Virtua Tennis 4
Encyclopedia
Virtua Tennis 4 is the third sequel to Sega
's tennis
game franchise, Virtua Tennis
. It was released on PlayStation 3
, Xbox 360
, PC
and Wii
. A Playstation Vita version is under development. Virtua Tennis 4 is also being produced for a four player stick based arcade cabinet.
, the Kinect on the Xbox 360
, and the Wii MotionPlus
on the Wii
. All previously mentioned devices are optional. Virtua Tennis 4 allows the player to step into the shoes of some of the world's best tennis pros. The game supports stereoscopic 3D
on the PlayStation 3. When the PlayStation Move is used, the character's left and right movement is automatic but each swing of the racquet must be performed by the player and one can drop back or rush to the net by physically stepping back or forward. There is a dynamic camera system in place, so when the ball is in the other half of the court, the camera pans out so that one can see one's position.
When the ball is coming towards the player, it glides into a first person viewpoint where the player can see their racquet in front of him and time their swing accordingly. The player can twist the racquet to adjust its face when it connects with the ball, allowing skilled players to apply spin.
Six days later, on the Facebook page of the game, the full list of players was released. On 31 March, on the same media, it was announced that 3 legends were included to the game. However, these will be exclusive for PlayStation 3 (along with 2 new mini-games).
You can create eight of your own avatar tennis players and help them make their way up through the world rankings.
ATP Players Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Novak Djokovic
Andy Murray Juan Martín del Potro
New Andy Roddick
Fernando González
New Tommy Haas
Philipp Kohlschreiber
New Gaël Monfils
Andreas Seppi
New
WTA Players Venus Williams
Ana Ivanović
Caroline Wozniacki
New Svetlana Kuznetsova
Maria Sharapova
Anna Chakvetadze
Laura Robson
New
Legends Boris Becker
PS3 Stefan Edberg
PS3 Patrick Rafter
PS3 Jim Courier
Bosses King Duke
– Hard French Cup – Paris
– Clay England Tennis Classic – London
– Grass US Super Tennis – New York
– Hard
Special Tournaments The Tennis Hall (King of Players) – Dallas – Indoor Grand Square (SPT Final) – Chicago
– Hard SPT Arena (Fancy Dress Matches at World Tour) – Indoor
Advantage Series Advantage Series China – Shanghai
– Hard Advantage Series Egypt – Cairo
– Hard Advantage Series Sweden – Stockholm
– Hard Advantage Series Canada – Vancouver
– Grass
World Tour Venues Asian Championship – South China Sea
– Hard Mediterranean Championship – Marbella
– Clay European Open – Prague
– Grass American Championship – Los Angeles
– Indoor
Satellite Courts Satellite Court I – London – Grass Satellite Court II – Moscow – Grass Satellite Court III – Madrid – Hard Satellite Court IV – Berlin – Hard Satellite Court V – Buenos Aires – Clay Satellite Court VI – Amsterdam – Clay Satellite Court VII – Rome – Hard Satellite Court VIII – New York – Hard
Not available at Exhibition mode Special Matches at World Tour – Indoor
Despite the fact that Sega opted to skip GamesCom
, Virtua Tennis 4 was revealed at the convention at Sony
's booth.
On 7 June 2011, Sega confirmed that the game will be available at the PlayStation Vita as a launch title for the console.
gave the game a 6/10, stating "By and large, Virtua Tennis 4 does adhere strongly to its roots, bringing enough excitement to lure a wider audience. However, it would be useful for a study to be conducted of similar titles, so that these updated features could find their way into the beloved franchise."
The Patch version will be available for Download soon but the exact date is yet to be known.
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
game franchise, Virtua Tennis
Virtua Tennis Series
Virtua Tennis is a series of tennis simulation video games started in 1999 by Sega-AM3. The player competes through tennis tournaments and various arcade modes. For the home console market the game was expanded with the introduction of the campaign mode...
. It was released on PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, PC
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
. A Playstation Vita version is under development. Virtua Tennis 4 is also being produced for a four player stick based arcade cabinet.
Gameplay
The game supports the PlayStation Move controller on the PlayStation 3PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, the Kinect on the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, and the Wii MotionPlus
Wii MotionPlus
The is an expansion device for the Wii Remote video game controller for the Wii that allows it to more accurately capture complex motion. According to Nintendo, the sensor in the device supplements the accelerometer and Sensor Bar capabilities of the Wii Remote to enable actions to be rendered...
on the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
. All previously mentioned devices are optional. Virtua Tennis 4 allows the player to step into the shoes of some of the world's best tennis pros. The game supports stereoscopic 3D
Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
on the PlayStation 3. When the PlayStation Move is used, the character's left and right movement is automatic but each swing of the racquet must be performed by the player and one can drop back or rush to the net by physically stepping back or forward. There is a dynamic camera system in place, so when the ball is in the other half of the court, the camera pans out so that one can see one's position.
When the ball is coming towards the player, it glides into a first person viewpoint where the player can see their racquet in front of him and time their swing accordingly. The player can twist the racquet to adjust its face when it connects with the ball, allowing skilled players to apply spin.
Players
On 1 January 2011, a trailer was released on the YouTube channel of Sega America with a partial list of players that were confirmed for the game. On their blog entry published the same day, it is announced that there will be seven new inclusions to the game.Six days later, on the Facebook page of the game, the full list of players was released. On 31 March, on the same media, it was announced that 3 legends were included to the game. However, these will be exclusive for PlayStation 3 (along with 2 new mini-games).
You can create eight of your own avatar tennis players and help them make their way up through the world rankings.
ATP Players Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal
Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera is a Spanish professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. , he is ranked No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals...
Roger Federer
Roger Federer
Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic is a Serbian professional tennis player who has been ranked world no. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals since 4 July 2011. He has won four Grand Slam singles titles: the 2008 and 2011 Australian Open, the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2011 US Open...
Andy Murray Juan Martín del Potro
Juan Martin Del Potro
Juan Martín del Potro is an Argentine professional tennis player. Del Potro achieved a top-10 ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals for the first time on October 6, 2008. In January 2010, he reached a career-high ranking of world no. 4...
New Andy Roddick
Andy Roddick
Andrew Stephen "Andy" Roddick is an American professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. He is currently the second highest-ranked American player, behind Mardy Fish....
Fernando González
Fernando González
----Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi is a professional tennis player from Chile. He is known for having one of the hardest forehands on the circuit. In Spanish he is called El Bombardero de La Reina and Mano de Piedra...
New Tommy Haas
Tommy Haas
Tommy Haas is a German and recently naturalized American professional tennis player. He has competed on the ATP Tour since 1996. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high ranking of world no...
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Philipp Kohlschreiber is a tennis player from Germany, who turned professional in 2001. The right-hander has won six doubles and three singles titles. He reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on 28 September 2009, when he achieved a ranking of World No. 22...
New Gaël Monfils
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils is a French professional tennis player. he was the highest-ranked French tennis player, ranked no. 7 in the world ATP rankings. He was the runner-up at the Paris Masters in 2009 and 2010 and a semifinalist at the 2008 French Open.-2002:In 2002, Monfils finished 24th at the...
Andreas Seppi
Andreas Seppi
Andreas Seppi is a professional tennis player from South Tyrol, northern Italy, who turned professional in 2000. He considers clay and hard courts his favourite surfaces. and is coached by Massimo Sartori....
New
WTA Players Venus Williams
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and is ranked World No. 101 as of 10 October 2011 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles as of 2011. She has been ranked World No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association on three separate...
Ana Ivanović
Ana Ivanovic
Ana Ivanović is a former world no. 1 Serbian tennis player. As of November 7, 2011, she is ranked 22th on the WTA rankings. She beat Dinara Safina to win the 2008 French Open and was the runner-up in singles at the 2007 French Open and the 2008 Australian Open...
Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki is a Danish professional tennis player. She is the current world no. 1 on the WTA Tour. As of 7 November 2011, she has held this position for 56 weeks...
New Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova ; born June 27, 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player and as of October 10, 2011 ranked No. 21 in the WTA singles and No. 90 in the doubles ranking. Kuznetsova has appeared in four singles Grand Slam finals, winning two, and has also appeared in six doubles...
Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ,. is a Russian professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. A US resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 24 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open...
Anna Chakvetadze
Anna Chakvetadze
Anna Djambulilovna Chakvetadze is a Russian professional tennis player . On September 10, 2007, she reached her career-high professional singles ranking of World No. 5. She has won eight WTA Singles Titles and appeared in the 2007 US Open semifinals. As of July 4, 2011, Chakvetadze is ranked World...
Laura Robson
Laura Robson
Laura Robson is a British tennis player. She debuted on the International Tennis Federation junior tour in 2007, and a year later won the Wimbledon Junior Girls' Championship at the age of 14. As a junior, she also twice reached the final of the Australian Open, in 2009 and 2010. She won her...
New
Legends Boris Becker
Boris Becker
Boris Franz Becker is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Germany. He is a six-time Grand Slam singles champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon at the age of 17...
PS3 Stefan Edberg
Stefan Edberg
Stefan Bengt Edberg is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Sweden. A major proponent of the serve-and-volley style of tennis, he won six Grand Slam singles titles and three Grand Slam men's doubles titles. He also won one season ending championship title the Masters Grand Prix...
PS3 Patrick Rafter
Patrick Rafter
Patrick "Pat" Michael Rafter is an Australian former World No. 1 tennis player. He twice won the men's singles title at the US Open and was twice the runner-up at Wimbledon. Rafter was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006. He was known for his natural serve-and-volley style of...
PS3 Jim Courier
Jim Courier
James Spencer "Jim" Courier, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won four Grand Slam singles titles, two at the French Open and two at the Australian Open...
Bosses King Duke
| Key | |
|---|---|
| New | Players new to the series |
| PS3 | PlayStation 3 Exclusive |
Courts
Grand Slams Australia Challenge – MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
– Hard French Cup – Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
– Clay England Tennis Classic – London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
– Grass US Super Tennis – New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
– Hard
Special Tournaments The Tennis Hall (King of Players) – Dallas – Indoor Grand Square (SPT Final) – Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
– Hard SPT Arena (Fancy Dress Matches at World Tour) – Indoor
Advantage Series Advantage Series China – Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
– Hard Advantage Series Egypt – Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
– Hard Advantage Series Sweden – Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
– Hard Advantage Series Canada – Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
– Grass
World Tour Venues Asian Championship – South China Sea
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around...
– Hard Mediterranean Championship – Marbella
Marbella
Marbella is a town in Andalusia, Spain. It is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, in the province of Málaga, beneath the La Concha mountain. In 2000 the city had 98,823 inhabitants, in 2004, 116,234, in 2010 approximately 135,000....
– Clay European Open – Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
– Grass American Championship – Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
– Indoor
Satellite Courts Satellite Court I – London – Grass Satellite Court II – Moscow – Grass Satellite Court III – Madrid – Hard Satellite Court IV – Berlin – Hard Satellite Court V – Buenos Aires – Clay Satellite Court VI – Amsterdam – Clay Satellite Court VII – Rome – Hard Satellite Court VIII – New York – Hard
Not available at Exhibition mode Special Matches at World Tour – Indoor
Development
This is the first game to be developed by the original Virtua Tennis Team Sega AM3 since 2006.Despite the fact that Sega opted to skip GamesCom
Gamescom
gamescom is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is organised by the Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware...
, Virtua Tennis 4 was revealed at the convention at Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's booth.
On 7 June 2011, Sega confirmed that the game will be available at the PlayStation Vita as a launch title for the console.
Reception
GameZoneGameZone
GameZone is an American multiplatform video game website. GameZone's daily coverage includes reviews, previews, news, hints & cheats, and editorials. Additionally, GameZone offers downloads, a child-targeted website and in association with GameStop, hosts GZGameShop, an online retailer...
gave the game a 6/10, stating "By and large, Virtua Tennis 4 does adhere strongly to its roots, bringing enough excitement to lure a wider audience. However, it would be useful for a study to be conducted of similar titles, so that these updated features could find their way into the beloved franchise."
PC Version Problems
The PC version of the game has hit criticism after customers have found the save feature does not work properly. After saving and restarting the game, the user is told the file is corrupt and they will be unable to continue. Achievements also seem to be broken. After unlocking certain achievements, they re-lock once the game is closed. Sega have acknowledged the fault and have been working on a patch.The Patch version will be available for Download soon but the exact date is yet to be known.