CLASSIC GAME
The only time backhanded compliments are acceptable
By 2002, PlayStation 2 hadseen off Sega’s Dreamcast console, which was a massive deal – like PS5 pushing Xbox out of the market today. The official line was that Sega was now a third-party developer, creating games for any console it liked, but in reality it felt like Sony was parading the heads of Dreamcast’s royalty on sticks by releasing games like this.
And Virtua Tennis truly had been a king. The series began life as a coin-op, before winning the hearts of Dreamcast owners with its deceptively deep single-(ish)-button control scheme. Sure, there is a secondary ‘lob’ button, but mainly you move your player into position with the left stick, then start your swing. The computer works out which animation it needs to make contact happen between racquet and ball, and while the swing is playing out you can steer the stick in the direction you want the ball to go when you finally hit it. The assistance offered by this charge-up system means that you don’t have to time your swing like in other tennis games, so there’s little chance of ‘I can’t even hit the ball!’ complaints here.
Virtua Tennis 2 was simply the same game again, only even better, meaning PS2 received one of the greatest sports games of all time as the spoils of a well-won war. The sequel’s expanded roster of licensed tennis stars even includes female players like Venus and Serena Williams, while making ‘Tiger’ Tim Henman look less like a zombie, which was very welcome.
But what Virtua Tennis 2 really brought to PS2 was the riotously fun design philosophy Sega expressed in that era. Serving at bowling pins or trying to defeat a small tank that’s firing balls at you sounds ridiculous, but it made sense in the climate of 2002, incorporating the ethos of Crazy Taxi’s Crazy Box mode and Soulcalibur’s extensive home console mission mode that gave owning a game at home much more value than spending its RRP in the arcade instead. And so it remains a high point in PS2’s sporting library even if it does feel a little out of place alongside the more serious Pro Evolution Soccer and trendier FIFA Street.
