When we spent whole nights filing the courts of Top Spin 4, the handling of Virtua Tennis 4 is tough. It is then necessary to take a step back so as not to launch into a cruel comparison, and coldly shoot producer Mie Kuamagai with a smash in the back. As has been the case since the series debuted in arcades, the gameplay is based on four ways to hit the ball: topspin, flat shot, slice and lob. Subtleties that have no impact on exchanges in reality, since the length of the ball remains almost the same from the first stroke to the last; unless you stick a cushioning that you spot even before the opponent executes it. Where Virtua Tennis 4 is terribly approximate, it is at the level of the positioning of the player which is not of capital importance to win points, even when one has taken the upper hand during the exchange. We may apply to maintain the button by biting our lips to release a heavy strike, it starts in slow motion without us really knowing why. Impossible to conclude in these conditions therefore, and the matches quickly become marathons where one spends his time cleaning the baseline. Fans of the series know it only too well, the rises to the net are profitable in Virtua Tennis, not to say abusive. Those of Virtua Tennis 4 are even more disgusting, and you really don't have to have a super developed sense of timing to send the ball away from the court. Moreover, service and volley lovers will have an orgasm with each outside service which puts the rival to the torture, before sticking just behind a winning shot on a ball returned halfway up. The other point that particularly annoyed us during the Virtua Tennis 4 test was the balls that never left the court. Ok, this is not a simulation that requires hours of training before winning a Grand Slam tournament on Hard, but the interest of the game is considerably reduced. Only a few hard-returned balls go out of bounds, but you certainly won't have to rely on unforced errors to win a game. Maybe on the Match Momentum, a sort of special attack à la Mario Tennis that only triggers once the corresponding gauge is filled.Broken from the start
To achieve this, it is necessary to multiply the shots best mastered by the player. A volley ace, for example, will need to regularly come up to the net to shield his bar, while a baseline specialist will have to stay glued to his line and spray his opponent like a metronome. An interesting initiative by SEGA which unfortunately does not go all the way, since there is no way to place these Momentum strikes with precision Once the gauge is full, the overpowered strike triggers a cut scene which destroys readability , which, from a tactical point of view, is quite a handicap. We would have preferred that the developers of AM3 soften the Match Momentum, in order to leave the door open to possible reversals of situation, especially since these flashes are far from being decisive. On the other hand, it must be recognized that this aspect of Virtua Tennis 4 encourages the player to insist on the weaknesses of his opponent, in order to prevent him from inflating his gauge. But the title does not have enough finesse and offers too little room for improvement to make it a credible weapon during the exchanges. As a result, this lack of depth makes the choice of the player among the stars who make up the cast of Virtua Tennis 4 less interesting. Roddick. Purists will undoubtedly be delighted to note the presence of Juan Martin Del Potro and Fernando Vedasco, while Gaël Monfils is the only representative of the tricolor delegation. On the side of the WTA, we are entitled to the great classic with Caroline Wozniacki, Venus Williams or even Ana Ivanovic; and then, we must not forget the legends that are Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg or even Jim Courier. Although SEGA assures that the style of play varies from player to player, it can hardly be said that this is the case once on the court. It was much more effective with Virtua Tennis 2009. However, not everything is to be thrown away in Virtua Tennis 4, starting with the "World Tour" mode which has the merit of offering a fairly original progression. After satisfying the administrative obligations by creating your character from head to toe, you can embark on a new career that spans four seasons, each ending with a Grand Slam tournament (Australian Open, Roland Garros , Wimbledon, US Open).
However, not everything is to be thrown away in Virtua Tennis 4, starting with the "World Tour" mode which has the merit of offering quite original progression."
To hope to reach the world elite and avoid the qualifying phases, you will have to accumulate a certain number of stars by moving on a board according to the ancestral rules of the goose game. Except that here, the dice are replaced by randomly given tickets, and with which it is possible to advance up to four squares at once. The object of the game will be to arrive in time at the Grand Slam tournament, under penalty of being awarded penalty points. Each cell is likely to include a training session (skeet shooting, weather vane, ramparts, egg collector, poker, sniper, bomb threat, coin hunt, bowler) essential to perfect the skills of his colt: strike, defense, tactics and volley. The levels crossed thus make it possible to unlock new styles of play (aggressive volley, return, powerful forehand, solid defense, powerful service, rapid movements among others) to change strategy from one match to another, despite the limits described. a bit higher. As always, it will be necessary to keep an eye on the physical condition and to spare days of recovery, to reduce the risk of injury and not to arrive charred on the court. Working on stamina then becomes vital for stringing together matches, because an exhausted player is almost incapable of moving on the pitch; we hardly exaggerate. Responding to requests from journalists, participating in charity galas, signing autographs, or even signing specific performances rewarded at the end of the season are other ways to earn stars, the number of which can be doubled if you decide. to hire agents. In short, the "World Tour" of Virtua Tennis 4 is really well done, which reminds us that the game still has an "Arcade" mode, with four Grand Slam finals to play before facing a legend in a fifth gala match. In terms of execution, we expected much better to be frank, but the developers of AM3 have obviously decided to keep the dated animations which reduce the authenticity of Virtua Tennis 4. You really have to squint to recognize the Federer's one-handed backhand, or Nadal's devastating topspin forehand. And if the modeling of the players is going to be correct, SEGA is seriously going to have to update itself if it doesn't want its tennis game to be called obsolete from a graphical point of view.
