Virtua Tennis: World Tour [PSP]

The Dreamcast is long dead, but its legacy lives on. Virtua Tennis was one of the shiniest gems in its crown, and has had a decent career since leaving its Sega hardware nest. Coming to PSP is perhaps the most exciting thing for this series yet, and tennis fans have every reason to be pumped up.

Ball Around The World

This series was really one of the first to bring RPG elements to sports games. World tour mode is back (as if you couldn't tell from the title), and still provides the bulk of your ball-smacking enjoyment. Create male and female players; play mini-games to build skill; compete in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles tournaments to gain cash; and buy new gear when that prize money is burning a hole in your pocket.

Things you do to improve your character include knocking items off a conveyor (serve attributes), dodging dangerous red balls as you try to pick up flags (footwork), and attempting to destroy sphere-serving tanks (smash skills). As Virtua Tennis's other mini-games prove -- those not available in world tour mode -- the fun wears thin were it not for the fact that you're beefing up your player. You can hit these stations to your heart's desire; the only thing in your way is stamina, and that's fixed with a quick rest at "home."

Tournaments only pop up on various weeks, so you need a modicum of strategy to be ready when they come. You can switch between your male and female essentially on the fly. They have their own stats, and it's up to you what to do with them -- you could just all-out ignore the dude and stick with your queen of the court if you decide. I say "essentially on the fly," by the way, because the load times are atrocious. Just going from map point to map point sometimes has your PSP wheezing as if it's having an asthma attack.

If there's one knock on world tour mode, it's that it doesn't offer much more than previous incarnations of this series. It's still a great time, and the main draw of the game whether you're a seasoned pro or playing digital tennis for the first time. However, I could fire up Virtua Tennis on GBA and get basically the same experience -- it just wouldn't look as pretty or have as many buttons.