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Virtua Tennis 3 - Disappointing

I have always been a huge fan of the Virtua Tennis series - I played the first and second Dreamcast iterations to death and amazingly, even compared to 'next-gen' titles of this day and age, they can still be highly entertaining. Their simplicity was the major attraction to most gamers, although despite this, there was a bizarre depth to the gameplay. I say 'bizarre' purely because it was difficult to pin down exactly why the simplest, arcade-esque of control systems allowed for so much variation.
Knowing this, I was very excited for the 3rd installment on PS3, but once I'd got over the novelty of the fact that I was actually playing a PS3(!), I realised how disappointing the game really turned out to be...
My view will probably contradict many reviews. The game generally received very good but not outstanding reviews. However, I feel that these give the game a little too much credit - It is definitely more of the same, arguably not enough to satisfy next-gen hunger - but the major problem is that the game is unbalanced to hell. I've procured this term from the fighting genre, but I'm referring here to the power of shots. Originally I had thought that the problem was my own, that I just wasn't good at the game, but it isn't me. On the harder (and only challenging) difficulty settings, long rallies against the CPU don't really occur, you can easily 'blow' the ball into the corner out of their reach, but if you don't, you can be sure they will. As a result, the matches become stale, you find yourself simply waiting for the CPU to give you the green light, to hit that unreturnable cross court shot, or else see the ball fly by in a flash.
Losing is more frustrating than it should be. When you are beaten by the CPU at a competitive game (be it fighting or sport), you, the gamer, should feel the urge to give it another go, to rethink your approach. VT3 has an air of hopelessness, as if the CPU has decided whether it will win from the outset.
Another criticism I have is the diving shot, It has always been over exaggerated in this series, but this time the developers have simply got it wrong. You'll often find your player diving to retrieve balls well within your reach. If you're just slightly out of position you'll dive, floating a very weak return to be punished severely. This alone made me put the pad down on occasions. Very disappointing.
I'm reviewing this as a veteran, I can imagine that you'll have more fun with this game if you're new to the series. However, VT3 is an arcade game at heart. I love sports, so the chances are that I'm slightly biased towards simulation style gameplay. Top Spin 3 anyone?

posted by qmchaz64 @ 9:07 pm