Rafael Nadal He has once again made history in the world of sport by achieving his 21st Grand Slam trophy. He arrived at his worst moment against the Muscovite Daniil Medvedev and to top it off, he started losing the first two sets, achieving an incredible comeback, where he once again made it clear that he never gives up… One among many other virtues of the tennis player from Manacor.
While I was enjoying/suffering the game, I was surprised to hear a fact: Nadal won his first Australian Open in 2009. And instantly it came to my mind Virtua Tennis 2009. Then I took a look at my shelf of Xbox 360 games and remembered that the last chapter was the ill-fated Virtua Tennis 4 from 2011 where they shoehorned in features for Kinect…
SEGA never managed to surpass the great Virtua Tennis 2
SEGA completely dominated the tennis video game genre in arcades and home systems since the first Virtua Tennis released in 1999. It was an essential for the time and for many people it is still the best representative, in a hard fight for its sequel, which polished all its aspects and enjoyed very good press in 2001. In addition, Dreamcast was its best standard-bearer by having both deliveries , unlike PS2, which only had the sequel. The first one also came out on PC, Game Boy Advance… and N-Gage!
Noted for its arcade spirit, inherited from SEGA’s Virtua label and due to its high presence in the arcades of the time, with others that bore its associated name, such as SEGA Rally, for example. And he drew attention in the same way for toasting very original minigames in its day, where tennis was mixed with bowling or other skill tests to improve the tennis player of our creation.
SEGA wasn’t worried about the competition because directly there was not in those years. We had to wait until 2003 for the birth of another IP within tennis games: top-spin. Curiously, it emerged as a temporary exclusive to the first Xbox and developed by a 2K studio that has since disappeared. But we will come back to it later. The fact is that not even with this release did SEGA rush. And that its reception on Xbox touched the average outstanding.
Digital Sumoa studio whose works currently include games as disparate as Crackdown 3 and Sackboy: A Big Adventure, resumed the saga with Virtua Tennis: World Tour exclusively for PSP in 2005. However, for the jump as such, it was necessary to wait until 2006 with Virtua Tennis 3. Or rather 2007 for its adaptation to domestic systems, such as PS3 and Xbox 360.
This iteration enjoyed good marks, but far from the first chapters. In addition, the evolution at the graphic level was not so noticeable if we take into account that there was a generational leap involved. It was more of the same, but not better… despite the addition of the online multiplayer component as a complement to the classic local duels. The saga was beginning to show signs of wear and tear, partly also because the public had evolved and was perhaps looking for less arcade styles.
The first Top Spin was a more serious alternative, but did not achieve stable continuity until many years later. For its part, Bandai Namco failed miserably in 2007 with the revival of Smash Court Tennis 3 with a style completely removed from the carefree tone of its beginnings on PlayStation.
SEGA did not know how to play the trick of its name, offering products that added just enough or took risks with features of the moment, such as the Wiimote motion sensor in Virtua Tennis 2009 taking advantage of the Wii Sports fever, until its final debacle with Virtua Tennis 4 in 2011 playing all the sticks: Wiimote, PlayStation Move and Kinect. Optional features, eye. Goodness.
The evolution of Rafa Nadal in Virtua Tennis
If we talk about Rafa Nadal debuted in Virtua Tennis 3. The year in which the SEGA game was released in arcades, the man from Manaco had won his first two Grand Slams. Both at Roland Garros. Because as we all know, clay is his greatest specialty and his dominance is overwhelming there, winning prizes almost consecutively between 2005 and 2020. He was only left without a celebration in 2009, 2015, 2016 and 2021, with 2022 still to be played.
And how was Rafa described in that SEGA game? Simply as “agile player who reaches all the balls”. The main quality of him was, therefore, that was fast. Curiously, despite the progression of his muscles over successive years, he never stood out for his power in video games, unlike his compatriot Carlos Moya in Virtua Tennis 2my favorite in that game.
It is clear that he has never lived up to the versatility of Roger Federer, but he has enjoyed progress in his style of play. Now, SEGA continued to go wrong with “fast” in Virtua Tennis 2009while, for example, the Smash Court Tennis 3 in 2007 called him a “clay court professional” and the best counter-attacker. And in Virtua Tennis 4? Solid defense.
Be that as it may, Rafa Nadal has always been a tough nut to crack at Virtua Tenniswhich is not surprising knowing that in 2011, when the last chapter of this SEGA saga was launched on home systems, the man from Manaco had a whopping 10 Grand Slam wins and a gold at the 2008 Olympic Games.
Logically, his claim was not lacking on the covers of all those video games along with that of the great Roger Federer, it being a pity to remember that currently none of these titles are for sale. All were withdrawn from digital stores, having to resort to second hand to get them in physical format.
And unfortunately they are not among the Xbox 360 backwards compatible list either, seeing only from the Virtua two fighting series: Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown. The only backward compatible is Table Tennis from Rockstar Games, but that game is ping-pong, not just tennis, well.
What alternatives are there in tennis video games?
Ignoring the Virtua Tennis Challenge for mobile phones that was released in 2012 and that was incorporated into the SEGA Forever label in 2017, we have a whole decade without a desktop Virtua Tennis and it is not easy to find current alternatives at their height.
Just the standout Top Spin 4 which was launched in 2011 for PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii was able to dispute the throne, being for many people the best representative today, but under a less arcade style than that of SEGA and therefore less accessible from the outset, although much deeper and more realistic. However, this 2K game is out of print and is also not backwards compatible.
At that time Electronic Arts even tried it in a not insignificant way with two grand slam tennis, after a Wii-exclusive debut in 2009. But we’re back to business as usual. If we stick to what is really current, the panorama is quite bleak as new sagas emerge with a very questionable quality.
Big Ant Studios, under publisher Nacon, tried it twice in 2020 by AO Tennis 2 Y Tennis World Tour 2021, with very weak results in both cases. And it is that they average 69 and 55 on Metacritic, respectively, while on Steam their ratings are “varied” between 69 and 45. Yeah the last one was way worse.
If, on the other hand, we are looking for a simulator, we have the recent Tennis Manager 2021 from the Rebound studio, which has received very positive reviews, also in part because there are no alternatives in its field. While if we are looking for something more casual we can always resort to the latest Nintendo Switch Mario Tennis Aces, despite the fact that it has not managed to shine like its first installments. There is even the option of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – The official SEGA Video Game, with a tennis modality and Sonic clothing to choose from. And the latter certainly brings us back to the SEGA Superstar Tennis of Digital Sumo in 2008.
Going back to the simulation, it’s also on Steam Early Access Tennis Elbow 4, which for now is enjoying very good reviews. And if we look to the future, the stop to take into account goes through the recently presented Matchpoint: Tennis Championships by the publisher Kalypso Media. Its launch is scheduled for this spring and its style of play will focus on three pillars: tactical realism, positioning and aim. So we will have to see how the shot goes to its developer Torus Games, who worked on Commandos 2 & Praetorians HD Remaster and is a regular in children’s licenses such as Ben 10 or Paw Patrol…