Following the idea that sometimes is better to reshape than to innovate, Virtua Tennis 3 is an extension to the previous versions of the game. And I think that in this case, Sega chose the right solution. The game is based on the same structure: Tournament matches (choose your player and play four random games until you win the tournament), Exhibition matches (where you choose your player, choose the opponent, and the arena where you will play), Court Games (where you can try all the mini games available in the game), and World Tour (the career mode).

World Tour

World Tour is the most addictive play mode and includes all the features of the game. While entering in this game mode you can select and then customize your player with a system similar but not so complex as the one present in Tiger Woods. You can set up your facial form and size, the hair color and beard form, the eyebrow form and color, height, weight, striking style, etc.

After you play a little with this character editor, you can choose the location of your house on the global map and then begin the training. Along your career you will receive also mails and will use a calendar in order to schedule your progress. The calendar is divided into weeks, every week including from one event to three or even four. These events include: official single or double tournaments (the most important to complete; these tournaments will bring you points and new gear), training matches (every match will increase your abilities). Taking part in every event will decrease your stamina meter. So you cannot play non-stop. You can stop this process by drinking a energy drink, or taking off one week, or three. If you use only energy drinks to refill your stamina meter, you will become vulnerable to injuries. Every injury will make you withdraw from the competition a couple of days. But the situation is not very dramatic considering that those injuries will appear only when you are out of the competition.

Mini-games

Besides the events, you can take part in mini-games and in the tennis academy. Both will increase your physical abilities. The whole Virtua Tennis series was known for these mini games, which increases the playability and the fun. The third part of the series continues the same idea introducing new mini-games. Each mini-game focuses on its own aspects: ground stroke, serve, volley, footwork, and tactics, and has four difficulty levels. Every completion of a mini game will increase your physical attributes related to the four basic aspects already enumerated. If you complete a tactics mini game, all your attributes will gain some points. The mini games consist in different tasks: collect fruit and dodge huge tennis balls, knock down oil barrels, play bingo, knock down bowling pins, etc.

Tennis Academy

The tennis academy is actually the tennis school of the game where you can learn all the fundamentals and tricks of this sport. Here you will have to complete tasks which are divided in many different lessons technics. Every task must be completed three times in the given time limit, in order to increase you attributes used in the test. The tasks are variate, from hit a max power groundstroke, to hit 3 volleys in a row, or 5 slices shots in a row. These sets of tasks are divided by difficulty levels, which are unlockable as you progress into the game.
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Tournaments

After you have completed some of the basics at the Tennis Academy and some mini games, it's time to enter in the first tournaments. You start the game from the 300 position in the ATP chart and you have 20 years at your disposal in order to become number one. Like in real life, tournaments will take place in Spain, China, France, England, USA, Australia, Germany, Italy, every location featuring its own ground surface: slag, red or green clay (used in France Open, and US), cement or coated asphalt (used at the Australian Open and US Open), and grass (used at Wimbledon).

Every tournament will feature also double matches where you can choose a fellow member to complete them. Virtua Tennis gives you the opportunity to play with or against 20 real-life players. The problem is that you will be playing the same handful of real-life players over and over again. As an example you will play in the beginning of you career with Roger Federer and you can beat him very easily. But as you progress into the game, the next match with Federer will be much more difficult than the first one.

Mechanics

Virtua Tennis was and still is a fast-paced arcade game, but the mechanics that stays behind the control makes this game so addictive. Besides the direction buttons, you have also three shot buttons: top spin, slice, lob. Depending on your location on the court, these shots can vary from drop shot, volley, slam, etc. Also depending on how earlier you get into position to hit the ball and press the shot button, the shot will be less or more harder. The direction of the serve or shot can be changed by pressing any of the direction keys as you hit the ball. If you want to progress further into the career you need to approach a more tactical gameplay based on your skills but also on your opponent's real-life skills. There are players who will play using short slices making you play closely to the net or others will use long and hard shots to make you run from one court corner to the other.

As you achieve position 100, the players will play more and more tactical. In order to remain at the top you have to complete higher levels of mini-games to make your custom character increase his abilities. In the end you have to create an overall powerful character, not to concentrate only on specific attributes. The camera has two perspectives (a far and a closer one). I preferred playing with the far perspective, because it covers a wider are of the court, making you guess the next shot much easier. Although I had some problems in guessing the more slower shots. The game features also an instant replay function, which is automatically and uses the same camera angles over an over again. There is no control on the replay function and that's a pity.

Sega tried to recreate the most dynamic environment for tennis: the players are sliding a bit when they change directions, the ball leaves a mark when it hits the court, the players have realistic gestures while watching the instant replay. Like in real-life, every player has its own characteristics. For example Martina Hingis is a tactical player, while Nicole Vaidisova is a strong forehand. And these characteristics are extremely obvious while you play against any of the players.
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Gameplay: 80

Some of you will consider that this is a high note, but the game is so easy to play, and so addictive, that anyone can try it. The arcade style moulds on every game style. At first I thought this game will be played only by sport fans, but after a couple of hours of continues play I changed my mind. This game is definitely for everybody. The gameplay is very easily compared to a breakout game (remember Arkanoid), but everything resumes to the tennis court.

Graphics: 82

Best graphics seen in a tennis game. Sega really took in consideration every graphical detail of a tennis court. Every type of ground is represented like in real life. The ball marks the spot where it lands if the ground is out of slag, and the grass courts are bald in middle like at the Wimbledon. In closed arenas, every character has his shadow spotted in four angles, because of the huge light projectors used to illuminate the court.

Following the actual trend of sport games, Sega recreated the faces of the players as realistic as possible. But if you don't install the latest official patch, some faces will be bad renderized.

Multiplayer: 81

The multiplayer mode is the same as in the XBOX 360 version. Supports up to four players in a single match.

Sound: 77

Sega was known for its arcade games in the past. But there is no reason to stick to the same music tracks as in the 80's. You still thing that you play on an old Sega console and hear the same boring midi playlist. Good thing is that the sound effects are ok. But how many environmental sounds are in a tennis match? Not many. So the conclusion is that the sounds register is poor, although it is simulated quite well.

Hardware: 80

Virtua Tennis 3 needs medium hardware requirements. But 3.9 GB of disk space is a little bit too much, compared to the game's content. Without the latest official patch installed, the game has some graphical bugs (the faces of some players have weird textures in the replay scenes).

If you use the Alt-Tab function, the game loses textures from the head of your character. Thumb up for the fast loading times.