it rich and rewarding. Multiplayer is also terrific and awesome even if you have only one iota of interest

Virtua Tennis 3

If you thought Virtua Tennis: World Tour was the best tennis game that Sega came out with then think again. The Virtua Tennis 3 takes the crown of the best tennis game from the World Tour edition. This new edition is pretty easy to play and so more and more people are moving towards this game. It is basically a new and improved version of the World Tour. The developers rather then focusing on a totally new game have refined it to such an extent that it has become a joy to play. There is full career mode and some cool mini games. The game starts off by you creating your avatar choosing from a rather limited bunch of options. Then you select your home country. And from here on you try to make your player be counted and to move up in the world rankings from 300^th to number 1^st. Your player goes through tennis school which is a combination of different skills that you have to master.

Your player gets experience points for mastering different skills. The difficulty level goes up as you master one skill after the other. After you have got the required experience you start your game in the career mode where you get to play in different locations including Spain, Italy, China, USA, France and England. You get to play indoors and outdoors with different types of courts like clay, grass and hard courts. Your stamina level decreases as you play in different tournaments so to avoid injury you can either take a vacation from playing or drink energy drinks. On winning you get awarded different items which takes the fun out of the game because getting rewarded by money feels better. So for all you tennis buffs this is a game to really play and enjoy.