Virtua Tennis 3

Game, set and match for Sega's AM3 team

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Tennis, you either love it or hate it. The sign of a great sports game is one that you find hugely enjoyable even though you may not be a massive fan of the sport itself. Take the Virtua Tennis series for instance. I can't think of many other sports games that have ever been so easy to pick up and play, and yet have had so much hidden depth lurking inside its underbelly. Do my comments sound too far-fetched? I hope not, because it's true. Sega's AM3 team have delivered another belter.

In all fairness, it may be only a step up from Pong, but that's all you need in terms of buttons. There's a slice button, a topspin button and a lob button for when your opponent wanders too close to the net. Virtua Tennis is solely about tennis skill. It doesn't make sense to just mindlessly return the ball, you need to plan, you need to out manoeuvre, and you need to work each and every rally so that your opponent is forced out of position. Then you deliver a smash so hard, that the ball seems to leave the arena, and starts its search for orbit.

The visuals in VT3 are lush to say the least. The character models are almost perfectly replications of their real life counterparts, with brilliant effects (such as small clouds of smoke that plume at your feet whilst you run on the clay courts) and if you blink, you would swear that you're watching an actual match on TV. Top marks are awarded to AM3s devotion to perfection. In earlier Virtua Tennis games you had to release the shot button to actually take your shot, so you could either take that diving shot from a distance, or rush in a bit closer for a more 'normal' powered shot, with the risk of missing the ball if you waited too long. While the shot system in Virtua Tennis 3 is more user friendly, it also makes games against human players at a higher skill level a bit silly as both players constantly dive across the court to reach cross-court balls while trying to get decent returns.

VT3 offers several gameplay modes. You can play a single exhibition match; participate in a tournament, some court games (2-player minigames) or the main portion, the World Tour. Single matches and tournaments are pretty self-explanatory - you pick an elite pro player character and play either a match or a tournament, and you can play with up to four human players assuming you have enough seats and game pads. World Tour has undergone a minor overhaul from previous iterations, with additions such as injuries, a new training centre (focus on training is pretty much essential), and some fun minigames.

The World Tour mode is all down to you to explore. To begin with, you're self-made character is rubbish, then as you play the training/minigames and tournaments, you gradually improve. Your stats upgrade automatically until you emerge as a fully fledged pro. The World Tour is massive, and climbing to the world #1 ranking is no mean feat.

It's sad to report that while the minigame challenges are quite compelling in their quirkiness (repel ball-firing aliens, feed crocodiles, and play bingo) the training centre's charm tires quickly. Yet, with the new demands of the gameplay, your commitment to training is required if you want to build yourself a world beating player character.

Single matches play most enjoyably, the only problem being that as soon as you turn up the difficulty level, VT3 turns into a monster. To take a shot, you press one of the three shot buttons, the longer you hold the button before the ball comes to your player, the firmer your return is. However, if you need to run across the court to reach the ball whilst pressing down on the shot button, the game takes the first available shot - which is a diving shot. You can hold off hitting the shot button until the last moment to avoid this, but that means your return is a very weak shot.

Added to the gameplay overhaul (perhaps to make up for the lack of an online mode), the PS3 version of VT3 includes Sixaxis motion control. It takes a bit of time to get used to at first (can also make you look rather foolish as your peers watch you dive around the living room, PS3 pad in hand), but if you have patience and spend hours practicing, you'll be able to play VT3 perfectly well with motion gestures - but I prefer the good old fashioned way of button bashing my opponent into submission.

Although past versions of Virtua Tennis have always exhibited a finely tuned but "arcadey" feel, VT3 is a full bodied simulation. This new outing from Sega AM3's ever appealing sports series is a deeper, more demanding and serious beast than ever before and yet easily manages to maintain the 'fun' factor that is synonymous with the series. In a PS3 launch line-up that's not exactly full of Triple-A gems right now, Virtua Tennis 3 stands out by a mile.

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By Dean Cole