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"I've done it!!!!"

Here’s a review, a review by myself that will be purposely written to fit inside the 4000 character limit, astonishing isn’t it! Ok, here you go! Get the cool…right, for the better part of this early morning, and for quite a long time this week I have been trying to complete one of the most fantastic games of all time, but it’s also one of the most infuriating, hang on, Special Reserve don’t stock Virtua Tennis anymore – where will this review go? No time to think about that, no read on as I continue my never ending journey to get to the point – Sega knows how to make great games, but when Hit Maker made the character King, they obviously had other intentions in mind, other than to create a devilishly tough opponent.

I believe they planned for thousands of gamers to be cursing and blaspheming at their television sets at obscene hours of the day, they’re probably having a good chuckle at my newfound despising of the Shady eyed, shifty looking King who for the life of me I cannot beat in the final match, ‘smash’ level 4 in the world circuit mode. Just a couple of hours ago I was 4 games to nil up, my mind awash with thoughts of how I’d write a post about how I finally beat king – and in style, but no, no, no, King had to get angry, came back to make it 4-4, I won the 9th game, he got the 10th (just), and the 11th fell to my artificial nemesis, but I managed to claim the twelfth and take the game to a tie break. 5-5 again, 5-6…bow lucks. Anyone for strawberries and cream!

It was hard to take heart of the fact that I had improved immensely, but I tried again, but switched the DC off in a hurry as it was getting late (oh look, it’s 3:01), so I still haven’t completed the game, but I shan’t lose any sleep over it, I’ll write a snappy review instead, and I am. Virtua Tennis’s strong point is longevity thanks to its incredible playability, which in turn comes down to three things – great simplistic controls, amazing presentation and finally multiplayer or single player action. I wont argue that Virtua Tennis is the best multiplayer sports game of all time, because I know it for a fact, and so do you! I guess that’s why the country has sold out of Virtua Tennis (seeing as you don’t stock it, will this post still be considered for Game a Day?) (Shut up Dan), and if you haven’t played it before I envy you – a lot of fantastic gaming times ahead!

Over half way, I’ll go over the modes – you can play in the arcade mode, either on your own or with a friend in order to complete the 5 stages of increasing difficulty – if you win them all without using any continues, you’ll be whisked away to face the challenger – single player will meet ‘Master’ – a Morgan Freeman look-alike, if there’re two of you, you’ll face Morgan Freeman and the devil (King), which is a real challenge indeed – don’t put the difficulty on easy though, leave it at default. The arcade is ok for a good ten minutes, but the Exhibition mode is where multiplayer gaming heaven starts – 1-4 players can partake in a nice game of tennis, believe me – it doesn’t usually stay friendly! Lots of competitiveness, some games will last ages, but this is definitely the cream of the multiplayer sports games. Sociable gaming Turbo – pick up a DC and Virtua Tennis, you won’t be disappointed! Of course then, there’s the single player world circuit – the place to unlock all the hidden players, stadiums and partake in an hours shouting at your Hitachi 24W551SN, as you aim to take the world number 1 position. There are many mini tasks to play, lots of trial matches and even shops to buy players in, change your costume and to replace old racquet strings. Excellent stuff! The options mode…

Graphically superb, I can’t wait for the second instalment, and all in all you won’t find many better Dreamcast games. The sound is clear, the music is pathetic, and the crowd a little lame, but then they’re 2D, so what can you expect. I’m running out of space, not that it matters, as this will be in the FOG!
Ta
Dan2K1!

Cheers, my thumbs hurt now.

Congrats Dan!!

Well done mate!

I'VE DONE IT!!!!!!!!

7-5 I beat him!!! Now unlocked, it says King is the perfect player, clearly perfection is overated - Auzzie Philippoussis BEAT HIM!!!

WOOHOOO!!!!

...

Here's mine of MSR!

Metropolis Street racer is another one of my brother’s Dreamcast games that I have suddenly become inseparable from – this racing game is just darn addictive! I suppose it must be a combination of the amazing graphics, with accurately detailed cars and tracks – based in three very real, real life cities (Tokyo, the Japanese circuits are based here) (London – us Brits can enjoy a tour of Westminster, St James Park, and all sorts in England’s representative) (San Francisco providing the American city) and all look very, very realistic indeed – a mightily impressive graphics fest of a game. Nothing I have played on the PlayStation looks anywhere near as good as this. The game cost him £29.99, but you can buy it for £19.99 from most online retailers, good value if you ask me. This is one game that he won’t be seeing for a while…

Second great point – the difficulty! Finally here is a racing game that is above average in difficulty – but it’s just the right difficulty that when you complete a task in one of the earth shattering 25 chapters, you feel so very much rewarded – you gain kudos – Greek word for respect, and are able to unlock more tasks in that level chapter – basically you aim to complete everything, get maximum respect for your driving, unlock the sweetest sports cars, new chapters and progress in order to complete the single player game, and so far I’m doing ok! So, how do you get kudos and why should you even want to get some? Kudos means respect, it’s the main aspect of the game – you respect the game, the game gives you respect for your driving skills. You get kudos for skill – and style, so you could be the most careful skilful driver, but if you take risks as well, getting in some superb handbrake slides, maybe the odd 360 here and there – you’ll get a whole bucket load of kudos! However, hit another car or a wall, then you’ll be patronised by a horrid “warning penalty” sign, which will deduct the kudos count when your task has ended, so be careful…

Kudos is a very important aspect, it’s a fresh idea on a racing game – it’s not just about racing other cars, shoving them off the track and picking up the prize – in MSR it’s a lot more challenging, but the game breathes originality. Maximum kudos to Bizarre Creations! Each chapter will require a set amount of kudos to be completed, and although this does take a while, you will be rewarded with a car or two at the end of the chapter, it won’t fall into your garage, like in GT2, you’ll have to earn it if you want to race in it, so make your decisions carefully – you’re only allowed three cars maximum in your garage, another restricting element that actually enhances the gameplay, in my opinion at least. MSR is by no means flawless, but it’s one of the closest things to that word.

Racing – ah yes, that is what it is all about – racing other cars, but in some chapters you will have tasks that involve just one man (or woman) and one machine; you’ll have to take on the hot laps, trying to beat a certain time, if you make the time lower before you race then you’ll get more kudos – as it’ll be more of a challenge, just make sure you know how fast you can drive on a certain circuit before you attempt the challenge – and don’t waste the joker cards that pop up here and there occasionally – they’re there for you to use on tasks that you know you won’t fail, and those that you score a lot of points on anyway as this will double your score on that task. Other cars are involved mostly though, with Championship races, Street Races and one on ones, and the strange, but good thing is that they have very good artificial intelligence – they’re not infallible, they’re not perfect, they do spin when shunted, but they will give you a run for your kudos!!

There are other modes as well, but the one player mode is the most rewarding, and I haven’t really invited anyone round to share this game yet (Well it’s not mine to share is it!), but I have played against a neighbour, and the 2 player racing is almost as good as the single player mode, however there is some slight slowdown – but then the single player is incredibly fast – slick frame rate, I think it’s around 30fps, and the sensation of speed is amazing. The detail on buildings is impressive, the lighting effects are very good too, although the cars aren’t as shiny as I’d hoped, and the game does feel a little bit dark when the sun is out, but I haven’t had time to dwell on these slight disappointments, the game’s positive points outweigh the negative ones.

The cars! Oh yes, all the cars are official – starting off with a choice of just the MX5, Fiat Barchetta and MGF, you will soon be unlocking some beast like motors – Vauxhall’s VX220 is breathtakingly fast and purrs like an enchanted cat, there are around 45 real life sports cars – the most impressive is probably the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6, there’s a very fine Audi TT, Ford Focus, TVR, and more…the cars look realistic, but as I say – not shiny enough. I was quite impressed by the fact that you get a driver in the car – someone actually turns the steering wheel, just as you do, it’s all very well done. Best looking game I have played on the Dreamcast so far – I think I’ll adopt this console, or maybe, swap for my PlayStation? You don’t have the same sort of options in sprucing up your motor, like you do in the GT series, but I’m not too bothered about that – nice features include privatising your number plate, selecting your own car colour and then changing the window darkness.

The presentation to Metropolis Street Racer is very impressive too – you have to select your time area, GMT would be ours naturally, so that the game can play in real time – i.e. at 5 o’clock in real life, the game will be at 5 o’clock – same lightness, and it even knows how dark to get when it’s winter and Summer – I was on at 9 today, still quite light in London (I haven’t played in winter yet, but I have been informed it gets dark in the game at around 4:30 in London – impressive). The menu screen is plush, the start up is brilliant, whole atmosphere in the game is really very well done indeed. Music wise, I think they should have had more of the start up music as in game it gets a bit boring listening to cheesy tracks from Will Smith a likes, rubbishy radio stations, and all of 6 seconds of Planet Perfecto – should have had some actual real music in. But never mind.

MSR is a great game, I have been addicted to it, I have to admit this, and I’ll not stop playing until I complete it to be honest, so despite the slight flaws, it is a really good game, and I would recommend it to a great many people – all of you in fact!

Dan2K1 wrote:
> Now that is a long post..."
>Not really...

Ahh, but it was when the two were stuck together when I wrote that bit. Forgot all about when I started removing bits to get it to post.

Ahhh, figured out what it was. I had the "jump up and down in elation" bit linked with hyphens. WHen I took that away it posted fine. Still nowhere near the 70 character limit Special Reserve mention.

Having a sulk, I wanted to post a really long message with both reviews in :(

Now lets see what happens if...


Virtua Tennis


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Tennis is about as exciting as, well, cricket. The only good advantage of watching is that it gives you a perfectly good excuse to stare at Anna Kornakova’s beautiful, tight a…ttacking play . However, there are a number of classic tennis games out there, notorious for excelling in the multiplayer stakes. When we add Sega into the equation, then there is a lot expected from this title – and it delivers in bucket loads.

When you think about it, tennis is a very simple game, probably why the notorious Pong took its inspiration from the sport of poncy middle management types. If Pong is the lo-fi, 8-track representation of tennis, then Virtua Tennis is the all-singing-all-dancing DVD-audio version. However, the simplicity is kept in the control system – basically you’ll rarely have to go beyond two buttons and the analogue stick. If the particularly thick among you are thinking this must limit your shot selections then you’d be wrong. Remembering that there aren’t actually that many ways that you can hit a fuzzy yellow ball over a net; you can pull off pretty much any shot in Sega’s game that you could in real life (if you were any good, you tubby gaming types!). Not only does this add a little realism as the super-doper-100 mph-power-happy-fun-smash-shots have gone, but it gives the game a great pick up and play feel. If grasping the basics takes minutes, actually becoming any good will take many punnets of strawberries and cartons of cream (helping the aforementioned tubby factor). This is a masterfully crafted little game – control pad throwing-ly difficult at times, but then of course there are the jump up and down in elation moments to balance that out.

Now, I’d like to refer you to the screen shots. Pick your jaw up and remember this is on the “humble” Dreamcast. In motion this game almost puts BBC broadcasts to shame. The animation of the players is simply outstanding; the only things they can be compared to are real life tennis players. In fact, the cast of exclusively male players even look strangely familiar, a nice touch. You can, if you wish, take Tim Henman through the World’s tournaments – unfortunately not licensed but ISS style close-as substitutes make up for this.

The best mode of play has you take your chosen player through a world series where performance earns cash, which can then be spent on new clothes and racquet re-stringing. Interesting additions are the number of mini games that act as training modes. Various tasks are laid down, from hitting balls into buckets to knocking over bowling pins – Sega seem to like this bowling lark, Crazy Taxi had a similarly splendid car based 10-pin action. In the tournaments you play solo or with an upgradeable CPU partner. The matches themselves aren’t as frantic as, say, a Mario Tennis match, but there is a greater feeling of achievement when you return a shot to the exact pinpoint area where you know your opponent can’t reach. This is definitely more of a tennis sim, which might put some people off; there may be a little too much starch in this game’s collar.

When you come to fault Virtua Tennis there is little you can say. It is an undoubtedly accomplished title and makes a great multiplayer. However, some people may find this a little short and unvaried. Sega have tried to elevate this problem with a gaggle of mini-games, but it’s not really enough. A good player could see the back of this title within a week, no problem. It’ll be a very enjoyable week though! The graphics are outstanding and the animation is so smooth Haagen-Dazs could base an ice cream on it. As a tennis game there isn’t much at fault with this title, the games problems are more based in the source. Fans of sporting sims must own this game, but if you’re a fan of tennis balls with comedy flames at their rear then look elsewhere.

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Now that is a long post..."


Not really...

Nice review though!

Cross the Bridge.