I really enjoyed Virtua Tennis. I think most people who played it enjoyed it. I was excited about Tennis 2k2 because I figured Sega would take their already solid tennis game and improve on it...and that's pretty much what they did. The list of improvements include:
-More realistic player motions
-Women players
-an improved career mode
-the inclusion of a "slice" button
-improved player models
But on the other hand, I feel they messed with some stuff that I thought should not have been tampered with. I'll go ahead and get that section out of the way.
Most all of my gripes about this game are found within the game's play mechanics and physics models. I've been playing tennis for eleven years, so I have a pretty good idea of how the real game works. Virtua Tennis, I thought, did a pretty good job of creating realistic situations...and for the most part...real tennis strategy worked. For example...in real tennis holding serve is generally easier than breaking serve. Virtua Tennis held true to that...playing against someone with a big serve made it more challenging to break that person's service games. Tennis 2k2, however, is completely another story. It doesn't matter how hard you pound a serve at somebody...the return is going to come back just as hard as the serve went over. This honestly just blows my mind. In Tennis 2k2, I actually found it easier to break serve than to hold serve...and being a tennis player who has a pretty strong serve in real life...I had a hard time grasping the concept of it being easier to break serve.
My second gripe with this game has to deal with player movement. Player movement has been sped up so the players can get around the court a hair faster than they could on Virtua tennis. Some people may think this is an improvement, but this "improvement" essentially takes away from the game some very basic strategic elements. For example...when returning serve...if you return the serve down the line (straight up the court...not diagonally to the opposite corner of the court) your opponent will be pulled off the court, and for the most part, will hit a weak shot. This leaves the court wide open for the returner to hit a cross-court winner...and if not a winner...a strong enough shot as to put the server on the defensive. I'm sorry, but that's not how it works in real life...or even on Virtua Tennis. In real tennis, if you return a serve down the line, you leave your entire court open for the server to hit a cross court winner. The reason it works on Tennis 2k2 is because the players are actually fast enough to run the full width of the court after the return in time to hit the next shot aggressively. This, coupled with the fact that serves are extremely easy to return, makes the game significantly less realistic and less strategic. The sped up player movements also contributes to maddeningly long points. Since players can run down virtualy every shot...you pretty much just have to get lucky. I think the players should have been kept the same speed as in Virtua Tennis...that or the courts in Tennis 2k2 should have been made larger to compensate for the added speed.
My final gripe extends from Virtua Tennis. You still cannot play more than one set matches. I was hoping they would add an option to play 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 5 set matches, but they didn't. Oh well.
Okay...now that I've expressed my dislikes, and now that you think that I hate Tennis 2k2, I'm going to cover the good stuff...the improvements...the reasons you should play this game.
Graphics
Tennis 2k2 has really good graphics. If you played Virtua Tennis, you know what to expect. The courts are very detailed, the player models look much more realistic than they did in Virtua Tennis, and subtleties such as footprints on clay courts and ball marks add to the graphical goodness. It runs at a very solid 60 frames per seconds. I have yet to see any slowdown. And the crowd animatations have even been improved upon a bit (not much though).
Sound
The sound is pretty good. It's pretty much the same from Virtua Tennis...and I'm very glad to see that Monica Seles is not "gruntless". The music, however, is somewhat bland and annoying. I turned it off on my game. I figure...they don't play music at tennis matches, so they shouldn't put stupid music in tennis video games...but that's just my opinion.
Control
I already covered what I don't like about the control, but I do have to say that ball control has been improved greatly since Virtua Tennis. It would be nice (or frustrating) if it were possible to voluntarily hit the ball out...or in the net. But seeing as how long single points can be, that addition might have been more frustrating than anything.
Player Form
Play form?? Hey...I'm a tennis player...good form matters to me! And let me tell you...the players in Virtua Tennis had the form of an elephant!!! No longer are the players falling all over themselves...and no longer are they "sidestepping" into their groundstrokes. They actually bend their knees on the low balls to pick them up...and they step into their shots with the correct foot! You just have no idea how happy it makes me to see my right handed player stepping into his forehand with his left foot instead of his right. The players do, however, have a bad habit of swinging at their vollies. And on groundstrokes, some of the men have sloppy follow throughs on certin shots...but I'm nit picking. Something I thought was rather spiffy that is most noticable in the women players is that groundstrokes and serves and noticeably unique to each player. In other words...Venus Williams' backhand actually looks like Venus Williams backhand...Monica Seles uses two hands on both sides...etc.
Play Modes
Tournament...essentially Arcade mode from Virtua Tennis. You play a series of best 2 of 3 game matches until you win the "tournament". I personaly think the checker board court for the "final" is kinda goofy looking...but that may just be me.
Exhibition...where you get to play exhibition matches, and where the famous 4 player doubles takes place.
World Tour...The meat of the game. You create a woman and a man player, you do drills to improve your skills, and you play scheduled tournaments to improve your ranking. Quite fun...but you do a LOT of drills, and it seems a bit tedious at first. I like the way each aspect of your character's game is improved depending on which drills you use and how you perform while doing those drills. I can't stand the volley drills...but I love the serving, footwork, and groundstroke drills...so my players are fast, have strong groundstrokes, and really big serves...but couldn't hit a decent volley if their lifes depended on it. Oh well.
Overall I think Tennis 2k2 is a good game. It's got it's problems, which can be maddening, but it's still fun. It's very similer to Virtua Tennis, so if you didn't like Virtua Tennis, or are just sick of it after playing for hours and hours, you might want to skip this one. But if you loved Virtua Tennis and would like to play a much improved career mode, or if you haven't played either game, you might wanna give Tennis 2k2 a shot.
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