OXCGN’s Virtua Tennis 4 Review

A Grand-Slam Ace or just a ‘Foul Ball’?

by: Aksobey

©2011 Kent Sobey

Believe it or not, Virtua Tennis 4 is not actually the fourth Virtua Tennis game. It is actually the fifth and follows the last one which was released in 2009.

The game is broken down into a few areas, the World Tour, Arcade and Exhibition modes and if you feel like a bit of fun, you can play the Mini-Games – some of which are very strange.

World Tour

The world tour takes place on a map of the world – who would have though? Much like a board game, you get random travel cards. Each ‘travel card‘ takes you a certain distance between 1 and 4 spaces. You can carry up to 3 travel cards at a time and you have an extra 2 slots available for cards that you buy at the ‘Management Office’.

You can also get ‘Energy Recovery Cards’ or a card that switches up all your other cards and give you another three randomly selected ones. But be careful when you use them though, because they use up a complete day of your time period and you only have a limited number of days to get to the Final for each of the four continents you play in.

Throughout the World Tour you will also come across the mini-games which serve as a way for you to practice and upgrade your World Tour Player. The more you play, the better he or she gets, so it’s worth your while stopping at them whenever you have a chance. We will take a closer look at the mini-games separately a little later on.

You also get to play ‘Special Matches’, ‘Fancy Dress Matches’ and of course ‘Practice Matches’ on the World Tour between big tournaments. The Special Matches put you up against one of the well known stars in the tennis world and the Fancy Dress Matches have everyone dressed like a fool in order to raise money. Strangely, it raises money for yourself which is a little odd.

The money you have can be spent on new super-shots which you build up during play, or new outfits. There are literally thousands of outfits that you could put on and including the fancy dress ones, some of which are very weird indeed. You can even play with a baguette or a big fish instead of a tennis racquet if you want, now that is weird.

You collect stars for winning matches and doing press and charity events. The more stars you have in your possession, the higher your rating. It may not seem very important at first to get the stars, but once you get to the end of the World Tour, you will find it is really quite important.

You need at least 750 stars after the four legs of the World Tour to unlock the last leg where you will compete in another two tournaments. One is the SPT final where you will be matched up against all the world-greats, including Jim Courier and the other is against the Virtua Tennis boss if you will, King. He is always the last person you play in any VT game.

The World Tour in this release of Virtua Tennis does however have a few downsides to it, but is generally pretty good career mode and has a lot going for it. The only major flaw is that the travel cards you get are random – this can be very irritating and leave you in all sorts of trouble through no fault of your own.

Arcade

The Arcade Mode is much the same as it was in the previous Virtua Tennis games. You need to work your way through the various famous current tennis stars and if you’re lucky, you will get to play either King or Duke in the last round.

Like all the players you get to play against along the way, this is also very random, which can be frustrating at times. Once you beat them, you unlock them for use in Arcade and Exhibition Mode.

I must say though, Arcade Mode is great fun if you just feel like a few quick games to kill some time and slam some tennis balls around the court or mix-it-up with some of the world’s greatests in the world of virtual tennis.

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Exhibition

Exhibition Mode is basically just a quick match. You can choose who you play against which is what makes it different from the arcade but other than that the matches are identical.

Mini-games

You can choose to play mini-games from the main menu or play them in the World Tour to help increase your player’s stats, as well as increase your purse. They range from simple clay pigeon shooting to collecting chickens eggs. Despite being rather strange, the mini-games can be a lot of fun, especially with a few friends online.

Verdict ?

All things considered, Virtua Tennis 4 is a solid tennis title. One thing to remember though when playing it, is that it is supposed to be considered an arcade title, not a sim – which is perhaps why it is not as realistic as Top Spin 4.

It deserves 6 out of 10. It most certainly it could have been better, but does have a few good things about it which make is worth playing through the world tour at least once.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t hold its appeal for very long after that though, so replayability is somewhat limited.

`6/10

©2011 Kent Sobey

How to Unlock Duke

You can unlock the character Duke by beating the Arcade Mode without dropping a single game. Once you’ve cleared the mode, instead of an Exhibition Match popping up at th end, you will instead see a special message telling you that you have found a special match against Duke!

If you can manage to beat him in the special match you will unlock him and he’ll then be selectable as a playable character! You can unlock him on any difficulty setting and as any male Tennis player.

Virtua Tennis 4 Characters List

Here is a list of all 22 playable characters in the game. Virtua Tennis 4 features seven all-new characters (Marked with “new”) along with new legends. The PS3 version features exclusive PS3 Legends and two exclusive mini-games.

ATP Players

1. Andreas Seppi
2. Andy Murray
3. Andy Roddick
4. Fernando González (New)
5. Gaël Monfils
6. Juan Martín del Potro (New)
7. Novak Djokovic
8. Philipp Kohlschreiber (New)
9. Rafael Nadal
10. Roger Federer

11. Tommy Haas

WTA Players

12. Ana Ivanovi?
13. Anna Chakvetadze
14. Caroline Wozniacki (New)
15. Laura Robson (New)
16. Maria Sharapova
17. Svetlana Kuznetsova
18. Venus Williams

Legends

19. Boris Becker (PS3-exclusive)
20. Jim Courier
21. Patrick Rafter (PS3-exclusive)
22. Stefan Edberg (PS3-exclusive)

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