I have never been brilliant fan of remakes or adapted originals, unless there had been a real good reason for one. For example, the Chronicles of Riddick had been a god reason for a remake, and Street fighter II also is an appropriate remake and rehash type of title, but if it’s just a recreation for the sake of it being a new generation, then I personally feel that’s poor production. Luckily, with Virtua Tennis’s rebranding in the all new and revoked “Virtua Tennis 2009”, the design choices by the team at Sumo Digital have definitely upped the margin of justification for a worthy remake.

For those lost with the Virtua Tennis series, Virtua tennis started off as an arcade game (in the arcades that is, not just being an arcade game) that had been developed by Sega-AM3 with the purpose of simulating pure arcade style tennis games. Then later it had been decided to port the series to the home console market with Virtua Tennis 2 on the Dreamcast and Playsation 2, and due to the success of the expansion, Virtua Tennis 3 found itself moved from arcades to current generation platforms. With these later sequels of course the games have changed so they’re suited to their chosen platforms, yet they have all kept their true arcade ‘stylesque’ gameplay.

Gameplay:

If you had to place all the big Tennis games in a league of arcade to authentic, Wii Sports would slot itself nicely down the start within arcade, Top Spin 3 could probably be associated as the most authentic, but if you took the all new and improved Virtua Tennis 2009 – in its nicely rounded and polished off state – it’d be placed slap bam in the middle of the two. So, the original Virtua Tennis arcade lovers can enjoy some newly improved Virtua Tennis, and I expect the more serious and competitive players among us will also have some satisfaction trying it out.

First it’s worth pointing out that it is the ‘in-between’ mechanics of Virtua Tennis 2009 which make it such an easily lovable and reputable game to play. It has the realistic animations, and the pseudo colourised yet improved graphics, all with the pick up and play control scheme, any bad sports player can put this game in and suddenly feel like a professional.

Virtua Tennis 3 had taken on three different perspectives of what a tennis game should play like, and had implemented all three of them fairly well. Splitting the game into three parts; Normal Play (Exhibition & Arcade), World Tour, and mini games, are types that are so variant that one player might not be able to get enough of the World Tour mode, but may loathe the mini-games side of Virtua Tennis, which is perfectly possible. The reason for this is because the World Tour has some RPG elements and career aspects that make the basic ‘hit a ball back and forth’ connotations that bit more involving. The intent of this mode is to allow the player to develop their own character through a series of their own fictional career choices; you start off by being able to make your own characterised tennis player, name him/her, choose a place to live on a semi-interactional globe, then trot off and search for tournaments. On the other side though, the Virtua Tennis goes completely off the rails with its smashing of explosive barrels, and dodging giant tennis balls from a dumpster truck – in other words, the mini games. Some people may find this completely ridiculous, but it’s a risk in favour as it can appeal to other audiences.

Thankfully, Virtua Tennis 2009 has kept the same great formula, which I felt worked great for this series. Sumo Digital have definitely tampered with all the modes, and integrated a few of their own few features, but it’s still the Virtua Tennis everyone loves and knows.

When starting the game up you’ll be greeted with a completely new theme to what is a very familiar game. As before it was a slick metallic sports look, now it’s a slightly more retro black and yellow contrast theme that definitely stands out and gives the impression of a completely revolutionised title. I see the theme more suited to the PS3, because of its imposing black look, but it looks good nonetheless.

In terms of extra mini-games previous players may recognise a few missing games in there, as well as a few returning and revamped ones. A few returning types are Pin Crusher, Avalanche and Drum Topple, and they’ve been tweaked and improved for gameplay reasons, e.g. an enhanced physics engine, which a lot of these mini games rely on immensely. Some new crazy games have been added such as “Pot Shot”; this is more of a game of pool then you might have originally thought. The only real difference is that you’re a tennis player hitting the white cue ball into the table balls, and that you can only stand on one side of the table because you’re tiny in comparison. You also have “Pirate Wars”, which is basically what the name describes, except you’re destroying pirates ships by hitting the tennis balls as they’re firing them at you. Interestingly though every now and again they fire a cannonball of which you lose a health point if you get hit, of that I found odd in a sports game, minus the already strange mini-game itself. There are in total 12 mini games to play, all of them as crazy and unpredictable as one another, and they make a great break from the usual and inevitably repetitive tennis game.

Another alteration that may be noticed by fans is the amount of extra depth and customisation within the World Tour. The player builder has more choices for making your perfect look alike, you can buy items of clothing and other accessories at a store once you win enough tournaments, take part in mini-games that earn you skill points in stroke types and serving abilities, and take part in online tournaments that increase your rank and even earn you cash. So, for a game where you really expect the player to be in the court at all times, there’s a lot to do here.

The actual tennis part of Virtua Tennis hasn’t been forgotten either, due to its already solid gameplay mechanics there have only been some real minor extras tagged on here. Extras in purpose of improving the general aesthetics of the game have been included, yet there are a number of new animations the game even more replayable. For the value of immersion, the crowd reacts more to player performance, especially if you’re doing well, and there’s now a new 3rd person camera mode that positions itself right behind the player for a newly added personal view of the court. This does make the game harder for the player, but I suppose it gives you a slightly more realistic outlook of the game.

Graphics:

If there is any real nick pick I could find with this game it would be with the graphics. The overly saturated and bright feel to the game could be a fan pleaser or something of a trademark of the Virtua Tennis games; however I do feel it is over accentuated in some cases with the famous players themselves. All of the players look like their real person counterparts, but people like Rafael Nadal look a little too dark in comparison to real life, but if the purpose of emphasising is to tell the players apart, then that can be understood.

There definitely more animations within the game, and the removal of a player diving makes gives the game some more needed realism, but I still felt after playing a few games that there still weren’t enough animations to compensate after even a few tournaments within a World Tour. This is unfortunate, and unluckily tennis games do really rely on animation to make the game refreshing.

Sound:

The music is arcade like to fit the arcade like game itself. Techno, fast rhythm beats set the scene quite well, and although you feel like you’re playing the original arcade game sometimes, it does somehow fit the whole theme of the game.

One of Sumo Digital’s other boasted new features were the changing behaviours of the audience. Crowds react and cheer to the player’s good performance, and surrounding AI behaviour does change as the game heats up. This is hardly a major addition, but you’d definitely be lost without it. Other than those few things, nothing really sticks out like a sour thumb in terms of astounding audio or just poor quality.

Longevity:

Normally with most tennis games, the replayability relies on how much you can put up with the basic mechanics of playing a regular tennis match or tournament, however kudos to Sumo Digital with their breakaway of the norm in the form of extra insane mini-games and an easy to pick-up-and-play world tour.

Players already established with the series, and particularly with Virtua Tennis 3, won’t be blown away by this new addition as a whole, as it isn’t exactly a sequel but a re-introduction. The community has been listened to somewhat about extra features; such as the diving players, and the originally underdeveloped World Tour mode. If you’re a real big fan of the series – and not just another returning player – then you’ll more than likely be pleased with what’s been included , and it will last you at least as long as Virtua Tennis 3.

Overall:

I feel any true fan of the Virtua Tennis games can be happy with Sumo Digital’s work with Virtua Tennis 2009, as they have kept the perfectly solid gameplay mechanics and modes as solid as they were, but tweaked and adapted where deemed necessary. They’ve also listened to their audience with inclusions, and gave them the ability to customise your character even more so, polished the game’s graphics with cloud cover and player respiratory, added an interesting 3rd person camera view, and an even deeper and intuitive World Tour mode.

This may not be a ground-breaking accomplishment, and there still could be some tweaks here and there – such as introducing a more realistic graphics engine, and extra animations – but it is a noticeable improvement from Virtua Tennis 3, and offers more than enough content for a modernised remake.