Virtua Tennis 4 gets set to tour the world on the Vita.
If you've ever played a Virtua Tennis game, you know it's very easy to get into thanks to its simple yet deep gameplay. By holding down one of four different shot buttons (lob, slice, topspin, super shot), you build up power as you move into position to swing. You can direct the ball where you want to go by using the analogue stick and depending on where you're positioned, it may be a low or high shot with a slow or fast velocity. It's an elegant system that works quite well, but the developer tried to incorporate touch screen controls into Vita's version, and it just simply isn't fun to play this way. Thankfully, touch screen lay is optional.
Virtua Tennis 4's main mode is World Tour. In this mode, you globe trot across four seasons partaking in mini-games to improve your condition, promote yourself to improve your popularity and play in matches and tournaments to win championships and impress other players. It's a bit weird how World Tour plays out, though, because you can't just select wherever you want to go. You have what are called Move Tickets, and each ticket has its own value. Think of the World Tour map as a board game where you roll the dice to see how far you can move in a day. Since it plays like a board game, it can also get frustrating as you're trying to plan a route to play in a special event but can't, because you simply can't get right tickets.
There are two major things to accomplish during World Tour, and they are raising your conditioning and increasing your star rank. Just about every physical action reduces your Condition meter, and you need to increase it to survive lengthy tournaments without injury. If you incur an injury, it can set you back several days in order to rest up. You'll need to look for resort spaces on the map in order to rest up and be in well enough condition for the next tournament.
By playing mini-games such as hatching eggs and delivering the chicks to their hens, serving soccer balls past goalies, playing hot potato with a ticking time bomb, and shooting clay targets, you can gain experience points to not only lengthen your Condition meter but also increase your performance parameters. Increase these parameters - such as playing the net or serving ability - enough, and advanced play styles will unlock letting you custom tailor your tennis star's performance to your liking. These mini-games can also be played at any time at the game's main menu.
To qualify for an upcoming tournament, you have to meet a certain requirement of stars. These stars can be obtained through several means. You can donate to charity, sign autographs, do interviews and play in practice matches and special events. Earn enough stars and you increase in rank, eventually reaching the status of Legend. As you move around the board, you may land on spots called Management Offices. Here, you can buy special move tickets
and hire agents that increase the number of stars you earn in events. You also unlock gear such as hats, shoes, shirts, wristbands and even entire player outfits as you complete matches.
If you just want to get into the game and play, Virtua Tennis 4 contains Arcade and Exhibition modes. Arcade only has you playing in four championships with an exhibition match at the end, while Exhibition allows you to set up a match with any number of games and sets you want to play on any court that you've unlocked in World Tour. This is the mode for you if you like playing long matches of tennis as World Tour and Arcade are fixed at two games, one set.
Virtua Tennis 4 contains online play, but sadly, noticeable lag makes it unplayable. It's too hard to anticipate the shot and even being able to serve is compromised as there's a slight delay after you set your power meter. At the time of this review, Ranked Matches are completely broken, not once allowing you to finish a game before you receive a "Disconnect from Opponent" message. It's sad that these issues occur, because otherwise Virtua Tennis would have been very fun to play online.
The game also contains a smattering of Virtua Tennis-specific apps. There's a mini-game that has you using the motion controls to tilt a ship dotted with targets back and forth. There's a two-player mode that uses a top down camera and uses only the touch screen with player one on the left and player two on the right side of the screen. You can use the camera to take pictures with your character in a number of different poses, and you can also use the camera to play a match in a first-person perspective. They're fun little time killers, but this little tidbit of variety only makes you wish there was more.
Virtua Tennis 4 is a fine looking game, at least during gameplay. The player animations are very smooth and they react realistically relevant to their position of the ball when they're hitting it. The characters and most especially the court are highly detailed and look very crisp on Vita's beautiful OLED screen. The cutscenes don't look as impressive, though, thanks to a dip in the framerate, and certain congratulatory animations are overused. Still, the players' faces are modeled quite well, and you can even use your own face in the game, which gives you an eerie feeling seeing your face blink and talk on a virtual character.
Tennis, like golf, is a rather quiet sport so if you're looking for a constant roaring of the crowd, you're playing the wrong game. Rather, the ambient silence lets the ball bouncing off the court and being slammed by a racket come through that much cleaner. There isn't any music being played during matches, so your ears are kept company only by the back and forth action of the players, squeaking of shoes and occasional grunts when they smash the ball. Music within the game's menus and lobbies is about as mellow as they come, sounding perfectly suited for use in a mall.
Virtua Tennis 4 isn't as compelling as more serious tennis simulators, but for what it offers, it's a solid game in its own right. Its World Tour mode will last you a few hours and encourages you to return for another go as it's impossible to partake in all events in the first playthrough. Arcade and Exhibition lets you pick up and play when you only have a few minutes but unfortunately, an online mode plagued with issues will most likely not have you visiting that mode often. Also, the roster of players seems to be rather low so if you're expecting your favorite tennis star to be in this game, you'll most likely be disappointed. All said and done, however, the quality of the gameplay is still terrific, so if you have any interest in tennis whatsoever, Virtua Tennis 4 belongs in your Vita.