There is no option to simply turn it off during matches yet retain it in the menus, so it’s either always on, or always off. The music is horrible, and I eventually resorted to just turning it off. Virtua Tennis 4 is a very arcade-style game, and as such, you’ll hear lots of arcade-style noises. SOUND: As is normal with a tennis game, there isn’t an awful lot to write home about. In that respect, get used to mashing the X button (on a PlayStation 3) to skip these scenes, over and over again. During a match, line-judges will frequently have no reaction to getting pelted in the knee or groin with a tennis ball, and when you see a ball boy running across the court, you’ll wonder why they bothered, since a replay or cut-scene will interrupt the flow of the match, again. In play of course, you won’t notice an awful lot of this, but the invasive replays and mini cut-scenes during matches highlight all of the above. Whilst the players’ animations are an absolute joy to behold, get up close and the non-licenced players can look grotesque! Worse yet, the sweat effect is very strange and gives the created players a wax-like appearance, and let’s not even get started on how strange players’ teeth look!
However, there are some serious visual inconsistencies at play.
VIRTUA TENNIS 4 ONLINE MULTIPLAYER SERIES
GRAPHICS: As you would expect, Virtua Tennis 4 is the prettiest game in the series to date, with tennis courts that look magnificent. But for this entry into the franchise, is it enough? With PlayStation Move, 3D, and Kinect support, every base is covered in Virtua Tennis 4 and the original development team are even on the case. Given that the last outing felt somewhat definitive, how much further could SEGA really go with an arcade Tennis title? However, with its arcade leanings, Virtua Tennis is a series that feels as though it has been around forever. It has been two years since the last Virtua Tennis game, and many gamers appreciate that SEGA don’t just wheel out the same game each year, iterating upon it in a gradual, piecemeal way.
VIRTUA TENNIS 4 ONLINE MULTIPLAYER PC
Available on: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC (Reviewed on PlayStation 3)