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

This time I started out with the non-Motion Plus remote-alone control setup. It works very similarly to Wii Sports tennis; your avatar tracks along automatically and the main challenge is correct timing. To give you a hand there's a meter above your avatar that represents the court layout. As the ball comes towards you an indicator zips across the bar and tells you which direction it will travel back in, towards your opponent, if you strike it at that time. While this may sound as though it could wipe out any challenge, it doesn't remove the need to judge each shot as it comes in terms of how to return it, and the indicator does not move at a standardized speed, instead altering according to the ball's velocity. A comparable timing system is used in Wii Sports, but Virtua Tennis shows all of its working out, and if you don't like it you can switch it off entirely. Another of Virtua Tennis' advantages is that you can control movement with the d-pad. Say you don't trust the AI tracking during a certain rally, or you want to lurch forward for a surprise dropshot over the net; just use the d-pad temporarily. The second you stop pressing it the game will resume automatic control; something that also applies in Motion Plus mode.

There weren't enough nunchuks about, so I didn't test those control methods any further than I did last time. Far more Motion Plus usage was on the cards, however, and I'm happy to report that it was easy to slip back into using it, and I was much more accomplished with it this time. Taking on board some of the comments from my first impressions I tested out as many shot types as I could remember, from loopy backhands and windscreen wiper forearms to forearms with top spin. While there were a couple of instances of swinging one way and having the ball go elsewhere, the game did recognise most of the actions and reacted appropriately. Fear not, though, as a more experienced tennis player than I will be handling Cubed3's official review, doubtlessly testing a wider variety of shots than I.

One thing that was more obvious this time was how to get the best shots. Not only do you have to follow through with full motions, but you must also pay attention to which side of the remote is moving into the hit. If the face or the back of the remote goes right into the ball there shouldn't be any problems, but if the remote goes side-on towards the ball you're going to get a fault if you're serving as it is though the ball is just smacking into the frame of your racquet. Another feature of the game that becomes more apparent with extended play is its use of the audience. Rather than having a flat, lifeless crowd, the game's developers have instead generated a 3D crowd and constructed their reactions to subtly switch about during matches. Attendance grows and wanes depending on the level of importance of your match, too, which is a nice touch.

Before each point you must aim at your avatar to give Motion Plus an opportunity to reset itself. Sumo tested doing this behind the scenes but ultimately opted to have it obvious and on the surface; it can slow things down a bit, but Sumo figures that at least this way the remote is getting reset properly, isn't losing accuracy and isn't 'tricking' player into thinking they're playing differently. The time for calibration has a strict few-second limit online to keep the pace up. Contrary to some opinion drifting about the Internet, Motion Plus has definitely not been added to Virtua Tennis at the last minute - it's been included since way back in early development. Due to the new controls available because of Motion Plus, the developers have included demonstrations and training modes on how to use it properly, teaching you the different moves you should be doing to play as you want. This goes hand-in-hand with the other elements of the interface that help to make things more user-friendly.

Online functionality matches that of the HD versions. It's tied to the world tour tightly this time; you can't play ranked matches with any of the pro players, only your created avatar from the single player career mode, whom you must build up from scratch. This means you're not going to get a flood of Nadals and Federers dominating and trouncing you online; the playing field has been evened. As you go through the career with whatever monstrosity you've fashioned in the user-friendly but robust avatar creator (which features hundreds of pieces of apparel), you'll earn medals, trophies and experience that unlocks new play styles for you to use, of which there are around forty. You can also earn money to spend on new clothing and items to deck out your avatar. As you rise through the ranks you'll be invited to practice matches with various opponents; accept and they'll be added to a friend's list, allowing you to train against them at any time or choose them as doubles partners.

As with Sumo's other tennis titles, there're a bunch of mini-games included in addition to the main content. They're all suitably deranged and feature you battling aliens and pirates with tennis balls, collecting shopping while dodging giant spheres and removing blocks from walls. There are twelve or so in total, most of which are online-enabled, and the highlight from what I saw is probably the one in which hungry animals beg for food at the far end of the court. The food they're after is thrown at you to thwack over to the correct beast. It starts semi-sanely - initially lions might want meat, but soon they start hankering for pizza and changing their minds haphazardly.