Oct 11 2007
Review: Virtua Tennis 3 (PSP)
 Sports games are plenty on game consoles and the proliferation of tennis games keeps surprising me. Virtua Tennis 3 for PSP is one of the best examples of what’s wrong with tennis games. The basic gameplay (hit the ball, put it in the other court) is too simplistic to support a full-fledged game, and yet adding many extras to the core mechanics doesn’t do much to salvage it.
Virtua Tennis 3 allows you to create your own virtual avatar and climb the worldwide ranking in order to become #1 tennis player in the world. To do so you have to practice to increase your skills, and compete in tournaments. What shines in this package is the collection of minigames that increase your skills. It runs the gamut from bingo, curling to balloon popping which is a wildly inventive way to remove the mundane.
The game controls perfectly using either the analog nub or d-pad, and the graphics are crisp. In short bursts, this is the finest example of tennis playing on your PSP… just don’t expect the fun to last too long.
Rating: 50%
