Genre: Tennis	Developed By: Sumo Digital
	For better and for worse, the new installation to Virtua Tennis maintains similar game mechanics.

It has been 15 months since Virtua Tennis 3 was released in the current generation of consoles. A year is ample time for sports games to re-work their formulas and come out with something that is fresh and innovative. For better and for worse, Virtua Tennis 2009 is not a major do-over from its predecessor.

The game mechanics for a large part remain very similar to VT3. Similar to the franchise and its roots, VT’09 is easy to pick up and play, yet it has the ability to be competitive. With only three types of shots to choose from (top spin, slice and volley), the emphasis is to get into good positioning in order to hit potential match winners.  

The game does however have minor tweaks. Players can no longer stretch out and dive. This is a welcome change as it was too easy to keep the ball in play with the dives. This time around hard to reach shots will have players get stumble and take longer to recover. Furthermore VT’09 introduces close up cameras. The cameras are a welcome addition as they accurately let players determine the depth of the shots. The cameras can only be used when playing a non-multiplayer singles game or a multiplayer singles game if playing through a network.

World Tour Mode:

Similar to its predecessor, VT’09 also features a world tour mode. The mode starts with customizing the looks of the character. Although there are a lot of areas to customize, our characters always looked similar. To make matters worse, the characters mostly had a lazy tired look that made them look like drug addicts. But it’s the game play that matters right?

The World Tour Mode is by far one of the most boring features of any game I have played in a while. The main issue is that the AI is extremely easy. It is almost impossible to lose a point let alone a game. It was so boringly easy that I found myself day dreaming about playing my next game while I unconsciously beat the opponent. The character starts out ranked 100 in the amateur tier. The goal is to reach the top of the amateur tier to play with the pros and then get to the top on that tier as well. You only gain 2-4 spots by winning a tournament. That is a lot of tournaments!

It takes about 10-12 hours of game time before the career mode gets competitive. These hours are a dreadful grind that only the hardcore MMORPG players will not find frustratingly tedious.

To make matters worse, they have chosen to completely do away with the character development system from VT3. In VT3 players gained strengths as they trained and took part in mini-games. There was a sense of development and the characters would become better as they went along. In VT’09 however, the character starts out fully developed with the exception of play style. Instead training and mini-games are completed to gain experience and unlock other play styles. The play-styles do not affect characters in a major way and therefore it feels as if there is no development.

The Core:

The strongest feature about the Virtua Tennis series has been the multiplayer. With its simplistic controls it is an easy pick up and play title. The game truly shines with the hectic and fast paced multiplayer doubles matches. Because the game keeps intact similar game mechanics from VT3 and without a major graphical overhaul, it does not feel like a different game. Even the shot animations feel and look the same. They have also decided to keep the same music from the previous games. If you already own VT3 then there is little motive for buying VT’09.

Final Word:

With only minor gameplay tweaks and a new World Tour Mode that is weak, boring and tedious, Virtua Tennis 3 is clearly still the champion of tennis games for this generation of consoles.