Virtua Tennis PSP planned as Euro launch title

The PSP version of Virtua Tennis will be a European launch title, SEGA has confirmed, and we'd say it will almost certainly be at E3 in just a few days time. See here for screenshots.

SUMO Digital, the boys in Sheffield who converted OutRun2 to Xbox so brilliantly last year, will be handling the game, which goes by the name of Virtua Tennis World Tour and is due out in autumn 2005.

SEGA Europe today confirmed that it is gunning for a September 1st launch alongside the handheld in Europe, but as with all such things it's subject to change.

SEGA wouldn't confirm that the game will be at E3 as it has yet to announce its line-up for the show, but it seems extraordinarily obvious that it will be.

In terms of features, the announcement today reveals that there will be lots of playable tennis pros, the expected make-your-own-player option for taking advantage of the World Tour mode - where players journey around the globe gunning for cash - along and exclusive mini-games and original courts.

The other gameplay modes are Exhibition and Tournament and, brilliantly, there will be Wi-Fi support for up to four players. Four-player wireless doubles at Virtua Tennis? Everyone else might as well just give up.

According to reports, the controls for the game at this point are X for a regular swing hit, circle to smash, and square to lob. Players will still dive for balls, and the animation in general is said to be very smooth.

We'll bring you our own impressions of the game as soon as we get our hands on it. ACE.