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WTA Tour Tennis Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Offering a wide selection of female professionals can Konami topple Sega mighty Virtua Tennis???
You have to wonder why other developers release Tennis games, when Sega have got the genre tied up with the subliminal Virtua Tennis series. Itâs mixture of immediate pick-up-and-play accessibility, addictive gameplay and depth has produced one of the better sports titles available and a multiplayer must-have. Unfortunately not all tennis games have the same perfect gameplay blend, as youâll find out from WTA Tennis courtesy of Konami.
Coming from a rich heritage of multiplayer sports titles and featuring many of the top female professionals, you have to question how Konami managed to make such a cock-up with this one.
The main problem lies with the control system, or apparent lack of it to be more precise. Virtua Tennis succeeded by keeping it simple with a two-button control system, yet having an underlying depth for the true masters. In WTA thereâs no feeling of being in control, buttons react differently depending on the height and speed of the ball so youâre never quite sure where itâs going to end up, most of the time youâll be smacking them into the air without a clue as to why.
On the positive front WTA features a wide selection of modes and players to choose from, all of which seem to react as their real life counterpart would act and complete with an impressive selection of statistics to keep the tennis fan happy. The visuals do a good job of recreating each player, however the animation falls way short of the subliminal Virtua Tennis. A similar technique to create the crowd as Virtua Tennis has been used, mixing polygon characters with sprites, however it all looks very rough in comparison to Segaâs title.
Perhaps the biggest compliment to be paid to WTA is in the sound department. The crowd effect sounds like itâs coming straight from a televised match; youâll hear your players name chanted out aloud, theyâll get excited during an intense volley-fest and moan when youâre not doing well. Bizzarrely there is no commentary to be found in the game, I thought this was a prerequisite for any next-generation sporting title.
Even four-player multiplayer canât do anything to save the game, tennis games are good because when theyâre done right they ooze that one-more-go appeal, unfortunately WTA is completely lacking in this factor.
