Virtua Tennis 2009

Nearly two years after the last Virtua Tennis game (Virtua Tennis 3), the acclaimed franchise is back with Virtua Tennis 2009. The issue is, that if you've played Virtua Tennis 3 you've pretty much seen almost everything this game has to offer. Quite frankly, that might not be such a bad thing for those who've never played the last game - the game's easy to pick-up, loads of fun to play, and has a� number of modes that are great for parties. On the other hand, if you've played the last game there's little or no reason for you to take the dive for this one.

The franchise's pride and joy - the World Tour mode - is still the game's biggest highlight. You create an avatar whose career you can build as you progress. You can focus on different areas of your play style, such as agility, baseline shots, etc. depending on the kind of training you opt for. The World Tour's based on a calender, so you're chronologically challenged into picking what training you need before the next major tournament, since everything you do, be it travel, train or rest, you use up precious time. You have a long ladder of Amateur and Pro players to race against, and as you rank up amongst the world's greatest, you gain access to different, more difficult tournaments and better equipment.

As you can see, the game has a lot to offer, customization-wise - you can alter your character's stats by buying items such as new rackets that offer different stat combinations, and you have different training modes to help you focus on your weaknesses/strengths, and you have the ability to change the clothing your character wears by stacking up on some dough, and spending it lavishly at the in-game store. However, this is exactly what we've seen in Virtua Tennis 3, where it impressed us to no end. Out here, it's just a rehash of the old features.