Virtua Tennis 2009 hopes to secure this large additional consumer quota through offering one of the most complete Tennis packages on Wii. With more than twenty of the world’s top players and legends, including well known faces such as Federer, Nadal, Williams and Murray, an extensive Career Mode, online play and the now traditional mini-games, Virtua Tennis 2009 simply can’t be knocked in it’s value for money. And of course, with Wii’s market practices being a very different proposition to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, this offering of depth through extensive play options is an even greater necessity.

            The Career Mode, deemed “World Tour” here, is a lengthy experience though follows the precedent rules of organisation. Through playing a number of tournaments and mini-games delivered from the in-game calendar one week at a time, the player will have to balance competitions with training an rest time or find themselves considerably weaker on the court. To begin with, the tournaments are relatively straightforward, offering prize money and improved rankings for winners. Climbing through the ranks, however, the player will be greeted with tougher, world famous competitors.

            Varied play is offered by the opportunity to visit the Tennis Academy, in which Tim Henman delivers challenges that increase experience in one of three areas; groundstrokes, footwork or serve and volley. Completing a challenge will allow players to earn new abilities, improving their chances within the main World Tour tournaments. Double tournaments also exist, in which the player can choose an Artificial Intelligence partner to join them on the court. As the player progresses, further partners with greater abilities will become available.

            Online play is a shining star in Virtua Tennis 2009’s arsenal – surprising, to say the least, given Wii’s hit-and-miss approach to online gaming. The Lobby System is incredible simple, but there’s also a version of the World Tour available online, in which winning tournaments will increase your standing in persistent online Leaderboards, all whilst using the same custom character form the offline World Tour.

            The Wii MotionPlus control has been delivered well, though – as would be expected from such an early adopter of the technology – there are some minor issues. Without the attachment, Virtua Tennis 2009 plays its shots very similarly to Nintendo’s own Wii Sports, with speed, power and accuracy all dependant on the speed of your reaction and arc of motion. Once plugged in, however, the game takes on an almost completely different play style. The angle, speed and timing of your swings directly affect the on-screen results, with an aptitude for precision that’s simply missing from the competition. Problems do arise when refining your skills, with the accessory proving that, in this early release at least, it fails to offer the 1:1 mapping of player’s movements to on-screen avatar that we had been promised. Players may feel as though they’ve hit a plateau; that they simply can’t get any better at the game due to the technical limitations of the control system, but with further practice most will find that they can work to greater effect with the lowered gradient of return choices than would ever be possible with an Analogue Stick.

            A well presented title, Virtua Tennis 2009 on Wii will always suffer under a visual comparison to it’s Current-Generation peers, though the ever-reliable Sumo Digital have once again proven that their ties to SEGA are not without merit. The variety of mini-games available is more commendable than the typically half-baked minute-or-so distractions, often proving to be the highlight of an evening’s Wii gaming.

            Virtua Tennis 2009 is an incredibly complete package. Offering a full Career Mode, a particularly generous online component and an offline multi-player option for up to four players, aside from Wii Sports Resort there is little currently available on Wii more convincing of Wii MotionPlus’s advantages. Fans of the Virtua Tennis series will find little to complain about, and those new to the franchise would do well to allow themselves to be convinced that Virtua Tennis 2009 is the most rewarding Tennis game available on Wii.

-END-