Virtua Tennis is the Pro Evolution Soccer of the sport, providing the instant accessibility of an arcade game, with the hidden depths and secrets of a hardcore title - the classic 'easy to learn, difficult to master1 aesthetic that marks out true classics. While it admittedly started off life as an arcade game, it’s the enhanced Dreamcast version that we spent all our time with.With The Kind of euphoria that's screeched by numerous middle-aged ladies from Henman Hill during Wimbledon fortnight we welcome back the third iteration to PC after Virtua Tennis 2 failed to show. It admittedly does very little to improve on the base gameplay mechanics of Virtua Tennis, but that’s because they were so well-crafted to begin with. Then there’s the excellent “World Tour” mode that requires you to train both female and male characters by competing in a number of highly enjoyable mini-games that will test all aspects of your player’s skills. The face buttons enable you to pull off an impressive range of shots, while the pacing and AI of the game remains constantly challenging. The amazing thing about both Virtua Tennis 2 and its slick predecessor is just how much control you have over the game. The cast roster was impressive, featuring the likes of Tim Henman, Serena and Venus Williams and Monica Seles, while the gameplay was absolutely incredible. Created by Hitmaker, it delivered stunning visuals, the ability to slice the ball (far more important than it sounds) and mixed doubles. While Virtua Tennis was an insanely good game, our focus is its sequel as it delivered a number of important additions – most notably the ability to finally place as female characters. While the likes of Super Tennis and Pete Sampras Tennis pretty much tied up the 16-bit consoles for tennis brilliance, it was Sega’s incredible Virtua Tennis series that took the game to a whole new level of graphical fidelity and complex gameplay that would have had gamers from the Seventies staring slack-jawed with wonder. As the years passed the game of tennis evolved so it eventually had very little bearing to the tiny number of pixels that first appeared in those very early games. There’s something about the sport that translates perfectly to the competitiveness of multiplayer play, so it’s hardly surprising that the likes of Pong were so popular in the early Seventies. The game of tennis has been around since gaming first began.
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