Virtua Tennis ( Power Smash in Japan) is a series of tennis simulation video games started in 1999 by Sega AM3 . The player competes through tennis tournaments and various arcade modes. While originally released for arcades, all games in the series have been ported to other platforms, including most major consoles.
29-539: In Japan, the series has always been released as Power Smash , although with the third entry, the name was expanded to Sega Professional Tennis: Power Smash . Even though the Sega Professional Tennis logo and name are prominently featured in all games, it only appears in the titles of the third and fourth games. Internationally, the first game was released as Virtua Tennis , to fall in the same brand as other Sega Sports games such as Virtua Striker . With
58-606: A deal with THQ that allowed them to make original games based on Sega franchises for the Game Boy Advance , one of which was an adaptation of the original Virtua Tennis game. Virtua Tennis 2 was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2002. Sumo Digital was tasked with porting the game to the PlayStation Portable, which gave birth to Virtua Tennis: World Tour in 2005, an updated version of Virtua Tennis 2 that expanded
87-477: A long time, and an excellent single- and two-player diversion. Don't avoid this because it's not football – you'll get more playtime out of it than you think." In Japan, Famitsu gave the same console version a score of 33 out of 40. Also in Japan, Game Machine listed the arcade version in their February 1, 2000 issue as the third most-successful arcade game of the previous year. John Thompson of AllGame gave
116-521: A long time, up there with Sega Bass Fishing in the Games You're Embarrassed To Enjoy category. If you're a sports fan, go get it." Four-Eyed Dragon said of the Game Boy Advance version: "Even with sluggish controls and so-so visuals, Virtua Tennis still delivers, especially in the winning career mode where you train your custom-made athletes (both male and female) to become the number-one ranked in
145-449: A rank of 300th, which improves as matches are won. These matches are unlocked by completing easier matches or training exercises. The focus of the training exercises are to be fun, rather than realistic. Each exercise has three levels, with the difficulty increasing progressively. By completing the hardest difficulty with a certain amount of time left or points scored, an outfit is unlocked, which players can wear in all modes. Virtua Tennis
174-538: A tournament. If the player performs well enough, he is challenged by Master, one of the game's bosses. This is a single match in which the options are customizable. The match can be played as singles or doubles with up to four human players (two for singles). The duration can be varied between one game and one set. Other options include the court that the match is played on and the skill of the opponent(s). Users have to win matches and complete training exercises in order to progress and unlock new ones. The user enters with
203-593: Is a sequel to Virtua Tennis that was released for the Sega Dreamcast , Sega NAOMI arcade unit and Sony 's PlayStation 2 (known as Sega Sports Tennis in North America) in 2001–2002. New features included the ability to slice and play as female players such as Monica Seles , Serena Williams , Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport and the males such as Patrick Rafter , Magnus Norman , Thomas Enqvist and Carlos Moyá and mixed doubles matches. The game
232-461: Is a 1999 tennis arcade game created by Sega . The player competes through tennis tournaments in an arcade mode. It was ported to the Dreamcast in 2000, and to Windows in 2002. A Game Boy Advance version was also released in 2002, followed by an N-Gage version in 2003. For the home console market, the game was expanded with the introduction of the campaign mode. A sequel, Virtua Tennis 2 ,
261-506: The Sega Dreamcast , Sega's home console based on the Naomi Hardware. The sequel, Virtua Tennis 2 , brought several improvements, most notably enhanced graphics, more courts, and a female roster (consisting of nine players), featuring such players as Serena Williams , Lindsay Davenport or Jelena Dokić . After ceasing development of video game consoles in 2001, Sega announced that they would be making games for all platforms, and made
290-611: The World Tour mode, but featured the smallest character roster in the series. In 2006, a new entry, Virtua Tennis 3 , was released for arcades using the Sega Lindbergh hardware. The game was ported to the PlayStation 3 , with SIXAXIS controls incorporated into the gameplay, as well as to the Xbox 360 , the latter port also being handled by Sumo Digital . While working on it, Sumo Digital
319-701: The Year" and " Game of the Year " awards; the first two went to SSX , while the latter went to Diablo II . Two years later, the Game Boy Advance version was also a runner-up for the website's "Best Sports Game on Game Boy Advance" award, which went to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 . The PC version was a runner-up for PC Gamer US ' "2002 Best Sports Game" award, which ultimately went to Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 . Virtua Tennis 2 Virtua Tennis 2 , known as Tennis 2K2 in North America and Power Smash 2 ( パワースマッシュ2 , Pawā Sumasshu Tsū ) in Japan,
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#1732876291901348-434: The best arcade ports on the 128-bit system." Edge gave the same Dreamcast version eight out of ten, saying: "Were it not for the irritation caused by the almost unbeatable players in later stages and the inability to play more than a single set per match, Virtua Tennis would have been a near-perfect sports game." The D-Pad Destroyer of GamePro called the same console version "one of the most purely fun sports games in
377-450: The controls to a more traditional joystick and buttons. User reception at location testing and in Sega's offices proved to be very positive and development thereafter was smooth. Sega executives feared the game's original Japanese title, Power Smash , would not translate well to overseas audiences. For its North American and European localizations, the name adopted the familiar Virtua label and
406-498: The same arcade version four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying: "With an excellent engine, beautiful graphics and sounds, and an intuitive, deep gameplay system, Virtua Tennis is one of the best arcade games in recent memory. Sega dominated arcades of the late '90s, and with excellent titles such as this, it's easy to see why." Bryan Melville, however, gave the Dreamcast version four stars, calling it "a game that will go down as one of
435-471: The selected player is male or female. This is a single match in which the options are customizable. This is the main mode of the game. For the first time in the Virtua Tennis series, the World Tour mode features yearly based and calendarized seasons. Users have to play and win tournaments throughout the seasons, as well as to complete training exercises, in order to progress. Also, unlike any other game in
464-518: The sequel, the name was changed to Tennis 2K2 . However, once Sega sold the 2K name to Take-Two Interactive , the next game was released under the original branding as Virtua Tennis 3 . All following updates and sequels have been released under the Virtua label. The original game was developed for the Sega Naomi Arcade Hardware by Sega (in 2000 under the label Hitmaker ) and ported to
493-427: The series, the World Tour mode on Virtua Tennis 2 requires the user to play and train both a male and a female players simultaneously, who can also team up to play in mixed doubles tournaments. The user enters with a rank of 300th for both male and female players, which improves as matches and tournaments are won. In addition, the players' abilities can be improved by completing different training exercises. The focus of
522-444: The training exercises are to be fun, rather than realistic. Each exercise has four levels, with the difficulty increasing progressively. By completing the hardest difficulty with a certain amount of time left or points scored, an outfit is unlocked, which players can wear in all modes. Male Female The Dreamcast version received "universal acclaim", while the PlayStation 2 version received "favorable" reviews, according to
551-494: The world." The Dreamcast version has been ranked in the top 100 games of all time by IGN both in 2005 (#91) and 2003 (#89). Game Informer placed the Dreamcast version 50th on their top 100 video games of all time in 2001. It was also featured in Guinness World Records 2017: Gamer's Edition where it says that the Dreamcast version got GameRankings score of 91.37% based on 33 reviews. The Dreamcast version
580-402: Was a hit among a wide range of age groups. Kumagai began planning a game that could serve as a both a fun, casual experience and competitive, hardcore experience for people to play with friends and family in arcades and at home. Her initial proposal, a basketball game was rejected, while her alternative proposal, a tennis game, was accepted. However, the potential for the project's success
609-452: Was a runner-up for the "Best Multiplayer Game" and "Best Sports Game (Traditional)" awards at GameSpot ' s Best and Worst of 2000 Awards, both of which went to Quake III Arena and NFL 2K1 , respectively. During the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards , the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the Dreamcast version for the " Console Sports ", "Console Game of
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#1732876291901638-505: Was changed to Virtua Tennis . The Dreamcast version received "universal acclaim", the Game Boy Advance version received "favorable" reviews, and the PC version received "average" reviews, while the N-Gage version received "generally unfavorable reviews", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic . Blake Fischer of NextGen called the Dreamcast version "The best four-player game in
667-511: Was created and produced by Hitmaker , with Acclaim Entertainment publishing it in Europe for the PS2. This was the last Virtua Tennis game to be released for the Dreamcast following its discontinuation. The player must win 5 matches played on different surfaces and venues to win a tournament. If the player performs well enough, he is challenged by either King or Queen, the game's bosses, depending whether
696-422: Was developed by Sega AM3 . The producer , Mie Kumagai , wanted to create a game that appealed to broad demographics of players, taking note of the large number of one-on-one fighting games that proliferated throughout Japanese arcades during the 1990s. She also wished to replicate the critical and commercial achievements of Sega AM2 's soccer title Virtua Striker , which was directed by Satoshi Mifune and
725-561: Was instructed by Sega to feature Sonic as an unlockable character, giving them the idea to make a tennis game consisting of Sega characters from various franchises. This was released in 2008 as Sega Superstars Tennis , which ran on the Virtua Tennis 3 engine that Sumo Digital developed for the Xbox 360 port of the game. In 2009, Sumo Digital released an update to Virtua Tennis 3 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Wii called Virtua Tennis 2009 . At Gamescom 2010, Virtua Tennis 4
754-507: Was released for arcades in 2001 and was ported to the Dreamcast the same year and to the PlayStation 2 in 2002. An updated version was released on the PlayStation Portable in 2005, under the name Virtua Tennis: World Tour . 2006 saw the release of Virtua Tennis 3 for arcades (using the Sega Lindbergh hardware). Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation Portable and Windows versions were released in 2007. Virtua Tennis 2009
783-496: Was released in 2009 on the Windows, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii platforms. Virtua Tennis 4 was released in 2011 on the same four platforms, but also had an arcade version which was released later, as well as a PlayStation Vita port released in 2012. The latest addition to the franchise, Virtua Tennis Challenge , was released in 2012 on Android and iOS . The player must win five matches played on different surfaces and venues to win
812-517: Was revealed for the PlayStation 3 , with PlayStation Move controls incorporated. The game also introduced a new first-person perspective to help players control the game more effectively with the Move controller. Sega released Virtua Tennis Challenge in 2012, the first installment in the series to be released on Android and iOS . Virtua Tennis (video game) Virtua Tennis , known in Japan as Power Smash ( パワースマッシュ , Pawā Sumasshu ) ,
841-416: Was still met with a large amount of skepticism within Sega. After Kumagai acquired a programmer , they made a trip to a tennis school for research, and began designing a unique paddle controller . By twisting this paddle, the user could switch between forehand and backhand shots, but after months of in-house experimentation it proved too difficult to operate. Taking advice from Mifune, the team simplified
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