Virtua Tennis 4: Move, 3D Creates Realistic Experience

Virtua Tennis 4

Although I don't really play much anymore, I've been a tennis player for a long time. I was actually quite good at one point. Perhaps this is why I'm critical of realism in the few tennis titles we actually get...

So what about being able to play virtual tennis with both PlayStation Move and 3D? That's what we'll be able to do in Virtua Tennis 4, which will launch exclusively for the PlayStation 3 next spring. As soon as I heard it would include Move compatibility, I instantly wanted to know more; thankfully, SCEE's James Gallagher got a chance to play it and talk to the game's executive producer, Mie Kumagai. He spoke about her words and his experience over at the PlayStation Blog, and it sounds awfully encouraging. I really like how Sega is approaching this:

"We have two points of consideration when it comes to the game’s controls. The first is that we want the game to be playable without the user having to press any buttons at all; in other words, you are relying entirely on your own movement.

The second consideration is to achieve a good balance between first and third person points of view. If we wan the game to be totally realistic, then first person would be the way to go, but that way you kind of lose the fun of controlling top tennis players like Roger Federer, so we have aimed for the right mixture of the two."

Now, the character will move left and right automatically, but you can rush the net by moving forward if you so choose. The dynamic camera system will pan out after you strike the ball so you can see your position, and the actual hitting of the ball is "extremely intuitive, especially when playing in stereoscopic 3D." Skilled players can even adjust the racket face to apply various types of spin. Finished Kumagai:

"The balance between accessibility and realism in very important when it comes to gameplay, but I think that Virtua Tennis with Move has a really good system, where the gameplay and the controls are in perfect sync. Building the game up from this existing system wasn’t too hard for us."

I can't wait to give it a try.

Related Game(s): Virtua Tennis 4

Tags: virtua tennis 4, virtua tennis 3d, virtua tennis move

8/30/2010 10:51:06 AM Ben Dutka

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