Thank God tennis is sexy again. There was a period in the Nineties when it really wasn’t and even a few years ago it was lacking the glitz and glamour of its Seventies and Eighties heyday. Where once we had man-ape Pete Sampras and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario we now have tennis stars of Hollywood quality like Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova. “Why is this so important?” we hear you cry (which you shouldn’t because this is tennis and we require silence). Well, Virtua Tennis 3 looks so amazingly, fantastically brilliant in all its 1080p glory that we really couldn’t do with a bunch of Ugly Bettys spoiling the view. High-definition gaming is for the good looking, unless it’s a horror game, in which case the Wayne
Rooneys of the world are more than welcome. You shouldn’t worry if you can’t view it at its highest resolution, of course, because no matter what you choose to play your 360 games on (monitor, television or microwave) VT3 really is the business in just about every department.

Except one, because no game can ever be perfect and it would be ludicrous of us to suggest so. In pointing it out we almost feel a little overcritical, but VT3 doesn’t really do much to differentiate itself from previous instalments in the series, as it fails to add much to the formula that already existed. Of course, that formula has always been pretty sound, so perhaps there’s not much reason to change it all that drastically. Going back to Super Tennis and Smash Tennis, the great game ersions of this sport have always been the barebones, stripped-down ones where realism is thrown straight out of the window in favour of non-stop action. In this respect, VT3 is no different, but similarities like that should most definitely be welcomed. The issue we have is that there could – and should – have been more to this game than basically a better looking version of Virtua Tennis 2. Even the menus look the same. The question is, though, is it important enough for you not to want to play this game? Not at all, because how ever close it may be to Virtua Tennis past, the present is far too sweet a deal to pass up.

The main reason for this couldn’t be any simpler and it brings back to mind those classic tennis games of our past that we spent so many hours playing; the multiplayer. Playing multiplayer has come to define the Xbox 360 and Virtua Tennis 3 is a wonderful example of what great multiplayer gaming is all about. That’s right, bragging rights and trash talking. Where would the videogame industry be today without sibling and friendly rivalries? They are the bricks and mortar of this industry and they have been used with the utmost finesse and quality here. Accessibility is probably the key. No matter what your skill at any other sort of game, you should be able to approach VT3 with the utmost confidence because it really couldn’t be any simpler. We’ve mentioned that Virtua Tennis has always been bare bones and the great heritage it has sprung from, but we should explain in more depth and compare it to other sports titles.

Tennis is a relatively simple sport in contrast to most others. Try to get the ball over the net and within the court; don’t miss it. That’s the basics right there. Something like American football – so brilliantly captured by the Madden series – is a very different beast. You want to score touchdowns, but that’s not the only objective. There are downs, fouls, penalty kicks, field goals, and different teams for offence and defence. Tennis is easy to play and easy to score so long as you don’t let the whole 15, 30, 40 confuse you too much. There are obviously nuances to the game – different types of shot you can use, fatigue and tactical play, but the basics are so incredibly simple that even the youngest child old enough to hold a racket could play. Virtua Tennis 3 does an incredible job of transferring that accessibility over to videogames and for that it makes a great multiplayer.

Once we were in there, playing against our mates either locally or over Xbox Live, we began to see that there’s more to life than headshots and hunting terrorists. There’s pure, innocent gaming of the sort we grew up on and that we never really realised we’d lost. It was always there in the background, but no sniper rifle in the world can beat the feeling of winning a game after a five-minute rally with a cheeky little dink over the net. Oh how they scramble and oh how we rejoice in their frustration. Rub it in their faces, dance around them and show them just how inferior they are to you. When that ball throws white dust into the air you are the Lord of all creation. Of course it goes both ways, but that’s true multiplayer gaming. Some people are simply better at Gears Of War and Rainbow Six than others are, but with a little bit of know-how, anyone can walk away victorious from VT3. Start throwing in the crazy mini-games and it really is anyone’s guess who will walk away with the crown. We don’t care who you are, you’ll never be entirely ready to fend off an Alien attack with nothing but a few hairy, yellow balls and a racket. Nothing in our gaming lives could have prepared us for that.

Except perhaps playing through the World Tour, of course, and this mode is no less controversial than before. One reason for this is that it seems to have its feet so widely set apart in both reality and complete lunacy. It’s hard to reconcile such divergent features as a stamina meter and toy alligators that you have to stop from eating plates of meat. It doesn’t help that the World Tour feels a little lightweight as a ‘story’ mode. The early tournaments are no challenge at all, but there are so many of them and you can only play them if you’ve levelled up to the correct ranking. Seeing as you start at a rank of 300
and you’re expected to reach number one, that’s going to take some time. It also takes an awful lot of training. The surrealism certainly makes it a little more diverting than your average training session and often more enjoyable than playing a tournament. However, the rewards of your efforts are rarely very satisfactory, which can make the fight up the rankings much harder. You’ll do it, though, because at the end of the day, once you’re playing it doesn’t really matter. Much
like Pro Evo, you’ll keep coming back for more no matter what. Fortunately though, there are other ways to get your kicks from VT3 so you can always go away and come back later.

The more challenging mode is the Tournament, which pits you against stronger and stronger AI competition. This is tough as nails and quite an abrupt departure from the World Tour where unforced errors are relatively commonplace. The learning curve is so much steeper, but that challenge is a great incentive to practise things like your serve and volley game, which their isn’t much of in the World Tour. It’s not even entirely necessary to learn things like this for multiplayer, but there’s nothing sweeter than hitting an ace service in a multiplayer game, so perhaps that’s your incentive right there. Whatever your reasons you can find depth to Virtua Tennis 3, but the triumph of this game is that it really doesn’t matter. You can ake what you want from VT3 and still walk away feeling satisfied.

Virtua Tennis 3 is always a pleasure and never a chore. Some elements of the game are lighter than others, but the overall package is second to none. Where there are weaknesses, they are usually only skin-deep because underneath it all there is
an immaculate match engine that makes for some of the most addictive gameplay you’ll ever see. The online functions of VT3, which include a Spectator mode for watching others play as well as competitive matches, really help to set it apart from both its predecessors and the competition. Top Spin and Rockstar’s Table Tennis don’t even come close to the quality that’s
on offer here.

It may not be very realistic or overly taxing on the brain, but why would you want it to be? The bottom line is that Virtua Tennis 3 is a gorgeous and highly accomplished piece of work. With a few more tweaks it could have been one of the greatest sports games ever made. As it is VT3 is certainly one of the best you’ll find on next-gen consoles and the online functions of
the Xbox 360 version put it head and shoulders above what the PlayStation 3 will be getting.

Jon Gordon