Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Virtua Tennis 2009 is SEGA's arcade game that transcends the fans of Tennis and is enjoyable to everyone. Build your tennis mega star from scratch and put them through a multitude of mini-games and tournaments that will increase your skills to be the next household name, in Virtua Tennis at least.

What's Hot
Gameplay has always been the most important feature to Virtua Tennis. 2009 is no different in the way that the focus of the entire game is hung on the arcade style tennis matches that are full of consistent action and dramatic moments. When you aren't competing in the tournament circuit, you have the option to train you player in a bunch of mini-games that revolve around tennis. Some mini-games have you return volleys to "sink" cardboard pirate ships, some games have you serve a cue ball in a billiards like game and you can even play a strange version of wack-a-mole with alligators. Once you look at the entire gameplay umbrella that encompasses Virtua Tennis 20009 it is clear to see this is the finest arcade gameplay for a tennis game since the original NES game.



What's Not
The last statement in the previous section shouldn't come as a shock if you have played Virtua Tennis since 2000. Very little of the game has changed since them. Minor tweaks like adding more mini-games, online rankings and a Tennis Academy to improve you game virtually are drops in the bucket considering how long Virtua Tennis has been resting on its stellar gameplay laurels. It is actually quite a quandary because if you shouldn't fix what isn't broke, what is left for Virtua Tennis to do?

There are areas of improvement that Virtua Tennis should have explored. The visuals are one such area. It isn't that the animations look bad, it is the static graphics that could have been pushed further. The tennis players look too unnatural and the hair is often plastered to the head of created characters which stems from the create-a-player. Creating a player could have explored the minutia better as the current dials and knobs are too simplified to bring out a range of diverse looking players.

Final Word
Virtua Tennis has been a smashing tennis franchise since the Dreamcast and Virtua Tennis 2009 cements its place as the preeminent arcade tennis experience on the Xbox 360 and PS3. However, the franchise is in risk of going stale and not pushing more boundaries in other areas while maintaining the excellent gameplay.