Grand Slams occur only four times a year in the game of tennis. Unless youre a Tennis fanatic, perhaps these four grand slams are the only tennis tournaments you watch. And in these tournaments every year we either see a new champion crowned or a familiar rivalry match up. Whichever the case is, nothing gets more exciting than watching these tournaments. So what if the viewer gets a chance to play these tournamentsas one of the Tennis heroes like Federer, Nadal, Williams and Ivanovic? Dream come true.
Virtua Tennis 4 for the Wii is a fun game completely devoted to Tennis. It does not make any effort to add any extra levels of interest in the game. It is simply a game where the player can play as his favorite Tennis player and play in Grand Slam tournaments as well as other tournaments. The game has a total of 16 tournaments. Four tournaments are Grand Slams (Australian, French, Wimbledon, though it is called the English Grand Slam in the game, and the US Open). Four tournaments are called the Special courts which feature different types of court however the cities in which they are located are unknown. These courts are: The Tennis Hall (Indoor), SPT Final (Hard), Fancy Dress Matches at World Tour (Indoor), Special Matches at World Tour (Indoor). The remaining eight are called the Advantage Series and the World Tour Venues which consists of Championships and Tournaments based in China, Egypt, Sweden, Canada, Spain, Czech Republic and the United States. The types of courts in these tournaments are a mixture of Hard, Clay, and Grass and Indoor.
The playable Tennis Players include the various current top players in the world right now. Among men, there is Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick and a few other lesser unknown top ranked players. Among women there is Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
A clear disappointment overall
The game is fun for maybe a few days. It isnt a game that will be remembered by players after a week of playing it. There are several reasons for this. One of the major reasons is the game play. Playing the game even in the most difficult level is like playing in beginner level. It would expected that top ranked players would be harder to beat in the game, however pick the lowest ranked player in the game and pit him against Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and the score will probably read 6-0,6-0 and 6-0 for the lower ranked player. While the game does claim that it supports the new Wii Motion Plus, the game itself is not a motion based game. The player can step into the shoes of their favorite players, but unfortunately he wont be jumping or running at all in those shoes. For the majority of the game, players operate on the boring buttons of the Wii Remote (You dont buy Wii games to just press buttons). Also the game lacks players and tournaments. As I mentioned in the introduction that people who watch only the four grand slams would love this game (until even they get bored). For Tennis Fanatics, lack of more players and even players who are top ranked in doubles will definitely make this game a no buy for Tennis Fanatics.
Perhaps the only part of the game that can be called good is the graphics. Playing this game for the first time, it will be exciting to see almost identical virtual figures of the real players along with the realistic display of the courts. But the strong graphics are a major cause for glitches also. Perhaps, the money to buy this game can be saved to buy a better game.