I never played the Virtua Tennis series, but arcade Tennis games as such? Hell yeah - Mario Tennis on the N64 or Gamecube for example were fantastic!
I think I enjoyed those games even more than Smash or Kart as far as multiplayer goes. There's something so tactile to the smack of a tennis bat hitting a ball (ideally with nice and overblown adio) and all that frantic positioning back and forth.
The Symbian version on old Nokia might be hot garbage even during that time, but it was the only thing keeping me company anytime I skipped class.
I miss Virtua Tennis.
I only remember playing a lil bit of VT4, and honestly, the aesthetics and vibes of it were way better than I expected from a tennis game, or just sports games in general. Loved the frutiger metro stylings. The gameplay was pretty good too, though I may have been playing the campaign suboptimally.
I only remember playing a lil bit of VT4, and honestly, the aesthetics and vibes of it were way better than I expected from a tennis game, or just sports games in general. Loved the frutiger metro stylings. The gameplay was pretty good too, though I may have been playing the campaign suboptimally.
You should play VT1-2 actually really fun arcade games. I highly recommend them. VT3 is good but somewhat barebones, you can tell its made as a party or get together game.
I never played the Virtua Tennis series, but arcade Tennis games as such? Hell yeah - Mario Tennis on the N64 or Gamecube for example were fantastic!
I think I enjoyed those games even more than Smash or Kart as far as multiplayer goes. There's something so tactile to the smack of a tennis bat hitting a ball (ideally with nice and overblown adio) and all that frantic positioning back and forth.
So, to give an introduction, Virtua Tennis is a cross between a simulator and an arcade game. Like many SEGA games from their arcade division, it’s stylistically a combo of arcade goodness and a refined take on what parts of the real sport make it fun.
For Virtua Tennis, it has a strong fighting game feel, with a similar UI to many contemporary fighters at the time, a world map to match, and an intuitive control scheme. The music is banging, the ball feels bouncy and responsive, and it just FEELS better to play than any other tennis game before or since. Mario Tennis, as beloved as it is, focuses on what Nintendo does best: features and charm. Which isn’t bad! But Virtua Tennis is the kind of game where all you need is a single play session to understand why the people who love it do so strongly.
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As for those curious of why you should care about Virtua Tennis beyond my big block of text, let’s let the music do the talking.
For those with a PSP or Vita emulator on hand, 3 & 4 are on those! The first two are Naomi games with Dreamcast ports. They even let you use the fishing rod as a motion controller so you can play motion controlled tennis in 1999!
I’m surprised how long they stayed around! They made it to the 2010’s, far longer than most other SEGA series, but they died after 4. I assume it’s a lack of an exciting direction that killed it, as developers love being challenged by something new. It also may have fallen to the same trap as Virtua Fighter: they said they’d only make a new one if they found a strong and significant way to improve it. With VF coming back, perhaps we will see it come our way again! They could take it in a direction similar to how Mario and Sonic had those Dream Events. Perhaps a side mode where the arenas become more wild? Or, if they so choose, maybe change the control scheme to provide intense control?
The series just needs a direction that would excite and incentivize people to make it. I know that we all just want it to come back with no frills, but games don’t get made that way. Developers AND fans both need to be happy for a game to prosper.
Yeah, I remember trying it out for the first time and making a comparison to fighting games. Like every time you try to catch a ball from far away, your character kinda loses balance, and I immediately thought of it as minus frames. The back and forth you have of defending and putting pressure, then following with a mix-up is very fighting game-esque. I genuinely wanna see a modern game and there be a competitive scene for it.
Yeah, I remember trying it out for the first time and making a comparison to fighting games. Like every time you try to catch a ball from far away, your character kinda loses balance, and I immediately thought of it as minus frames. The back and forth you have of defending and putting pressure, then following with a mix-up is very fighting game-esque. I genuinely wanna see a modern game and there be a competitive scene for it.
If, and this is a HUGE if, SEGA still miraculously has the code for 1 or 2, then it might be nice to see them perform a bit of the Virtua Fighter 5 REVO treatment and put a PC remaster out that serves as a platform essentially for people to just play against each other. That might actually be the best road for Virtua Tennis: embrace the FGC.
This whole era of late 90's/early 2000's Sega sports games are still unmatched to this day. Only played VT 1&2 admittedly, but I agree Sega really knew what they were doing with their sports titles. No one else managed to combine that sense of realism with intuitive, fun arcade style game play.
Might be a bit off-topic, but anyone played Cosmic Smash as well? It's another Sega sports title from that era although it's based on Squash rather than tennis. It's probably my favorite sports game of all time as well.
This whole era of late 90's/early 2000's Sega sports games are still unmatched to this day. Only played VT 1&2 admittedly, but I agree Sega really knew what they were doing with their sports titles. No one else managed to combine that sense of realism with intuitive, fun arcade style game play.
Might be a bit off-topic, but anyone played Cosmic Smash as well? It's another Sega sports title from that era although it's based on Squash rather than tennis. It's probably my favorite sports game of all time as well.
If, and this is a HUGE if, SEGA still miraculously has the code for 1 or 2, then it might be nice to see them perform a bit of the Virtua Fighter 5 REVO treatment and put a PC remaster out that serves as a platform essentially for people to just play against each other. That might actually be the best road for Virtua Tennis: embrace the FGC.
I forget who, but I found it out through somebody ON THE FORUM lol
We were posting about the best GameCube games and somebody brought it up. Ever since, I’ve been trying to find a copy.
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