Virtua Tennis 3

Virtua Tennis and Virtua Fighter are perhaps the two most powerful franchises that Sega has, in today's date, but while Virtua Fighter has been getting its due with souped up sequels hitting every console generation, Virtua Tennis seemed to remain at a standstill with rehashes of the same game releasing on every gaming platform out there. Hell! I've even played it on the GBA (and it was pretty good).

With Virtua Tennis 3, Sega has finally updated the roster to more current players and given the whole franchise a much needed overhaul. Oh! and a new World Tour mode!

The best thing about Virtua Tennis has always been the tight controls and the fact that the game, in general, is a lot more forgiving than the actual sport in terms of getting your ball across without any errors. That same arcade gameplay continues in this new variation of the game, with a few added tweaks that you slowly realize during gameplay.

On the base level, you can pretty much win a lot of matches by just moving your player around and hitting the ball with X and a direction button. But as you play more, you realize the significance of slicing, lobbing and learn how to control the ball speeds and making the most of your opponent's weaknesses. It gives the player tremendous space to grow and that's what I liked best about it.

The previous installments was very forgiving in terms of your player ever hitting a shot on the outside, but here, when playing on advanced levels, outside shots will get quite common if you don't get your shot right.

Anyone one who has played enough of the older variations of Virtua Tennis will be familiar with the World Tour mode, where you create a character using the limited customization options and play out his/her entire career in the 'Virtua' world. It's not as boring as it sounds though, as living out the career doesn't mean playing needless matches with your coach and family till you get good enough for the real thing; instead you get to play a whole lot of mini games to hone your skills for the big time.