Virtua Tennis 4

Virtua Tennis 4 is offering a lot more than Virtua Tennis 2009. A nice career mode is making a simulation out of Virtua Tennis 4.

As with the rest of Virtua Tennis' shtick it's a simple system that hides its complexity well. Along with an addictive, board game-style World Tour mode,it's hard not to recommend Virtua Tennis 4. Perhaps the stellar motion controls are relegated to throwaway mini-game, rather than being fully integrated. [June 2011 p 79]

Virtua Tennis 4 does not offer anything new to anyone who has traveled the previous games, but this is not a series that releases annually.

Virtua Tennis doesn't take itself so seriously and that's great because gaming should be all about fun. The Kinect and Move support is pretty lame so it's best to stick with the classic controllers.

Sega has produced a better game with Virtua Tennis 4. With the added depth to the career mode and solid motion control support, you're getting a good tennis title. While it's not perfect, Sega appears to be guiding this tennis franchise in the right direction now.

As an arcade game, Virtua Tennis 4 is great and has no major flaws. It's just a shame that Top Spin 4 is better in almost everything, making SEGA's effort almost incidental.

For every person who hates the board game World Tour concept, there will be someone who loves it and will be cursing this review.

The core strength of the experience ensures Virtua Tennis 4 is best in class where it matters, on the court. Likewise, a well-structured World Tour mode, while slightly anachronistic in its straight Japanese presentation, provides a sense of journey and progression that is wholly engaging. But the motion controls, core selling points for many buyers, are woefully implemented and provide little interest or value.

With some good gameplay additions and a new twist on the career mode, Virtua Tennis 4 still manages to play a great game of arcade tennis.

Finally, Virtua Tennis comes back from hell with a new and noteworthy chapter of this long-running series. Like "Rafa" Nadal, Top Spin 4 remains #1 in the world rankings, but Virtua 4 could be seen as it's Djokovic or Federer.

Still a fantastic multiplayer game. [Issue#205, p.88]

Despite all of this nonsense, Virtua Tennis 4 still packs in plenty of authentic traditional tennis.

Not a bad game then by any stretch, but hopefully the last small iteration before Sega's inaugural next-next-gen outing.

It's a bit sad they were not able to improve or expand the original idea. At least, this team what they call the "supershot", a special shot that is almost unstoppable. You can use it whenever you fill it playing in your own style and we find this system really interesting, as it allows to have different type of players and more variety regarding CPU players.

Virtua Tennis 4 is great fun for newbies and hardcore players alike, a good arcade experience, but Top Spin 4 is surely the best choice available among the tennis simulations.

Virtua Tennis 4 makes some steps forward with a good career mode, but fails in delivering real changes inside the gameplay. While it still represents a good arcade experience, Top Spin 4 is surely the best choice available among the tennis simulations.

Both Top Spin 4 and Virtua Tennis 4 are good games that have a lot to offer tennis fans. Part of me wishes there could be an amalgamation of the two, but as it stands I'll end with this: Top Spin 4 is a better game overall, but Virtua Tennis 4 would definitely be more fun to play for the casual fan. It's almost as if it's striving not to be taken seriously, what with the over-the-top mini-games and fancy dress events. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Absolutely not. Depending on what sort of experience you want, the choice is really up to you.

This is a good sequel but it is far from the expectations it had generated. It doesn't change the formula of previous games, and the addition of the supershot may not be liked by series' fans.

When the main reason I keep coming back is a thirty second mini-game, we have a problem. Really though, the game does the absolute minimum to be considered "good." While it's fun there's nothing that keeps you coming back for more. Shame, really.

It's still playable, but needs some extra coaching next time out. [June 2011, p.112]

A simpler party game compared to Top Spin 4. If that sounds good to you, this is probably your kind of tennis.

Virtua Tennis 4 seems more of an upgrade of lasts year's game, but with motion controls added. That doesn't mean that SEGA's new game is bad, only that it has little new to offer.

A fun tennis game, after you dig through all the fluff: Mini-games and a needlessly complex career mode.

It's by no means perfect, but Virtua Tennis 4 shows there is still life (and maybe a few trick shots) left in the tennis simulator genre.

Because of the strong resemblance to its predecessors, Virtua Tennis 4 isn't very different from them, missing the much needed improvements. The isn't a follow-up , but more of a sidestep and can be considered more 'new' than 'better'. It's a blessing then, that all of this rests on the very enjoyable foundation of the previous instalments.

Tennis 4 is fun, without being so serious. [June 2011, p.84]

The revamped World Tour mode adds a touch of freshness and Move support has been dutifully applied to the PS3 version (albeit with a lack of content to leverage it) but nonetheless, at its heart, Virtua Tennis 4 is wearily familiar.

Top Spin 4 wins this year's tennis trophy but this more arcade style alternative is still a valid alternative with some great gimmicks.

Virtua Tennis 4, despite some new features and an entertaining new career mode, doesn't do enough to renovate the franchise.

On it's own Virtua Tennis 4 is a great game but contextualised by previous games in the series, you can't help but feel a distinct sense of deja vu. The perpetual game play can't be masked by slightly better graphics, in the same way that adding pointless elements to the game play can't excuse the fact it's a slightly shinier version of Virtua Tennis 3 with an extra side of clutter.

SEGA sticks with the arcade gameplay for years and also in Virtua Tennis 4. It looks fine, plays well and the World Tour mode is pretty cool. But the audio sounds like it is coming directly from the eighties and it is a bit too easy.

While both games more or less occupy the same video game space, Virtua Tennis 4 is less of an aggressive winner down the line and more of a straight, albeit simple, shot down the center of the court that lands deep enough to force players into a competitive but friendly rally.

Virtua Tennis 4 certainly offers gamers a lot of fun with its random selection of mini-games and off-beat career mode but there's definitely that more arcade feel to the game that may not provide as big a challenge for hardcore tennis fans.

It's above mediocre. But it's just…blasé.

Given such a large gap between Virtua Tennis 3 and this entry, you would hope that we'd see considerable improvements and a nearly flawless experience. Instead, we have yet another mediocre sports game with a bit of squandered potential.

A deep and varied career mode collides with the poorest gameplay ever designed for a videogame of the series.

It wins the wacky factor but technically and visually we much prefer Top Spin 4. [June 2011, p.75]

A hobbled World Tour mode and repetitive action kill the fun. [June 2011, p.80]

For Virtua Tennis to survive, it needs new ideas, and a more robust experience wrapped around the fast-paced experience.

VT4 may be the most beautiful game of the genre, the most spectacular, thanks to the "Match Momentum" shots (even though they are less efficient in the game than on paper), but our favorite champions are not really playing Tennis. Sure, it's an arcade style that opens up for every possibility, and it's still great fun for newbies and hardcore players alike, but the series would really benefit from a little self-questionning, if only on its limited gameplay.

Virtua Tennis 4 is a weak tennis game that fails to bring the series back to its glory days.

Fans of the series will play this and be content with what's on tap, but if you're looking to experience the popular sport in video game form, please try something else.

At its core, Virtua Tennis 4 remains a game that can be casually enjoyed by anyone, but for the more serious tennis crowd, it feels outdated and even unresponsive at times.

Pure-bred tennis arcade game for the masses while initially fun but become boring very fast. [Issue#203]

Virtua Tennis 4 is still the undisputed world champion of the tennis mini games and the new game board career mode is a nice touch. However, the gameplay need some work since it feels like you are on the moon while playing tennis.

It's an old truth that changing developers to the 2009 edition was a bad idea and the worst thing that ever happened to Virtua Tennis. Unfortunetly, it was an even worse idea to let Sega take back the developement. Virtua Tennis 4 is incredible uneven in every possible way and should have had much more polish before release.

Quotation forthcoming.