We get served some Kinect- and Move-powered action in Sega's latest tennis sim.
When we recently looked at 2K's tennis sim Top Spin 4, we discovered developer 2K Czech wasn't too enamored with the lack of buttons in Microsoft's motion gaming system Kinect, which it said made it difficult to move your character around accurately. No such qualms for Sega though, which has embraced the system with its latest entry in the Virtua Tennis series. The developer has implemented a new hybrid camera and automatic player movement, which have been designed to make the motion controls seamless, even if your flailing arms aren't as accurate as Nadal's swing. There's Move support too, with or without a navigation controller, plus stereoscopic 3D for PlayStation 3 users with suitably equipped TVs.
Being the active bunch we are, we couldn't resist jumping into a two-player Kinect-powered version of the game to see how the button-free motion controls held up. After picking our avatar from a selection of famous names--including Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Maria Sharapova--we hit the court for some one-on-one singles. In two-player, the screen is split vertically, corresponding to how the Kinect sees each player. Serving was as simple as putting a hand up in the air and swinging, with our opponent returning our serve with a swing of the arm.
To make it easier to return balls, the camera switched between first- and third-person viewpoints. When serving or moving around the court, we saw our avatar in the third-person, but when the ball was coming toward us, it switched to the first-person view. The system was a little disorientating at first, and there's quite a steep learning curve for returning the ball, with late swings resulting in entirely missed shots. Lining up shots was easier, because our avatar automatically moved around the court to put us in the best position to return the ball.
Performing different types of shots was as simple as adjusting the swing of our arm, or twisting our body around for backhands. Faster swings resulted in faster shots, and by angling our arms we could direct the ball to different parts of the court. We did try our hand at adding backspin and slicing shots, but found them quite tricky to pull off, at least without much practice. Using the Move offered a similar experience, though with the navigation controller you can move your avatar around, but sadly this wasn't something we could try out.
In addition to the standard career and versus modes, there's a party mode, which features a selection of tennis-powered minigames. One game we tried had an Egyptian theme, and we had to knock down a group of mummies who had invaded the court. Each mummy carried a different score, with ancient artifacts such as masks and vases carrying bonus points. A flurry of tennis balls were thrown toward us, and with some frantic swinging we showed the mummies that tennis players aren't to be trifled with--especially when points are involved.
Using motion controls felt more natural than pushing buttons, but with both the Kinect and the Move it was more difficult to pull off trickier shots with our arm than with a controller. That said, with practice we could see people getting more skillful, though those with small living rooms will no doubt bruise a few bodies in the process with over-exuberant flailing. Virtua Tennis 4 is due for release this spring on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii.
Writer, riff maker, purveyor of fine foods. Mark currently spends his days trying to overcome his small (large) obsession with high-top trainers and mobile games. He's known to respond well to Long Island Iced Tea, falafels, and karaoke, but not necessarily in that order.
The Move version excites me. The Move is a very precise instrument compared to the joke that is the Wii controller. In the move table tennis (Sports Champions pkg) if you turn your wrist, the char on screen turns his wrist exactly mimicking your movement. The Move and Kinect are for real adult gamers. Thankfully MS and Sony took up motion gaming. The Wii was an imprecise fancy air mouse for kids and I was awaiting a real motion controller. VT4 will be more fun now.
It may be a bit bias toward Kinect, but anyone that has used Kinect and has used Move knows... Move just isn't interesting. It is simply a Wii-mote with an orb on it. We have all played with the Wii and if you try out the Move it feels exactly the same... Possibly a bit more accurate. Kinect is a whole different experience. I can see why they would have Kinect and not Move on hand.
if i'd say that move is an ice-cream cone..i'd prefer then to name kinect as the bully who drops it and laughs at it...kinect rules by all aspects.
true_hurdler :: Seems to me I'm not the one who needs the Real Assault Rifle considering how you're taking my "comment."
@advanracer: Yea and if you really wanna invest your money, you can buy a REAL assault rifle and spray people with it...ARE YOU REALLY ON A VIDEO GAME THREAD BASHING THE IDEA OF VIDEO GAMES?!?
I used to be a fan of the Virtua Tennis series but when Top Spin 3 was released i chose for that game. I still think I go for the Top Spin series because of the realism and because of the graphics it has. Although playing tennis in real life is a lot more fun.
If it wasn't for kinect or move I would never even consider buying a tennis game. I'd just wish MS or Sony would make a combination with both a controller that fits the games and a camera to catch your movements.
the writing is kind of biased towards the kinect version isn't it?... Didn't you used the move??...
This is a pointless article for any PS3 owners. Written with a bias toward the 360 it seems. Go to IGN if you want to know about how the move holds up on this game compared to the kinect.
great, classic joystick gaming, it would have sucked if was only playable with sucking kinect or ps move
So we can still play with a controller? LOL thats stupid. Playing a tennis game with a controller wtf? Yeah, thats sure realistic and not lazy at all haha.
Looking forward to a tennis game on Kinect, i'm sure this will be worth the wait! can see my arms hurting after a few matches on this mind!
BTW, what's with the video? the title says VT4 Kinect and Move Hands-On. Where is that shown? Come on, I wanna see you guys flailing your arms around the kinect way. LOL
VT has always been a "lame" tennis, so it doesn't really matter if it now supports Move, Kinect and even Wiimote - it will never come close to TopSpin, whose developers wisely decided that Kinect, wasn't accurate enough to play a "real" tennis game. Suit yourselves!
If they make a hard difficult setting that requirre you to use a lot of room in your living room, causing you to run from side to side, the kinect version of a tennis game could be a great workout game. I think that would make up for less accurate control. Otherwise it would feel like table tennis.
@Zero_Beat - fanboy much? I think both tech's are just playing catch-up to the Wii for the casual market and will always be under utilised for hardcore gamers who demand precision from their gaming experiences. Before you write off the Kinect though, I would urge you to give it some time as both Sonys and M$'s devices need maturation time as witnessed by the slew of crap that has been released for both platforms thus far. Hopefully somewhere in between all the casual crap will be a gem or two offering something new for the old school hardcores. Would love to play Virtua Tennis 4 btw... now, which platform do I purchase...?
it's seems like a lot of people here don't play real tennis. a real tennis racket is over $200 for a good one (I have a couple of Wilson rackets). as for the shadows, it's because most stadium lights shine from the 4 corners. so when you're standing on the court, you should actually see 4 shadows projecting. as for the lack of control over movement for all the motion systems, for tennis, it doesn't matter. because in tennis, you have to track the ball. it's not like football or baseball or soccer. in tennis, you have to run to the ball. there is no free will (except for net and volley approaches). it's not like you can run right when the ball is going left. so it's acceptable to have the system control your lateral movement.
For half the cost of Kinect, you can buy a REAL Racket and Go to a Real Tennis Court and Play REAL TENNIS. LOL. Anyone gonna buy that Michael Phelps Kinect Swim too.? lol. give me a break.
Kinect is a joke, even more so than usual for a game like this. There's no controller with internal gyroscope and accelerometers like PS Move and Wii M+ so it's completely incapable of detecting wrist flicks and turns, or even keeping up with the position of your hand like PS Move with the clearly lit sphere tracked at 60fps by PlayStation Eye. Kinect only captures at 30fps, and not reliably without a clear marker.
@NND1 Can't compare with the Kinect experience? Not sure what that will be but it said in the first paragraph that auto movement will be used to accommodate Kinect. So that right there alone for me kills the whole idea for me. Not to mention less precise swinging.
Couldn't people playing the kinect version actually hold a real racket? Only problem with that is many people may not own one and there is more chance of people getting hurt and things being broken. Move version will be the version to get- being able to move your player around is obviously the way to go. Its stupid having no buttons on the kinect. Driving games brake and accellerate automatically?? Tennis games, players move automatically?? What about all the other sports games?? Madden you just throw the ball and jump??
this is ps moves golden opportunity but i doubt it will be implemented as good as were all imagining it to be. @ campbell153 yh better than zombies isnt it?
And as a tennis play myself I doubt I'd appreciate flailing around randomly with Kinect. Not saying Kinect is bad, I had a great blast with that dance game, just it doesn't seem adequate for something like this.
See I personally don't see the appeal of playing this sort of game with kinect as opposed to a wii remote. It's even less of an experience in my eyes, not only are you not even holding something resembling a tennis racket, but so far I don't know how well it can handle a game like this. Seems more suited towards the WiiSports kinda thing.
I wouldn't even call this a hands-on with Move, more like a Kinect hands-on with a single sentence that suggests Move plays like Kinect. No, there's no way it does. Move users hope for this game to improve on the tight controls of Sports Champion's table tennis. I can see Kinect being good for certain games, but Move was built for exactly this type of game. Why would you focus on Kinect? =/ Do any of you actually play tennis? I hope whoever does the review for this on Move actually knows how to hit the ball with some topspin in real life...
I like the idea in the both experiences (move and kinect) but if they done right in the kinect i think that it will be better.we have played tennis in a motion controller like in wii and people want to know how to play tennis without motion controller so it will be more successful on kinect (I think :D)
The controller may have more moves but if done right it won't compare to the Kinect Experience.
I was actually thinking about picking up a Move for this game. I love tennis games, and I have a Kinect. However, playing the table tennis game in Kinect Sports, though fun, is a little awkward, given that you're just hitting the ball with your arm. These kinds of sports games simply beg for some form of hand-held controller.
"Being the Active bunch We Are" Last time I checked, GS was dissing alot of the Wii titles for being active. Also, NOOWWW it takes practice to get used to how the game works? Thats what it took on the Wii as well but most of the games that were reviewed, instantly got bashed for bad controls when in fact it was the people's lack of skill with the game that was the problem. But now it takes practice to get used to the controls... Anywho Enough with my rant, Welcome to what the Wii was doing 1-2 years ago with Motion Plus. This game will be great when it comes out just like the last one was on the Wii. Online play is really a blast as well.
This game is all sorts of fail. With each iteration of the Virtua Tennis brand nothing new is added, just the recycling of the same players with the addition of a few new faces every once in a while. Ever since Top Spin came out and ditched the ancient arcade style of tennis games, Virtua Tennis just looks cheap and half-assed all the time.
That's all well and good Gamespot, but how about a controller-based hands-on for the majority of us gamers who have no interest in kinect?
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