Virtua Tennis 4 for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

Having never played a Virtua Tennis title before and being a tennis-hobbyist, I had a lot of fun with this game. Don't use Kinect if you play this game, by the way; it's meant to be played with an actual controller.

There's an Arcade Mode (earn points by technique and shots in-match; singles, doubles), an Exhibition Mode (same thing as Arcade without the points system), some 8 or so Mini-Games (some are quite fun when playing with a human opponent i.e. Bombs and Wind), Xbox-Live matches (ranked is singles only, and player matches allow singles/doubles in addition to mini-games), and a Career mode.

Career Mode is where the heart of the game is at and it's my favorite part. You make a custom character and battle it out with other emerging tennis players as you compete in a number of smaller tournaments and large ones (Australia, US, Europe, Africa). You build your character's strengths (Strokes, Net-Play, Defense, and Tactics; if I remember correctly) by doing conditioning mini-games and can unlock new play-styles to define your favored strategy.

You earn money by completing events and you earn "stars" by doing certain things (Donating money, doing good in matches, etc.). Money can get you clothes, new playstyles, and cards (I'll explain that soon). Stars serve as a "fame" or "prestige" indicator and they determine whether or not you can enter smaller tournaments.

You move around a large map of the world in a board-game-like fashion similar to Candyland (that's the best comparison I can think of x]) by drawing cards that allow 1-3 moves per turn or "day". This system of moving can be annoying sometimes because you can easily miss an event you want to go to. However, you can buy inexpensive cards at "Management" buildings that allow you to control your own movement better, so it's only bad when you don't have money, which is rare because you earn money for pretty much everything you do.

I recommend the game to anyone who likes Tennis or a good, relaxing game.