Virtua Tennis PSP stars revealed

By Kristan Reed Published 8 July, 2005

SEGA signs a galaxy of stars

SEGA has bagged a galaxy of top Tennis stars for the hugely-anticipated Virtua Tennis: World Tour, due out on PSP this September. Check out the newly released screens while you're at it.

Newly crowned Wimbledon winner Roger Federer, along with Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport and 'Smokin' Tim Henman head up the list players set to feature in the game that is set to be our most played handheld game of the year when it finally hits the streets.

On top of that Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Tommy Haas, Sebastien Grosjean, David Nalbandian, Daniela Hantuchova, Amelie Mauresmo, and Nicole Vaidisova also feature in the game, continuing the tradition of featuring all the game's best players.

“Announcing the inclusion of the sports' greatest talent into Virtua Tennis: World Tour takes us another step closer to the release of this superb game,” said Matt Woodley, Creative Director of SEGA. “I genuinely think that this is a must have PSP title, even more so now with this level of talent included - each new revision puts me back another few hours on my to do list at work!” How right he is. Expect some EG 'downtime' when this one comes out…

Having had a hands-on during E3, it's fair to say that the game is shaping up to be every bit as good as the Dreamcast versions that ruled our worlds four-five years ago. In addition to the usual Exhibition and four- player wireless multiplayer mode, the traditional career-based World Tour mode promises a bunch of new mini-games to train yourself up, including Fruit Dash, Blocker and Balloon Smash, all exclusive to the PSP version.

We look forward to bringing you full hands-on impressions of Virtua Tennis: World Tour very soon, in the meantime, track down our E3 impressions.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (17) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Celeborn #1 7 years ago

    Maria, so good lookin you have to mention her twice :D

  • krudster #2 7 years ago

    Aha, you spotted my deliberate mistake :)

  • Sunrise #3 7 years ago

    I heard Sharapova is also in it.

  • JHuxley #4 7 years ago

    Looks spiffy. My list of must-have PSP games has just risen to 3.

  • TimN #5 7 years ago

    This will be my number one PSP game, no doubt about it!

    Let's hope Maria is in it.

  • smelly #6 7 years ago

    >My list of must-have PSP games has just risen to 3.

    That many? Really? :-)

  • Sunrise #7 7 years ago

    In the screenshot section ---> Carolina Relandini

    That's not even a real player!

  • krudster #8 7 years ago

    Yeah, they always pad out the roster with a few fictional players too.

  • Tweakmonkey #9 7 years ago

    I hope they make the world tour a bit easier - damn my rank is only about 284th and it's getting near impossible to complete any of the training sections now. Also getting a bit pissed off with the controls - is it just me or do you have little control over where the ball goes? I keep wanting to do passing type shots...

  • Sunrise #10 7 years ago

    But why release screenshots of them?

    It's like saying: "Yeah, after signing Roger Federer we had like run out of money, so we had to fill up the rest of the spots with fictional players. This girl here is the best we could come up with, we hope you're still gonna buy our game"

    Actually, it's quite honest. I'm not used to that from games companies.

  • JHuxley #11 7 years ago

    RE smelly: actually 4, I forgot Ridge Racers. Still not nearly enough quality titles to warrant my buying a PSP or a DS.

  • smelly #12 7 years ago

    damn.. my fanboy baiting obviously didnt work :-) Must try harder in the future.

    Still it's nice to see a game which is suited to the handheld platform rather than yet more console ports.

  • TS2610 #13 7 years ago

    "continuing the tradition of featuring all the game's best players."

    ...and Tim Henman

  • Feanor #14 7 years ago

    Sega Sports Tennis on the PS2 was great, apart from all the jaggies.

  • kgthatsme #15 7 years ago

    I thought it was massively over rated- I never got into it. Following Wimbledon I picked it up again for another try but for a game people say is 'deep' and skillful, it's very one dimentional.
    There's little control over shot type or where the ball goes, th'game's too generous -you can start sprinting in one direction and miraculouslyturn back when the ball goes in t'other....
    I dont see what the fuss is about- a couple of hours fun at best. Multiplayer might be good tho.

    RE Tweakmonkey: Hey yeah I have that problem - i thought my game was f&^*ed or something! Stopped playing career mode after that.

  • JaysonG #16 7 years ago

    COME ON TIM!

  • varsas #17 7 years ago

    This looks very good. I think the fictional characters are there to fill in for those countries without a world class player n.b. the female british and italian players.

    FYI it's quite straightforward to control where the shot goes in VT2; if you that were not possible then you would not be able to complete the higher levels in the training where you need more precise shot making. They don't always go as deep or short as you would like sometimes but that is due to bad/late positioning of your; it's realistic in that way.
    Edited by 2 at 09/07/05 @ 08:00