PSP Month: Chili Con Carnage

Game: Chili Con Carnage
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Deadline Games
Release Date: 16th February 2007

If you've ever played Total Overdose, you'll know exactly what to expect from Chili Con Carnage; a very similar game by the same developer. With a Mexican theme, third person shooter gameplay and lots of kills to chain together, the game takes a whacky and sometimes fun approach. There are 7 missions in total, each split into a few parts but the overall gameplay is a little too monotonous as players work their way through the levels shooting everything they can with auto-targeting.

There's some humour to the game's overall story and it's obvious that it's not to be taken particularly seriously; the gameplay seems to be the main attraction. That said, I found the gameplay to be pretty bland and not varied enough to warrant 7 missions. Sure there are combos that players can string together, jumping and shooting enemies but the auto targeting takes away any challenge from the game.

Graphically the game is pretty average, and more to the point uninteresting save for its Mexican theme which quickly gets old. Levels are laid out in a fairly linear style, even if a little exploration is necessary to find the next goal. Music and voice acting is mainly comedic as is to be expected with this kind of game. 

Overall Chili Con Carnage is too short to be considered a full gaming experience, too long to be interesting as a niche concept style game, trying to be funnier than it is, with a boring gameplay style and lacklustre combo and shooting options. Without auto aiming it could be at least fun to try and hit the enemies but instead players will find themselves spamming the shoot button as enemies appear. 

Rating: 44/100

Grade: E

PSP Month: Pursuit Force

Game: Pursuit Force
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Bigbig Studios
Release Date: 7th March 2006

Pursuit Force is a fairly unique action game for the PSP allowing players to take on the role of a special forces police agent, attempting to shut down five of the most dangerous gangs in the city. There are 6 missions per gang, for a total of 30 with later missions unlocked through ranking up in earlier ones. Gameplay missions mostly consist of chasing other vehicles on a boat, motorcycle or in a car, jumping from vehicle to vehicle and shooting gang members in order to neutralise them.

There's not a lot of difference between gameplay in boats and cars, although they handle a little differently. Gameplay is significantly more fun in cars than boats. Missions get a little longer as the game goes on, but there are no checkpoints, so failure means starting from the beginning. This is an issue as things are pretty hard from thestart, so with later missions it can be frustrating to say the least. The story behind missions are also limited by the gameplay and usually reduced to 'This gang is attacking something or someone, you've got to help".

Graphically the game isn't bad on the PSP but it's nowhere near the level of the best games for the console. The HUD is a little cluttered with the lawfulness meter in the bottom right, car and player health in the bottom left, a map in the top left, subtitles at the top, an objective counter in the top right, weapon and ammo info at the side and various targeting symbols on screen. The voice acting isn't bad and there's some humour in some of the missions.

Overall Pursuit Force is a lot of the same thing, and the game only really gets harder as it goes on, rather than any more interesting. It's a good concept for a game and the gameplay itself works well, there's just not enough variety to keep players pushing on through the difficulty wall, and not enough story to keep players interested in progressing.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D

PSP Month: Playstation Network Collection: Power Pack

Game: Playstation Network Collection: Power Pack
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Sony
Release Date: 24th October 2008

The PSN Collection: Power Pack is a three game compilation of Playstation Network games released for the Playstation Portable and features Beats, flOw and Syphon Filter: Combat Ops. I'll be reviewing this as a collection since the individual games are mostly gimmicky or short. It's an interesting choice of titles too; a rhythm game, a relaxed indie "life simulation" and a shooter, but maybe they were going for variety?

Beats

As a fan of rhythm games, I was pretty sure I'd like Beats. It allows players to import music from their Memory Stick Pro Duo and creates beatmaps based on the pulse for players to tap along with. The songs which come as standard with Beats are all pretty lifeless and don't show the game off in the best possible light, but if you're a fan of energetic electronic music then you're in luck. I chose to import The Prodigy's song "Wild Frontier" and finally I could feel the beatmap working alongside the song to create steps in time with the beat.

The play area has 3 "landing pads" for steps, and players press the corresponding button when the symbol is in the centre of the landing pad. In addition to this, when a step is performed on the left or right pad, the d-pad must be held in the corresponding direction to register the step. This isn't too complex, but anyone who's played regular rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution or Rhythm Heaven will likely find themselves forgetting to press left and right every once in a while.

Graphically the game has a basic interface, but a large choice of backgrounds and themes against which to play. It's an interesting experience and some songs work better than others; it's a matter of luck really. It'd be tough to listen to an album this way, but I can't see myself wanting to play more than 5 songs in a row in the Beats format. 

Overall it's not bad for a bitesize rhythm game, and the near infinite choice for songs is nice though the game will only allow 127 to be accessed at once. The powerup bar and subsequent Fever mode are a nice touch also, but I feel like Beats is missing a real unique selling point which distinguishes it from other beatmap based rhythm games like Audiosurf and Dance Factory.

Score: 6/10

flOw

flOw is a very simple game with deep ocean style visuals where players control a creature and "eat" other creatures to become larger and more detailed. Each screen is pretty small, but players can move up and down to dive deeper and find new things to eat and merge with. Every now and then it's possible to lose some of your creature, but this isn't a particularly competitive game and it's easy to get any progress back.

There's very little to do in flOw aside from swimming around and consuming everything in sight. While it might be fun to watch your creature grow for a minute or two, when there's literally nothing else to do in the entire game, it can get old quickly. As beautiful as the concept and execution is, when there's not a lot of gameplay it can be difficult to enjoy a game.

Overall flOw is mind-numbingly boring, and should only be played as a bedtime wind-down. Apparently the game can save your "progress" but there's no end goal, and nothing to achieve so it seems pretty pointless to me. As relaxing as this type of game is, it needs to bring a little more to the party to compete with any of the other titles on the PSP.

Score: 3/10

Syphon Filter: Combat Ops

Perhaps the most disappointing of the three games in terms of content, Syphon Filter: Combat Ops is essentially a map designer add-on for Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, allowing players to create and share their own multiplayer maps. Since my PSP has some connectivity issues with my Wi-Fi, I wasn't able to verify whether you're able to play these maps, but I doubt there'd be anyone online to play with even if I had been able to.

Graphically it looks okay, and fans of Syphon Filter might have a little fun designing some maps, but it's a very poor inclusion on a multi-game collection which purports to be a "power" pack of video games.

Score: 1/10

Overall

I'm not entirely sure what the point of this Playstation Network collection was; if it was to collect together the best that PSN had to offer, at least from Sony's game selection then why are there only three games, and why are they all such average or boring games? There's variety in the type of games included but I can't see anyone truly enjoying this UMD for very long at all. With other collections like EA Replay, Gradius Collection, Metal Slug,  Power Stone, Namco and more on the PSP this is a very weak showing.

Rating: 30/100
Grade: E

Game Review: Asphalt Urban GT 2

Game: Asphalt Urban GT 2
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Virtuos
Release Date: 1st July 2010

Racing games for portable systems rarely turn out to be classics, or even particularly good. While there are a few notable exceptions to this rule, the majority of handheld racers disappoint. Asphalt Urban GT 2 is the sequel to an N-Gage and DS title, and combines many elements we've seen before in racing titles. On track pickups include money and nitrous, of which there are 3 different boost levels, racers also gain money for takedowns and dangerous driving, for which they can be pursued by police. The tracks are set in real world locations and the game features licensed cars, some of which even look something like what they're trying to represent!

Gameplay-wise, racing feels like a mash-up of other series; London Racer, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Burnout, and the Crus'n series. This is mostly thanks to all of the different elements that have been brought together, the racing itself feels pretty budget; takedowns aren't at all satisfying and look rather silly when your opponents go crashing across roads, nitrous boosts shake the screen like an earthquake rather than giving any sense of speed and the difficulty level is beyond easy. Cornering is arcade with a hint of cheap handling models, it's difficult to actually crash unless you're trying to.

There are two modes in the game; arcade mode acts as more of an exhibition mode since there's no real reward for winning its single races. The main mode has championships which can be won by taking part in three types of races; elimination, speed trials and regular racing. These are set on the game's limited selection of tracks and there's no other real progression as the game continues. Some cars are unlocked and there's modification options, but there's no real incentive to use any of these options as most championships specify the make of car you must use.

Graphically the game performs badly with some licensed cars being near unrecognisible. The locations too aren't of enough detail to admire, though it's mostly obvious what they're trying to represent. The game is endorsed by the Pussycat Dolls for some reason, who appear on loading screens, but add little else. There's just one song included for the menu screens which plays incessantly every time you're taken back between races, after sitting through an unbearably long load time also. This is pretty poor for a game that Ubisoft dared to put their name to.

Overall Asphalt Urban GT 2 is yet another half-assed racing game, this time a sequel to a mobile game which was likely ported with few changes. There's no challenge or progression to the game, which has taken aspects of some popular franchises, only to arrange them into a racing experience which holds little joy or excitement. The real kicker here is that the game was released in 2010, when there were literally hundreds of better racing experiences available.

Rating: 48/100
Grade: D

PSP Puzzle Double Header: Bubble Bobble Evolution and Puyo Pop Fever

Game: Bubble Bobble Evolution
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Opus
Release Date: 29th September 2006

Bubble Bobble is an arcade game series which began in 1986 and received various sequels as time continued. While the gameplay of the original was fairly simple, subsequent games added various features to the series, and Bubble Bobble Evolution is no different. The game features Bub and Bob, the two protagonists in separate but linked castles, working their way through each floor, consisting of 3 themed sections with doors leading between them. If that sounds complex, then it sort of is, considering that I haven't explained any of the gameplay mechanics yet.

Bub and Bob are both able to blow bubbles which can flick switches, trap enemies, and carry items between sections. In this way, bubbles are an integral part of the puzzle solving mechanics of the game, along with jumping between platforms and flicking the switches in the correct order. The goal of each level is to clear the path to the lift, and then enter and move up a floor before switching to the other character and doing the same.

Players can choose to go through the game with tutorial hints helping them every so often, though this doesn't guarantee that they won't fail anyway. Any contact with enemies takes away health, and sometimes it's rather difficult to avoid. Health can be regained by trapping enemies in bubbles and then popping them, but this slows the pace of the game and isn't something I found myself doing very often.

After each floor there's a boss stage, the quality of which varies between boring and semi-broken and fairly competently programmed. With only bubbles to attack enemies, there's not a lot of variation in these stages design wise, though the bosses themselves do change. The overall puzzling in the game can also be somewhat complex with various planning required across each section of the floors featured.

Graphically the game is presented in a cartoon style which is a little tacky; the enemies and details featured don't have a particular theme, and even with themed sections to each level (i.e. Autumn, Winter, Summer), the designs aren't exactly inspired. Small gripes like being able to see a square image border around bubbles when many are blown at once also detract from the visual experience. Musically the game isn't anything special with some playful themes here and there.

Overall Bubble Bobble Evolution is a slightly confusing and poorly put together game which doesn't feature too much of a story or motivation for completing it's puzzles. The themeing and features of the levels seem almost random at times and having to move both heroes up each floor and fight bosses twice can become monotonous. While it's clear that some effort was put into the game, it might have been better without the Bubble Bobble license as an original game which would have been more free to explore some common sense gameplay features.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D

Game: Puyo Pop Fever

Console: Sony Playstation Portable

Developer: Sega

Release Date: 19th May 2006

Puyo Pop Fever is one of many releases in the Puyo Puyo series, including Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. The aim of the game is to build combos which once cleared will release nuisance puyos onto the opponent's screen, inhibiting their ability to score combos themselves. Players drop coloured puyos onto the bottom of the screen, attempting to connect 4 together horizontally, vertically or combinations of both. The skill in the game is in not immediately going for connections of 4, but leaving 3's to be completed by falling puyos, thus earning combos.

Each of the game's difficulty levels features a certain amount of opponents who increase in difficulty as players continue. The easy level of difficulty requires little to no skill to beat, and is incredibly short, the medium level isn't particularly challenging until the final boss which has the ability to end player's turns in literally 2 moves. Until this point in the game, players don't need to worry too much about stacking up lots of combos or reaching "fever" mode.

Graphically the game isn't particularly impressive, with cartoon like cutscenes and background for the puzzling action to take place against. The characters featuring in the story are varied, but the story itself is literally a series of bumping into enemies and playing Puyo Pop against them, and not much else. There's some fitting, if a little forgettable music which plays behind gameplay, which sets the tone for the entire game really; it's a competent puzzler but nothing that'll revolutionise the genre.

Overall Puyo Pop Fever can be fun to get into, and working out how to pull off combos effectively gives a nice change from simple Tetris-like games, but there's really not much more to do in the game. Tetris was a universal concept due to its simplicity and ease to get better at, whereas it feel like Puyo Pop has a threshold above which it can be fairly boring and below which players have no hope of beating the bosses of medium/hard mode.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

Series Review: Ridge Racer

Ridge Racer is an arcade racing game which focuses on drifting around corners to win races. There are other elements introduced in other games in the series, but this is the main idea of the series. I don't own the original Ridge Racer for Playstation and there are a few other gaps in the chronology but I'll be exploring all the instalments that I own. While most of the early series was exclusive to Playstation there have been games for the Nintendo 64, Xbox 360, and 3DS.

Game: Ridge Racer Revolution
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 3rd December 1995

While games in 1995 weren't as complex and replayable as they are today, Ridge Racer Revolution immediately presents an issue in terms of the amount there is to do. Players can choose from 3 tracks, in 3 modes, with a selection of 4 cars initially. While there are reversed versions of each track, and some more cars can be unlocked later, one race on each track in Race Mode is the entirety of the main gameplay. After winning a race, the Game Over screen appears and the game starts again, expecting players to clear each of the races and time trial mode, before it's literally 100% complete.

This is a shockingly small amount of content to offer players, and coming from later games like Ridge Racer Type 4 (which was still on the original Playstation), it's very disappointing. The racing action too is less enjoyable with horrible collision physics causing players to lose a lot of speed from hitting other cars or barriers even slightly. Drifting also seems to be less effective with very few points where it doesn't slow players down more than cornering normally.

Graphically the game could be a lot better though it's not bad for its time; cars and environments look very blocky and in faster sections there can be quite a lot of flicker. The sounds of the game are one of its worst points; while the music is reminiscent of the Prodigy's first album with a lot of dance style tunes, the voice over is far too present in giving feedback like "Ha ha, you're too slow" or "Come on, you've got to speed up!" when players are doing just fine in catching their opponents.

Even as a fan of the Ridge Racer series, Revolution is especially weak in terms of content, gameplay, sound and appearance. There's no area in which it excels and it can only really be excused in terms of being an early Playstation title. Other than this it offers literally minutes of fun for players, very little replayability and a yearning for the series to move on to a later format like that of Type 4.

Rating: 46/100
Grade: D

Game: Rage Racer
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 30th April 1997

Rage Racer is perhaps the strangest instalment in the entire Ridge Racer series. For a start it's name is different to that of the rest of the series, and gave me the impression that it was some sort of parody/budget rip off for a while. Secondly the driving style is far more series and drifts are almost useless except for on the sharpest of turns, and lastly despite a complete change of handling, the game expected players to be as fast as ever on fairly difficult and technical tracks. While the cars in the game feel far more weighty and grip heavy than in Ridge Racer Revolution, the collision engine still hasn't been fixed, and hitboxes seem larger than ever, meaning that there are plenty of collisions with other cars, and the scenery which feel odd, and result in players losing a ton of speed. A consequence of this is that the races are near impossible to win, and even when passing a car from 2nd place, the counter doesn't hit 1st (it's possible it's just a lapped car, but it happened to me more than once).

The career mode finally features more than just an arcade run through a couple of races as players earn credits for finishing in the top 3 with which they can upgrade their cars and enter higher classes of race. While this is an exciting system, it does rather assume that the game isn't massively difficult to win at even in the easiest races. Between the heavier steering and the collision physics races are more than challenging and this can be frustrating enough to put players off entirely.

Graphically the game is the best in the series yet and features far more detail in its locations and cars than previous games. There's even night/day changes as players go around tracks which are more distracting than nice, but still a remarkable feature. Musically there's the same sort of music as in Ridge Racer Revolution, with dance and techno overtones but for some reason it's more bearable alongside the less abrasive female announcer.

Overall Rage Racer doesn't fix many of the glaring issues with the games but instead adds a heap of difficulty, and a more replayable Grand Prix mode. With better visuals and sound come more potential enjoyment, but anyone who's played the final instalment of the series on the Playstation knows that Ridge Racer Type 4 is even better.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

I've already reviewed Ridge Racer: Type 4, find my review here!

Game: Ridge Racer V
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 24th November 2000

Ridge Racer V was a release game for the PS2 and from the outset seems like an updated and improved version of the Ridge Racer formula. There are 5 Grand Prix, featuring different variations of 7 tracks, and 21 vehicles to drive. the vehicles are separated into Drift and Grip categories which handle differently to eachother. Personally I find the Drift cars in this instalment far too easy to spin, so Grip is the obvious choice. In terms of the main mode (and that's all there really is to do, in game except for Time Trials and Free Runs, until players have unlocked everything), players compete in Grand Prix which consist of 4 races each. Players must place at least  4th in the 1st race, 3rd in the 2nd race and so on, until they have to win the final race to pass the Grand Prix. There are some interesting tracks and scenery, but nothing like the story featured in the main mode of Type 4.

The worst thing about the game seems to be the fact that the d-pad is the only method of controlling the car's direction. The analog sticks aren't supported, which forces players to drive a little differently than normal, making the game harder to beat. The collision physics also haven't been updated too much and still can ruin a good run with the slightest collision with a car or a wall. The AI are fairly competent and usually require a good run to beat, which means the racing action featured in the game is at least competitive and interesting.

Graphically the game is the best Ridge Racer so far; unsurprising given the leap in console technology for this game. There are far worse looking launch games for the Playstation 2, and there are impressive little details featured in the game like the shadows in the glass building in the picture above. The soundtrack is a strange mix of rock music and a departure from the music featured in the series so far. A DJ talks inbetween, and over tracks whilst players are racing, but this is less distracting that some of the voice overs featured in earlier games.

Overall Ridge Racer V is a fairly shallow game, with only 5 Grand Prix, though there are some fun special races which can be unlocked. The racing action is bearable, and though it's not perfect, players should be able to have at least some fun with the game. For the first "modern" Ridge Racer game, there's some good ideas, and if there'd been another main series instalment on the Playstation 2, I'm sure it'd have cemented these ideas into a much better experience.

Rating: 63/100
Grade: C

Game: R:Racing
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 9th December 2003

Instead of releasing another main series instalment in the Ridge Racer series, Namco decided that a spin-off game, featuring  Rena Hayami, a new character, in a story based career mode was the best way forwards. In 14 chapters of racing action, players guide Rena through many different types of racing; apparently her skills as an ambulance driver impressed a race team owner enough to give her a spot in a professional race series. The game features licensed tracks and vehicles (which is new for the series), and spans rally racing, drag racing and the Japan Grand Touring Car Championship.

The game's handling can be described as simcade; a mix between the styles featured in arcade and simulation gaming. Unlike previous Ridge Racer games, braking is necessary before corners and drifting is ineffectual, but it's still very easy to lose control with late braking, especially in some cars. There's a huge difference between the handling of cars in the game, and besides a Fiat 500, Bentley Speed 8 and Audi LMP car, most of them are fairly frustrating to drive around tracks to some degree.

Graphically the game is reminiscent of Gran Turismo, albeit at a slightly lower quality level. There are a few circuits which feature in both games, so it's an easy comparison between the two. The cars themselves look a little too featureless and shiny for what they're supposed to be, There's an interesting selection of electronic music on the soundtrack and it's more fitting for the series than the music featured in Ridge Racer V.

Overall R:Racing doesn't really know what it wants to be; spanning the line between Toca and Gran Turismo in its concept, and yet providing very fiddly and frustrating handling. For fans of the Ridge Racer series, this game features too many elements of simulation games, and much less drift-based handling, yet fans of simulation games already had Gran Turismo 3 to keep them satisfied, so I'm not quite sure what Namco were going for.

Rating: 58/100
Grade: D

Game: Ridge Racer
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 1st September 2005

Ridge Racer for the PSP is an example of a handheld game done right; the game features 12 tracks, with forward and reverse variants, 2 of which are from each of the original Playstation Ridge Racer titles, with a further 2 from Rave Racer, an arcade title, and the final 2 loosely based on Rave Raver tracks. This means that fans of the series should at least be familiar with some of the tracks featured in game.

The World Tour mode has 40 tours, made up of different combinations of tracks with between 2 and 6 courses per tour. with a different car classes and requirements in each tour. There's a good selection of original cars to be found and unlocked, but the real draw of the game is that the handling and drifting finally works perfectly, just like in Ridge Racer Type 4, if not even better. Drifting around corners fills the 3 nitrous bars onscreen which can be used to great effect during races to gain first place.

Graphically the game looks good on the small screen on the PSP but perhaps a little worse when it's shown in a larger resolution. While the cars are a little blocky, the tracks and other details are generally good. The collision physics of the other games remain, if a little toned down, but the improved handling makes up for it. There's a large amount of music from previous Ridge Racer games as well as some new tracks, most of which are great for racing to.

Overall Ridge Racer for PSP was undoubtedly the best game in the series at its time of release. While it lacked the story mode interest of Ridge Racer Type 4, the improvements and upgrades as well as the retrospective mood put the game in a league of it's own. If anything there's a bit too much to do, with 40 tours to clear, but dedicated players will get their money's worth.

Rating: 81/100
Grade: B

Game: Ridge Racer 2
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 13th October 2006

Perhaps one of the laziest sequels ever released, Ridge Racer 2 on the PSP is almost identical to the game released the previous year. Sure, there are a few more cars, and a few more tracks, perhaps even a couple more modes to play, but the career mode progression, game engine and graphics engine are exactly the same as Ridge Racer. There's literally no point owning the first game if you don't already, just skip to this one.

The handling is predictably good, just like that of the first game; drifting is easily achieved and the nitrous bars are easy to fill. The AI gets fairly tough in later Grand Prix, and the more powerful cars are more difficult to handle and drive. There's very little in terms of differences from how career mode played out in the first game, if the cars and tracks could have been released as DLC, that'd have been a far better decision.

Graphically there's no difference from the first handheld instalment on the PSP, in fact many of the cars and tracks are the same, so it's easy to tell that little to no effort has been put into improving the look of the game. The soundtrack features a mix of songs from other instalments and new songs, and is probably the most changed aspect of the entire sequel.

Overall although Ridge Racer 2 as a standalone is a perfectly good game, and probably the better of the two PSP games, it's almost offensive to gamers how little was changed between releases. For those who bought both games on release, there must have been a moment of sheer disappointment upon realising they essentially already owned the content of Ridge Racer 2. For gamers who have yet to buy either game, this is the one to go for, though.

Rating: 81/100
Grade: B

Game: Ridge Racer 3D
Console: Nintendo 3DS
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 22nd March 2011

Ridge Racer 3D was a launch title for the 3DS, mirroring the fact that Ridge Racer games had been launch titles for Playstation, Playstation 2, and 3. The only previous instalment of the series on a Nintendo console had been Ridge Racer 64. In terms of gameplay advancements, there's really not a lot of new features in the game, but the added 3D effect which the console makes use of is an interesting addition.

The handling of the game is much the same as the previous 3 instalments of the series, with good drifting and general handling featured. Grand Prix mode features a tree of possible race options, meaning that players don't have to complete every Grand Prix to get through a level. With 4 races per Grand Prix and a ton of choice though, things can get a little too repetitive with long play sessions. A new feature of this game is avatars for each racer, above their head, based on classic Namco characters.

Graphically the game isn't as sharp as the PS3 instalment, but does well with it's 3D mode as well as with the 3D turned off. The overall sense of speed is good, and the heads up display is somewhat clearer than in other games, though the avatars of other players can get in the way sometimes. Musically there's a huge selection of new and previous in-game music, which is good, though it's often overshadowed by the 'encouragement' of the in-game announcer who pipes up far too often.

Overall Ridge Racer 3D is a nice addition to the 3DS launch line up and not a bad game per se, though there's no real innovation in terms of the series gameplay. While different nitrous modes can be used, and there are advantages which can be bought before races to help players get a headstart, I'd have much preferred a different race type, tournaments or a storyline of some kind.

Rating: 76/100
Grade: B

Game: Ridge Racer 7
Console: Sony Playstation 3
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 23rd March 2007

As the seventh main series instalment in the series, Ridge Racer 7 almost had to change up its career mode a little from the frankly lacklustre Ridge Racer V on PS2. Since I don't own Ridge Racer 6 on the Xbox 360, it's hard to tell when the switch occurred, but career mode on Ridge Racer 7 is much different to anything reviewed thus far. As a launch title for the PS3, the graphics are a good showcase of what could be done with the system at launch, and the racing engine feels easy to control.

In career mode players have the choice of 3 event types; Grand Prix series which have been the mainstay of the Ridge Racer series for a long time, Manufacturer Races in order to earn cars and parts for use in races and UFRA races which have special conditions and types and earn players money and fame. Whilst the AI difficulty cranks up to almost cheating levels pretty quickly, the racing action is fun and there's a great deal more choice in terms of race types and things to do than many other games from the series.

Graphically the game looks very nice with impressive lighting and location effects combining with the HD graphics to provide a truly visually pleasing experience. Unfortunately the sense of speed given by the game lets it down a little, as 200mph can feel the equivalent of 50mph on some stretches of road. The nitrous boosts give a much faster feel, but don't last particularly long as they use the same system as the PSP games. Ridge Racer 7's soundtrack is a little disappointing; though there are some good tracks, they're outweighed by the mediocre and a couple of truly unbearable tracks.

Overall the game feels like a fresh HD kickstart for the series, building on previous instalments to provide a deeper career mode and visually exciting tracks and cars. The racing action is very much enjoyable though the AI rubberbanding can ruin races at times. It's definitely worth giving a go, even if you're not a racing fan, since the easy handling and fun of drifting are pretty much universally enjoyable, even if the formula still wears thin after lengthy playsessions.

Rating: 83/100
Grade: B

Game: Ridge Racer Unbounded
Console: Microsoft Xbox 360
Developer: Bugbear Entertainment
Release Date: 30th March 2012

The latest game in the Ridge Racer series, Unbounded's main theme seems to be that of indecisiveness. Firstly it can't decide whether it wants to be Need for Speed or Burnout more, featuring street racing with "fragging" which is basically a codeword for takedowns, secondly it can't decide whether to fully part ways with the old Ridge Racer formula, still leaving drifting in the game, but making it feel awful in terms of the handling model and not letting players corner without it. Lastly many of the Burnout-esque options such as the takedown cam can be switched off in the menu, as if they weren't sure whether players would like the new tone of the game.

With destructible environments, city based street racing and a star rating system for dominating events, you'd be forgiven for wondering what series this game came from if you didn't already know. Existing fans of the Ridge Racer series are presented with a game more foreign to them than an imported RPG. For the first main series game not developed by Namco themselves, this is a pretty huge departure from the happy and relaxed mood of the rest of the games.

Being the open minded gamer that I am however, I was willing to give the game a chance; the career mode is based around many city districts which unlock as events are dominated by finishing first. There are many different types of events in the game such as Dominator Races, Drift Races, Shindo races (more on these later), Time Trials and Frag Challenges. All events are based on a 3 star rating system where usually finishing 1st gains 3 stars and so on, until finishing 4th counts as failing the event.

The driving and racing itself feels pretty horrible, the car's handling is almost straight line based, and any preconceived ideas of cornering players may have had before playing the game are shattered as the cars will literally refuse to corner without a drift being initiated. This is Ridge Racer though, so players should be used to this. Except the drift system has changed massively and is far less arcade based now.

Winning events seems to be basically random; in any events which aren't Shindo or Drift racing, there are destructible parts of the environment like car dealerships, city halls and railway stations which can be used as shortcuts if the player's power meter is full. Additionally destroying girders and other parts of the track also add power to the player's meter. Not everything is destructible though, and this is a problem because crashing once can be the difference between winning a losing a race, like in Burnout. So it's up to the player to guess which parts of the track are meant to be destroyed and which are solid.

 
Shindo events completely ignore the destruction part of the game, and don't allow you to frag your opponents. This is partly useful as it stops the player from being fragged too, but shows yet more indecision from the developers; either make it a part of the game or don't, it's pretty weak to force players to race both ways and pretend it's a choice. These races usually feature many AI cars getting in your way as there's no fragging, the drifting is a much bigger feature of the shindo racing but still feels pretty awful.

I had a hard time caring about unlocking any of the cars, locations or star ratings in the game because it seemed like a real mash of playstyles and ideas from other games. There was hardly any Ridge Racer left in the game, and what was left was an indecisive grey mess. There's no real story as such, and so no compelling reason to continue with the races presented to the player, and there's not even a need to finish 1st, players could easily finish 3rd in all race events and still get pretty far into the game, which is a little ridiculous in a racing title.

Graphically the game looks pretty great; the destructible environment parts all crumble rather too easily into predictably sized pieces, but the rest of the game looks very sharp, and I particularly enjoyed the information displays along the sides of the track. The music featured behind gameplay is all licensed and as such not quite as interesting as an original soundtrack. There's a decent mix of electronic stuff, but the soul of the Ridge Racer series is definitely gone from the game.

Overall Ridge Racer Unbounded might as well be any other large budget racing title from the past few years; there's city street racing, there's licensed tunes, takedowns, and a star rating system for how well you've done in each race. Without anything to invest players in it's brand of racing, there's very little to keep them hooked, and I'd personally rather play literally any other instalment of the series thanks to the poor handling and soulless presentation.

Rating: 61/100
Grade: D

Sports Review: Tennis Masterpost

Tennis is a sport that most people have only a passing interest in, but there are plenty of games dedicated to the sport nonetheless. One of my first Dreamcast games was the original Virtua Tennis which is a pretty classic arcade version of the sport, but there's plenty of other types of tennis game around.

Game: Tennis
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 14th January 1984

Tennis for the Nintendo Entertainment System was never going to be the most technically impressive game in this review, but it doesn't play particularly badly for its time. Players can face off against the computer on their own, or with a friend and try to win 3 sets worth of tennis (which as it turns out, is quite a lot). Serving is difficult to judge as the ball goes up, and falls back down in an understated manner, leaving players to figure out when it's at a prime height for hitting.

Returning the ball is slightly easier, provided that your timing and placement is as the game wants it to be. Sometimes shots which seem like they should work yield a very weak push and other times a last ditch attempt at reaching the ball will fire it into an unreachable spot for your opponent, winning the point. It gets a little easier with practice, but it's still essentially random most of the time.

Graphically the game is as you'd expect from the NES, basic player sprites with a white clump of pixels representing the ball and Mario as referee because of course Mario's gonna be the referee. Annoyingly he calls every point scoring shot as in or out, no matter how obvious but the music is generally good despite a lack of other sound.

Overall it's a pretty solid effort for the NES, better than the Atari 2600's idea of Tennis, and way better than Super Tennis on the Master System which couldn't be controlled no matter how much practice was done with the game.

Rating: 52/100
Grade: D

Game: Virtua Tennis
Console: Sega Dreamcast
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 12th July 2000

Virtua Tennis is an undoubtedly arcade Tennis experience, offering Arcade, Exhibition and World Tour modes and some of the most enjoyable tennis gameplay you're likely to find. Although there's now 7 games in the series, it's interesting to note that at the time of this release there was nothing like Virtua Tennis around; the speed it plays at, and the fast paced gameplay were unmatched on the PS2, or any other console of the time. This is perhaps due to the fact that the game appeared in arcades before coming to home console, but the port is of such good quality that it has to be given some credit too.

Arcade mode challenges players to win 5 tournaments, each of the Grand Slams and a final Sega Pro Final, with the matches consisting of a selectable number of games up to 6 and as low as 2. There's an adjustable difficulty level for players finding things too easy, though there's some level of challenge on every level above Easy. With single player and doubles modes, allowing players to play with their friends or a computer, there's some replayability provided too.

World Tour mode continues the arcade feel of the game with no calendar system, but rather training activities which earn players money, tournaments which consist of a single game against an opponent and shops where doubles partners and upgrades for arcade mode can be purchased. Completing training or winning matches will level up the completed activity, or those around it. As players win matches their rank will increase, and eventually they'll gain the chance to play the secret players Master and King, who are essentially the bosses of the game.

While this makes for a fairly short World Tour mode; I got from being ranked 200th to 60th in an hour or two, the later matches are longer and more difficult, and each level of training helps players to master their technique in the game. The removal of an in game calendar means that players can attempt matches in whatever order they want, and retry immediately upon losing a game or failing a training activity.

Graphically the game is pretty excellent with only the player's faces lacking in particular detail. For the most part the action unfolds at a good frame rate, and the courts and other small details look great. Soundwise the game excels with a driving rock accompaniment that enhances the action and makes every point feel like it counts. Every song is enjoyable and that's fairly rare for a game of this type; there's even a Sonic-esque Sega feel to the music at points.

Overall Virtua Tennis is a great arcade tennis game. Too many sports games focus simulation and in the process lose some of their fun, but there's no such problem here. Fast paced action, driving rock and an excellent World Tour mode make this a contender for best tennis game I've played, however with many more instalments of the series to go which I haven't yet given a go it's hard to say whether it can be outdone.

Rating: 87/100
Grade: B

Game: Roland Garros 2001
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Carapace
Release Date: 1st June 2001

Before doing any research on this game I was under the impression that Roland Garros was a tennis player. In a way I was correct, but the name as it's used in the title of the game refers to the alternate name of the French Open. Any ideas I had of playing as Roland Garros, or indeed any other notable tennis player of the time were soon put to rest with a completely fictional cast of tennis players to choose from. I assume they weren't able to the license to anyone's name, but it's a bit poor nonetheless.

The gameplay is strange when compared to most tennis games; firstly the action is very slow, almost as if everything's taking place in slow motion. At first I thought this was due to the limitations of the Playstation in 2001, but I think it's to accommodate the controls, which are the other strange aspect of the game. Players must select their shot before even running towards the ball if they want a chance of hitting it, then direct their shot with the analog stick and hope that the timing and positioning is right when the ball is finally struck.

After a little practice, I figured out that players need to be near enough the ball to initiate their shot (nothing will happen if they're too far away), then a shot must be selected; there's a choice of a slice or a lob, and finally the shot is directed within the opponent's court. It's not actually too bad of a system when everything's working in your favour, but it doesn't take many missed balls to start cursing the control scheme either.

In terms of game modes players can choose from a single match, a tournament or practice. Matches consist of 1, 3 or 5 sets (you'll be playing for a long time if you select 5 sets) and are scored in normal tennis fashion. Tournaments start from the Quarter Finals and so consist of 3 matches in total and unlock new characters and courts when won on each difficulty level. There's no real players to unlock as far as I can tell, and it'd take forever to unlock everything considering the speed of gameplay.

The above screenshot doesn't do the game graphical justice, but it's surprisingly difficult to find images from the game online without shots from other games. The players and courts look alright, they're nothing special, especially for 2001, but for a game on the Playstation it can be excused. Soundwise there's not much to go on, though and it became fairly humourous to me that only one shot had a grunting noise associated with it.

Overall, if Virtua Tennis hadn't already been out a year when this was released, with Virtua Tennis 2 well on its way, it might have been forgiveable. As things stand its a slow and fairly progression-less game with awkward controls, no licensed tennis players and very little else to do. Perhaps if this was the only tennis game you'd ever played, it might be bearable and even nostalgic, but otherwise there's little value.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D

Game: Virtua Tennis 2
Console: Sega Dreamcast/Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 24th October 2001

Virtua Tennis 2 is pretty much more of the same when it comes to the Dreamcast version of the game; the same game modes are included and arcade mode plays essentially the same also. World Tour Mode is the only thing that's been changed particularly. In terms of gameplay, the AI is a little less predictable and this leads to longer rallies in games, but the frame rate is far more prone to horrendous dips, meaning that parts of matches can be played at 10fps or so.

In World Tour Mode, a calendar has been added which governs the events that players are able to enter, there's stamina which governs the amount of training or events players are able to do before resting, and there's a levelling up system which affects all aspects of the created player's game. Female players have been added, and its compulsory to create one male and one female player at the beginning of World Tour mode, which means having to juggle training and competitions for both of them, which can get annoying.

The game looks a little better than its predecessor perhaps, but not enough to make it a better game. There are a few new courts and events, but other than that its very similar to the original Virtua Tennis. Soundwise it's definitely weaker with more of an electronic rock feel, and overall as a game it just doesn't feel like a sequel that builds on anything that was good about the first game, which is a shame.

The Playstation 2 version of the game seems to be very similar, though there are less frame rate issues. It does however look worse than the Dreamcast version which often tended to happen with ports to the PS2 of this nature, like Crazy Taxi, and others. Because of this it'll receive the same score as the Dreamcast version.

Rating: 83/100
Grade: B

Game: WTA Tour Tennis
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Konami
Release Date: 26th March 2002

Interestingly for 2002, WTA Tour Tennis featured exclusively female players from the pro tour, except for the notable exclusion of Venus Williams for no apparent reason, despite her being world #2 at the time. Serena Williams is in there, as are all the other female pros of the era, but I guess that's just the way things go with copyrights and trademarks. There's a small choice of modes but the main event of the game is meant to be the World Tour Mode.

The other mode allows players to play a single game of tennis, for a limited number of games or sets, with a choice of players from all the unlocked professionals. The gameplay is a little fiddly and not as arcade based as Virtua Tennis, but generally it works and seems to play like a knock off version of Virtua. The professional players are pretty fast around the court and can serve and hit the ball fairly well for the most part.

So onto the World Tour Mode; as there was a tournament pretty much straight away I thought I'd see how this mode differs from the single match mode. It turns out that upon starting a World Tour save file, your player is basically useless, with an F in almost every stat. It's possible to do training to slowly raise your stats but it's not interactive, and simply advances to the next day with RPG like exp gain. The stats increase so slowly that upon finishing my World Tour session, only half of the stats had got up to an E rank, with the other half still at an F.

At one point, I trained my player too hard, leading to a ruptured tendon which ruled her out for 4 months. This would be fine if the game didn't advance on a day-by-day basis, meaning that I had to spend around 50 days simply doing the most basic training available, not being able to improve my stats, or enter competitions. For around 20 minutes of real time, there was literally no gameplay save for pressing X to advance through the days training and rest.

The World Tour Mode ends up being far too much like a management game, and without years of practices, players created in the mode are so far below useful in the game, it's almost like a joke. My world tour player ran so slowly in competitions that she'd hardly get halfway across the court to a ball on the other side, and that's just inexcusable for a main game mode.

Graphically things are okay, but behind everything there's music which sounds like it belongs on the Gran Turismo Career Mode home screen. Where Virtua Tennis has driving rock tunes, WTA Tour Tennis decided that easy going jazz funk was more appropriate for a fast paced sporting event. It makes the game seem far cheaper and more like a budget title to me, despite being developed by Konami.

Overall WTA Tour Tennis is a huge disappointment; its career mode could easily have been good with some training minigames, less risk of injury, less time needed to recover from injuries, better progression and stats not making all the difference between good players and bad. Admittedly that'd be quite a lot to change, but the game legitimately feels 20x better in the single match mode, when playing with pros.

Rating: 39/100
Grade: E

Game: Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Namco
Release Date: 28th May 2004

Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2 takes a fairly arcade approach to tennis with short arcade matches and a "Turning Point" feature in its World Tour mode, meaning that players often end up playing 4 or 5 games of tennis per match, instead of the full match. This can be a positive, as it means players don't have to sit through a huge amount of tennis every match just to progress through tournaments, but it also means that they have less control over the final result of matches. Usually winning most of the turning point games will guarantee overall victory.

The gameplay is pretty good, though not as quick as the Virtua Tennis series. There's an element of timing to each stroke and well timed shots will earn players a "Nice" rating. Serving is a particularly realistic element of the game, and works a little better than even Virtua Tennis 2 with aces being difficult but not impossible to attain. Although arcade and exhibition modes are pretty fun, the meat of the game is in the World Tour mode.

A little like the World Tour mode of WTA Tour Tennis, players start from scratch; ranked 200th in the world and are able to train and enter events. Unlike WTA Tour Tennis though, the created player is fairly good at tennis already, and can easily play against opponents of similar ranks. For each match played, the computer calculates the score up until a turning point, where players are given a mission and allowed to play. Examples of missions include serving an ace, winning consecutive points and getting a certain percentage of 'nice' shots. The mission doesn't necessarily have to be completed to win the set (unless that's included within the mission goal), but will earn players extra exp. if completed and sometimes auto win the set.

Training consists of minigames, much like Virtua Tennis and these give players experience points, which along with the experience points from matches can be used to upgrade player stats which helps them compete against higher ranked opponents. In very little time my career player was able to qualify for the finals of Wimbledon and was only stopped by the world #7 and very difficult missions, but it was good to be given the chance to progress. Overall the World Tour mode can get a little samey, but it's fairly enjoyable even when compared to Virtua Tennis.

Graphically the game looks great and there are only a few minor complaints; most of them involving the menus and user interface. The game's music is mostly funky rock tunes which fit well with the general atmosphere of the tennis matches. Every now and then a member of the crowd will audibly shout joyfully or whistle, which is a nice touch although it's not perfectly executed, so things can sound a little strange through headphones.

On the whole, Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2 is an impressive and feature packed game with plenty of licensed players, some added Namco bonus players and great controls. There's not much to dislike other than the fact that the World Tour mode doesn't let players control the entirety of the match, but rather selected moments. Personally I prefer a shortened match that I'm fully in control of, but this arcade idea might appeal to some.

Rating: 77/100
Grade: B

Game: Virtua Tennis: World Tour
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Sumo Digital
Release Date: 7th October 2005

This review's going to be fairly short, since Virtua Tennis: World Tour isn't much more than an updated version of Virtua Tennis 2 for the PSP. The graphics are worse, the load times are far longer, and the gameplay is made more difficult by the lack of real control options between the d-pad and the PSP's awkward analog stick. World Tour mode is exactly the same as the one featured in Virtua Tennis 2, and there's very few changes elsewhere. It's really a shame that more wasn't done to optimise this title for the PSP instead of making a quick port.

Rating: 72/100
Grade: C

Game: Virtua Tennis 3

Console: Sony Playstation 3

Developer: Sega

Release Date: 23rd March 2007

Virtua Tennis 3 saw the franchise into a new console generation; with HD graphics and more gameplay possibilities. The gameplay options for the most part, however stayed the same with World Tour and Arcade modes being the main features, with Minigames and Exhibition matches providing extra content. The tennis featured in the game has taken a step back from the pure arcade style of the first two games, to include some realism in how long rallies last, the percentage of ace serves and the reach of most players. 

World Tour mode follows much the same format as in Virtua Tennis 2, with a preset calendar and players rankings determined by the matches they win in tournaments. There's now a mail display which shows messages from the coach, and a training academy where the game's basic and more advanced playstyles are explained and exp. can be gained towards player skills. Doubles partners are no longer contracted but simply chosen before a tournament, and there's various chances to be talked to by the famous players featured in the game, though no chances to respond. 

The AI difficulty and player stat progression are the main elements of World Tour mode that I found to be problematic. At the start of the campagin, players will compete against any of the included pro players in the Challengers tournaments, usually easily beating them, despite having very basic stats before completing much of the training. As the game progresses and the player makes their way below the 100th mark or so, they compete against the same pro players in more professional tournaments, with better stats, and yet not only do the same players play far better (which is fair enough in terms of difficulty curve, but damages the realism somewhat), but the player's shots are far less effective, they hit less aces and good shots and overall any stat increases seem to be useless. 

These issues really put me off playing any further in World Tour mode, and they affect arcade mode in a way also, as it's far too easy, and then too hard with very little space inbetween to be genuinely and enjoyably challenging. This is a shame as there's some good tennis to be played in the game, and players have to think carefully and strategically about how to win points, however after enough play the AI can be worked out pretty easily. 

Graphically the game looks great; more realistic and nicer than ever, although at times it can be difficult to track the ball with all the lighting effects that are in use. The soundtrack is a little more disappointing as its made up of remixes of the Virtua Tennis 2 soundtrack which sound worse than the originals and new, ill-fitting music which is far too happy with no real tension about it. 

Overall Virtua Tennis 3 is a bit of a let down if you want to actually play it for any serious amount of time. Exhibition matches with friends or a light hearted delve into World Tour mode can be fun, and there's a huge amount of new training minigames, but there's no reward for putting the hours into the main mode. 

Rating: 74/100

Grade: B

Game: Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis

Console: Nintendo Wii

Developer: Rockstar Games

Release Date: 19th October 2007

Whilst technically not lawn tennis, Rockstar Table Tennis fits rather easily into this review, with its many similarities in control and career mode progression options. Its a shame I don't own the Xbox 360 version as it'd be interesting to compare how the game plays with and without motion control, but we appear to be stuck with it for now. 

The main game mode is tournament mode where players contest several matches in order to progress to the final and win the tournament, unlocking new outfits for the player they've selected as well as different Table Tennis arenas. While these aren't exactly exciting unlocks, most of the enjoyment from this game comes directly from the gameplay rather than unlocking extras. 

Initially the gameplay seems like a lot of fun. Even with motion controls, there's a good range of shot options (the d-pad controls spin), the A button is used for a soft shot, and the B button is used as a focus shot when players have filled their focus meter. The nunchuk can be used to control either player movement or shot direction, but this is one of the few games that seems better without, as there's not a great range of player movement anyway at a table tennis table.

Once you've been playing for a while though, players may notice that its almost impossible to hit the ball off the table, and as long as no silly shots are made, it's fairly likely that the CPU player can be beaten. Which reduces the game to a simple "press a button to return the ball" type experience, or more aptly "swing the Wiimote to return the ball". Once this effect has been observed, there seems little point in continuing with the game as there's not really much else to it. 

Graphically the game looks really nice, with realistic visuals and a good amount of different players and arenas. Unfortunately there's not quite so much interest or familiarity with table tennis venues as there is with Wimbledon and other lawn tennis venues. Soundwise the game is a little quiet with only the sounds of the ball being hit back and forth accompanying games.

Overall Rockstar Presents Table Tennis can be enjoyable, but seems like more of a imitation of playing table tennis as players lack real control and skillful shot options. It seems like it'd be pretty difficult to make a good table tennis game, considering how frustrating it might be if the game was fully realistic, but this leans a little too much towards being automated for convenience, which ruins the overall experience and replayability of the game. 

Rating: 60/100

Grade: D

Game: Sega Superstars Tennis

Console: Sony Playstation 3/Nintendo Wii

Developer: Sumo Digital

Release Date: 17th March 2008

In a fairly obvious attempt to copy Mario Tennis, Sega released their own All Stars tennis game featuring many of their classic franchises in its characters and courts. Although the game has tennis in its title, and does indeed feature the ability to play games of tennis, its Superstars career mode plays far more like a party game than anything else, or perhaps a collection of minigames such as those featured in Virtua Tennis. 

The tennis aspect of the game plays fairly well; characters are divided into Speed, Control, Spin and Power specialists with a few all-rounders, and although these don't make a huge amount of difference, I spent most of the game playing as Beat from Jet Set Radio, partly thanks to his huge speed around the court. The games of tennis I did play were fairly fun, with an arcade feel though I wasn't such a fan of the power-ups and super moves included; though they fit with the game's theme, they can make things a little unfair at times. 

The themeing of the courts and their respective score and time counters is a nice touch, changing to reflect each game being referenced, but unfortunately Superstars mode which features the courts for its minigames is wildly unbalanced in terms of the amount of minigames in each game's "world", and ends up feeling very little like a tennis game after 5 or 6 zombie or graffiti based missions, even if they are based on actual tennis play. 

Every now and then there are tournaments in each zone to unlock a new character, but even then they're either pretty short or have the difficulty turned up to 11. The AI in doubles matches is appalling and will play as if you're not there 90% of the time, leaving you to hit the 10% of balls it decides that it doesn't want to hit, no matter how close they are to you. The game also commits the cardinal sin of using an alphabetic grading system, with A being a mission clear, and AA and AAA grades available for performing better. This is annoying on two counts because a) it's impossible to get a grade below B without failing so that might as well be an F, and b) for anyone who's a completionist it means hours trying to get those illusive AAA grades. 

The selection of characters is generally good, with appearances from Alex Kidd, Gilius, Gum, Pudding and other slightly more obscure characters from Sega franchises. Non playable characters are also in good supply, with courts from Outrun and House of the Dead, but no players. Shenmue is a notable but thankful exclusion, since I'm unsure that Ryo Hazuki's name needed tarnishing with this sort of frivolity. It's a shame though that Sega acknowledge the amount of truly memorable franchises they have the rights to, in this game and yet seem to care very little about anything other than the Sonic series in the modern age. 

On the Wii there's a choice of three control schemes; motion control without a nunchuk whereby players are moved around automatically and need only swing to hit the ball, motion control with a nunchuk whereby the left hand controls movement and the right strokes, and traditional play where the wiimote is held sideways and used like a proper controller. Needless to say the last method is the only real acceptable one. The graphics look fairly similar, it's not too much worse than the PS3 version. 

Graphically the game looks pretty good; the courts and characters are detailed nicely and the animations are top notch. The music consists of remixes from the various franchises that provide the courts in the game, and the only real letdowns are the cringe-inducing voice clips that most characters have been given. 

Overall Sega Superstars Tennis could have been a far better game with more focus on the tennis aspect and less on the party game side of things. For the Wii, any hint of motion control makes the game more of a chore, but it controls pretty well on the PS3. It's okay for a few sessions here and there but the main Superstars mode isn't really rewarding enough to stick with and there's very little meat to the game elsewhere.

Rating: 63/100

Grade: C

Game: Virtua Tennis 2009

Console: Sony Playstation 3/Nintendo Wii

Developer: Sumo Digital

Release Date: 9th June 2009

The Playstation 3 and Wii versions of this game are very different; so much so that I'll be giving them separate parts in this review. Firstly we'll take a look at the Wii version which is obviously graphically inferior to the Playstation 3 version, but when the players faces first appeared onscreen I was taken aback at just how low quality they were. The developers definitely could have done better than this for the Wii, as such poor images impact on the overall feel of the game. 

Gameplay on the Wii is motion controlled, with the nunchuk attached to move around the court. Shot direction is based on timing, and a meter appears for every shot which swings from one direction to the other. Wherever it's stopped will be where the ball goes in the court, and anywhere not on the meter will result in a miss, There's a chance the ball will go out of play if hit too early or late, or if the player is too far away from the ball's position. It's a little difficult to get used to, but not a bad system once players are over the intial hump.

(Virtua Tennis 2009 - Wii version)

What's truly unforgivable though is the frame rate. In almost every match it manages to dip to about 10fps for a few seconds, which makes timing the meter far more difficult and obviously impacts the flow of the game. If it hadn't been for this, I might have been willing to give the games the same overall score, but it makes the Wii version the worse of the two. 

The Playstation 3 version is much closer to the control scheme of Virtua Tennis 3, although the ridiculous amount of dives that occur have been far reduced and players now stumble instead of diving. This means that each rally is easier to win and doesn't drag on too long. The action is generally good and there's a far better frame rate than the Wii version, though every now and then there's some lag. On the whole though I'd have to recommend getting the Playstation 3 version if you're considering buying this game, for the tighter controls and lack of real frame rate issues. 

(Virtua Tennis 3 - PS3 Version)

World Tour mode is pretty much the same as in Virtua Tennis 3 though now each tournament has a singles and doubles event and players can choose whether to enter both, or just one of the events. Many of the existing minigames have been rethemed, but remain the same in content, and there's a 100 place amateur ranking to climb up before hitting the pro rankings, but other than this most things remain the same. A nice touch is that not all actions take a week on the calendar, so it's possible to train a few times a week. This is counterbalanced by the fact that a week's rest at home recovers about 1/3 of the player stamina bar (which I find pretty silly). 

Overall Virtua Tennis 2009 is probably the best tennis game so far, if we're talking about the Playstation 3 version. The controls and tennis is tight, there's some nice unlockable legends in the arcade mode, and some actual challenge in the harder difficulty settings. The game's arcade edge has been brought back with the removal of the excessive diving from Virtua Tennis 3, and there's a great selection of licensed pros to choose from and face. 

Rating: 85/100 (PS3 Version)                                         Rating: 68/100 (Wii Version)

Grade: B                                                                          Grade: C

Game: Virtua Tennis 4

Console: Sony Playstation 3

Developer: Sega

Release Date: 10th May 2011

Virtua Tennis 4 is a strange beast; while it's true that all the Virtua Tennis games in the series so far have changed up the gameplay somewhat from game to game, this instalment changes the most, and seriously reformats the World Tour Mode. The most obvious change is that gameplay has slowed down once again so that sometimes the action feels almost as if it's in slow motion. There's also a new concentration bar which fills when players perform specific types of shots, that when full allows a super shot to be used. 

Despite the slowdown it's more difficult to predict where opponents will hit the ball for returns, and often it's too late to get to the ball once players have committed to a direction. This is perhaps realistic, but sometimes its incredibly frustrating when you're right by the ball and the game refuses to hit it. Thanks to this the arcade element of the games is almost completely removed, as the gameplay has become slow and more simulated, with badly timed balls more likely to be called out. 

World Tour mode is completely different from any of the previous instalments; players complete 4 seasons on tour in Australia, Africa, Europe and America, with a major tournament to win in each territory as well as 2 other satellite tournaments. Inbetween these players move in a board game style with "move tickets" dictating where they land. The main goal is to earn Stars which increase the player's rank overall, and these can be gained by winning matches, and completing press events such as meeting fans and donating to charity. At the end of the season there's an awards ceremony where players can also earn stars.

Other than matches and star events, players can land on training spaces where they may increase their levels and unlock different play styles. It's unclear as to whether raising the levels makes gameplay any easier, but for the first season or so players are forced to play without the use of the special shot meter, due to needing a level 10 in any area to unlock a specialism. This is annoying as the game berates players for not winning the few matches and tournaments they're allowed to play in. Ultimately there's far too little tennis and far too much messing around in this mode, though it may be a fun change up from the regular World Tour at first. 

Graphically the game is pretty breathtaking at points, though the slow speed of gameplay is unfortunate at points. The range of clothing and accessories featured is vast but ultimately I changed my World Tour player's clothes twice so it wasn't of much use that I had a huge range of choice. Soundwise the game's stopped recycling old soundtracks and written some new jams, most of which are good. The new training minigames are also pretty enjoyable, though not as plentiful as in other games. 

Overall Virtua Tennis 4 is a disappointment if you like arcade style tennis games, and I found that the longer I played, the less I seemed to like the game. Capping World Tour Mode at 4 seasons is a silly decision, as I felt little desire to play through it all again, and arcade mode is pretty much the same as ever. The idea of sequels is to improve on the previous game, and in this respect Virtua Tennis 4 fails. 

Rating: 71/100

Grade: C

So in summary the complete list of tennis games I've reviewed from best to worst looks something like this;

#1     Virtua Tennis	DC				B	87.20
#2     Virtua Tennis 2009	PS3				B	85.40
#3     Virtua Tennis 2	DC				B	83.60
#4     Smash Court Tennis Pro                        Tournament 2	PS2				B	77.95
#5     Virtua Tennis 3	PS3				B	74
#6     Virtua Tennis: World Tour	PSP				C	72.65
#7     Virtua Tennis 4	PS3				C	71.95
#8     Virtua Tennis 2009	Wii				C	68.45
#9     Sega Superstars Tennis	PS3				C	63.6
#10   Roland Garros 2001	PS				D	60.75
#11   Rockstar Table Tennis	Wii				D	60.65
#12   Tennis	NES				D	52.50
#13   Tennis	A2600				D	51.80
#14   WTA Tour Tennis	PS2				E	39.60
#15   Super Tennis	MS				F	10.00