Review: Virtua Tennis 3 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360. SEGA.)

Since the days of heavy set, polygamous kings, tennis has always been a noble sport. Favoured by royals, toffs and rich people alike, tennis has always had a stuffy image. Strangely, having Cliff Richard as an ambassador hasn’t helped to dispel the stereotypical representation of tennis and to this day tennis struggles to be regarded as cool. In our opinion the only thing that has come close to helping tennis gain even a modicum of credibility in the cool stakes is videogames. Virtua Tennis, along with Namco’s Smash Court series have arguably managed to elevate the status of tennis, proving to be essential purchases on consoles and a notorious devourer of pound coins in the arcades. Virtua Tennis 3 is no exception, proving to be undoubtedly the best in the series thus far, serving up acres of game for your bucks.
First in VT 3’s set of aces is its generous roster of 20 pros, ranging from the lesser known likes of James Blake and Nicole Vaidisova, to the world conquering Roger Federer, shrieking siren Maria Sharapova and serial disappointer-crashed-out-in-the-first-round-again ‘tiger’ Tim Henman.
VT 3 boasts a raft of options and features including an in-depth World Tour mode where you begin by creating your own potential tennis champ, training him or her via a series of bizarre, surreal training mini-games and then taking your creation to the top. Becoming the no. 1 seed will take you a hell of a long time as you gradually enhance your character in training, playing matches, stopping to periodically rest and recharge. All of these events are attached to a running calendar, so managing what events you participate in and being ready and rested for them is important if you want to be in tip-top shape come game time. Within your first couple of hours you’ll have levelled-up a fair bit and you’ll quickly be mingling with the pros, eventually presented with your pick of the top players to become your doubles partner. Hint: Federer is normally a safe bet. Disappointingly, player creation options are fairly limited and the inability to engineer gangly-limbed tennis mutants comes as a bit of a letdown.
Virtua Tennis 3 is a joy to play being a smooth, realistic tennis game with a slight arcade bent. It’s fast and accessible, a true pick up and play game where any newcomer with even a rudimentary understanding of the sport, or Pong for that matter, will be absorbed in a matter of seconds. Our only criticism would be that some games can turn into farcical leaping sessions, where your player becomes constantly stretched, activating the dive animation to bound around the court in order to return difficult shots. In multiplayer, this can prove to be pretty comical and was a running source of mirth for The Shed during protracted hours of play. Equally ridiculous is the PS3's Sixaxis control, which is simply far too unwieldy to be of any use, and stands only as an experimental diversion. Trust us; stick with the traditional control method.
As always, Virtua Tennis succeeds in being an entertaining, indispensable multiplayer game that really comes into its own with four players scurrying around the court. Being a graphically accomplished title with incredible (albeit slightly waxy-looking) player likenesses and spot-on TV-style presentation doesn’t hurt the overall experience either. Unfortunately, PS3’s lack of online features is a huge missed opportunity, but 360 owners can get the most out of VT 3 on Live.

So, turn off the music-which sounds like someone let a pack of rabid baboons loose in a music store-get some mates round and you’ve got yourself a near flawless tennis game, which also happens to be one of PS3 and Xbox 360’s most essential sports games. Game, set, match to Virtua Tennis 3 (bet you never saw that coming).

Seed: 9/10