Virtua Tennis 2009 (Hands-On) (Wii) Preview

It's interesting that Virtua Tennis got pulled out at an event dedicated to the game with the most customizable controls ever, because Sumo Digital's Wii effort is no slouch in this department either. You've got the Wii Sports set up with no nunchuk and a standard remote, but if you fancy a bit more of a challenge, you can chuck in a 'chuk and control your movements fully. Like things a bit more realistic? Pop in a Motion Plus pack (with or without nunchuk, again) and you're off. I didn't get to play the game without Motion Plus, but did watch others doing so. It appears to work in much the same way as Wii Sports, but to help you out - and no doubt even the court against Motion Plus users if you don't want to play that way - a little bar appears above your characters head that shows you exactly where your swipes are sending the ball. It doesn't work any differently to other Wii tennis games in this respect, but rather shows you what's going on while others don't.

Motion Plus is no doubt what most of you are interested in, and I did get to play around with it. Having not touched Motion Plus before it was quite a learning experience. Put simply, the remote feels more complete with it; there's not an uncomfortable weight or size increase with it attached. This little thing is, if used properly, going to make Wii behave as was originally envisioned. In the case of Virtua Tennis, it means you can't be a slouch and do practically nothing - you have to play the game as though you're playing tennis. Rather than tiny flicks you must follow through with complete swing motions to direct in where you want, adding spin with a twist of your wrist as you go. Want to do a lob, a drop shot? Just do it. You can practically do any shot you want, if what some of the more tennis-experienced players were doing is anything to go by.

Before each set you must point at your player for a few seconds to allow the remote to configure itself, which seemed cumbersome at first but became less of a bother the more I played. While you might have got away with swinging straight up in Wii Sports, you don't get that luxury in Virtua Tennis Motion Plus mode; do that when you serve and it's an instant fault, as I learnt to my chagrin. There's no shame in admitting I did pretty terribly all around for the majority of the time I played, though I redeemed myself by beating the AI towards the end, after I got to grips with the system. Some tennis knowledge will certainly help (sadly, I don't have any!). Remember learning how to play Wii Sports back in the day? Using Motion Plus is a bit like that; you'll muck up initially but start to pick it up fairly quickly.

Using the nunchuk is, of course, the optimal choice if you want full control (combined with Motion Plus it's challenging, but definitely feasible with some practice), but if you're using the remote alone you still have limited movement afforded by the d-pad. A press of up will make you rush the net, down having the opposite effect, while left and right allow you to adjust slightly. A great touch is the ability to mix and match control options: you can plug and unplug nunchuks easily as you go along, and multiple players needn't play the same way. You could, for example, have a four player match where one person uses the remote alone, another uses a remote and a nunchuk, another uses a remote with Motion Plus and the final person has Motion Plus with a nunchuk. There really are control options for all skill levels.