User Rating: 9.1 | Sega Professional Tennis: Power Smash DC
This is the game that changed the way people see tennis sports games. Before Virtua Tennis a lot of attempts were made but none could deliver the amount of fun packed in this game. Once again Sega shows how to make innovative games especially when it comes to sports, with amazing gameplay, incredible graphics and perferct sound work this became game a classic. The graphic design of the game is one of its strong points, each player looks like the real ones rackets and other accessories as well. Every court has impressive textures and if you have the dreamcast VGA box you´ll see that they look even better on a monitor. The stadiums are well detailed with the lights, the crowd and even the linesmen are present and animated. The crowd has a 2D design but it does not hurt the games at all. The shadow effects look perfect following the player according to the source of light.The clowds on sky increase the realistic feeling. The gameplay follows the arcade style which makes easier to get used to the buttom functions. After a few minutes you can master all the shots available in the game but to have the ball hit the court exactly where you want you´ll need some more practice. There are various types of shots such as forehand, backhand, volley and smash, the player even jumps to hit the ball. If you want to hit the ball harder simply press and hold the correspondent buttom a little longer and you might get a winner ball. There are 4 modes available: The arcade mode, where you play a sequence of games to advance in a tournament until the final round. The Exhibition mode lets you play a single games, the Multiplayer mode is where you get to play against a friend and there´s also the option to play doubles, which means that the game support up to 4 players at the same time. Finally, there is the World-Circuit mode which is the most fun mode to play once you build you player and start participating of tournaments around the world according to a calendar. During the time between tournaments you can improve your player skills by trying the minigames and each of them have increasing levels of difficulty. With the money earned during your world tour you can buy new stuff like better rackets, improved tennis shoes, new cords and also unlock new stage courts and partners for doubles. The characters are licensed real players with all the characteristics they actually have in life. Some players have a better serve, others run faster but what is amazing is that Sega has done an awsome job transporting real player moves into the game. Each player hits the ball exactly like the real one do. The difficulty level changes depending on your adversary controlled by the CPU. There are two camera angles available in the game, the traditional TV camera that gives a wide view of the court and another that shows you the player its back which limits your view range making hard to get the timming to hit the ball. The soundtrack is pure rock and every stage has its own music transforming a tennis game into a frenetic challenge. The work on other sounds like the racket hiting the ball and the crowd applausing is remarkable, even the shoes echoes when the player slides to get to the ball. Virtua Tennis is an arcade instead of a Simulation but it is one of the best tennis games ever made. The learning curve is short, in about 2 hors you can play against some more difficult adversaries in the game. The fun present in Virtua Tennis can make you play it for hours and hours non-stop.
