Virtua Tennis 3: turn down that racket!

We really wanted to like Virtua Tennis 3. On the surface, the Virtua Tennis 3 demo presents a polished, professional veneer. Dig deeper, however, and something ugly begins to rear its head. Of course, it's possible that we just really suck (or that we've been spoiled by Top Spin). We can accept that. Still, in an hour of play time, we managed to win one (one!) game against the CPU. Not one match mind you, but one game. Put simply, the CPU is pretty ruthless. Combine that with some questionable game mechanics and Virtua Tennis 3 becomes very frustrating very fast.

First of all, we found our character (we tried both Federer and Nadal) dove unnecessarily for several shots. Naturally, the time it takes to get back up after diving can cost you the next shot, or at the very least make for a shoddy return. Also, the shot selection is a little strange. You can choose to hit topspin, slice, or lob, but nothing in between. Unlike Top Spin, you can't simply hit a neutral shot. This is annoying when all you want is to make sure the ball gets over the net and doesn't go out. Also unlike Top Spin, it's sometimes difficult to get in the proper position for your stroke. This often results in the character unnecessarily diving or simply missing the ball altogether. We couldn't figure out how to manage a drop shot either.

Now, the CPU can be infuriating. First of all, the CPU will make shots that you can't (and without diving to get them). It's particularly annoying when a CPU makes nearly the same shot that your character mysteriously whiffed 2 points earlier. Yes, the computer will make shots that you can't and it will return shots that should have been game winners. Even more maddening is a repeated exchange we experienced, in which the computer hit increasingly powerful shots until our return landed out of bounds.

The final game may have more lenient difficulty, but it's definitely a turn off in the demo. Speaking of turn offs, the music in the demo is awful. It's the worst kind of terrible rock music imaginable. Not only that, but it seems like it's permanently stuck on a 30 second loop. Seriously, it's like the Virtua Tennis 3 team asked the Sonic Adventure team if they had any leftover music. If you want to increase you score (and save your brain cells) we suggest you use your own music. Better yet, put your own music on pause so you can enjoy the silence.

Graphically, the game is sharp, but the character models have a creepy mannequin quality to them. They seem stiff and wooden. The brow wiping animations in particular look very strange. The courts look nice, and the game is very colorful, but it's nothing to write home about. Still, for a tennis title, it's more than serviceable.

All in all, we were disappointed with the demo. We'll wait for the retail release (with it's copious training modes and mini-games) before passing judgment though.

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