Virtua Tennis 4

For what it's worth, however, this is a fantastic game by every stretch of the imagination. Those who have waited 4 years for another installment will not be disappointed.

It's simple, it's fun, and it's got lots to do between quirky Kinect sessions, online matches, a worldwide Tour mode and plenty of unlockables. We'll take a "good enough" sports game any day that we can get it – as long as the fundamentals that inspired it in the first place are in play.

All told, Virtua Tennis is a well-put-together tennis game with some strategic depth and an arcade flare.

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.

A classic formula tweaked for greater tactical variety. By and large successful, besides a needed AI tweak or two. [Issue#72, p.86]

All in all it's another winner from the guys at Sega. Enough has been added to make it worth buying, while not messing with the perfection that made it a hit in the arcades over a decade ago. If you want to play tennis on your console it doesn't get any better than this.

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.

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.

If you haven't played a Virtua Tennis title before this is certainly good enough to get you started, and if you've been a fan of the series, there's not much here you won't like.

Virtua Tennis 4 is a great tennis game that features more of an arcade like, less realistic feel when compared to the recently released Top Spin 4. The career mode is robust and very interesting, featuring some obscene mini-games that teach the player the ins and outs of the game. If I had to say, though, Virtua Tennis 4 definitely provides a much more accessible and less technical tennis simulation and it is bound to appeal to more people.

Overall, I'm going to have to call this one a winner mainly on the strength of its gameplay and visual aesthetic. Just don't go in to it expecting the depth or structural realism you might find in other tennis games.

But it's going to take a lot more than gimmicky motion controllers and Sega's negligence and to undermine the basic greatness of Virtua Tennis. And with the new adrenaline meter, new party games, and especially the new single-player tennis RPG, Virtua Tennis 4 is plenty new enough to obsolete the older Virtua Tennis titles.

Sega's Virtua Tennis 4 is by no means a grand slam winner, though it is certainly championship material as at it's core there is entertaining and and addictive gameplay on offer. The overall package may be tainted by the addition of the poorly placed Kinect functionality, though erase that from your mind and what we have here is a feature rich tennis title that no doubt belongs in the gaming collection of any tennis fan, or any gamer that gets a thrill out of hitting a little green ball both offline and on.

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

If this is your first time in front of the net, Virtua Tennis 4 will make you glad you picked up a racket. However, if you already mastered your game in the last version, or you're looking for a full-on Kinect-enabled entry, you'll probably want to remain court-side for this one.

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.