Even though it's the fifth of the series, Virtua Tennis 4 is - for better or worse depending on your affection for Sega's tennis games ...

Reduced load times; New minigames; The Super Shot

Slower and less responsive play; The career mode format; Annoying and repetitive music

Considering Virtua Tennis was once the king of tennis games, its latest iteration is particularly disappointing, doing little to keep up with competition from 2K's excellent Top Spin 4 .

Unique minigames are lots of fun; Easy to learn

Overly simple controls lack depth; Unrealistic sound effects; Irritating music; Camera angles make it difficult to use Move

A simple Exhibition mode lets you hone your tennis skills as one of many existing tennis stars, such as Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, and Maria Sharapova in quick matches against the CPU or with up to three other players in local multiplayer.

Virtua Tennis 4 finds itself in the awkward position. It's a long-running series with a fan base that expects a certain style of play. At the same time, there's the pressure associated with motion controls, which have led to a near complete reformat of how sports games are played.

When you consider that new football, basketball and even golf video games are released every year, it's easy to forget that it's been a while since we've seen a new tennis game. The somewhat unrepresented sport doesn't get a lot of attention in the U.S.

When the main reason I keep coming back is a thirty second mini-game, we have a problem. Really though, the game does the absolute minimum to be considered "good." While it's fun there's nothing that keeps you coming back for more. Shame, really.

Let's all just face it: Virtua Tennis is a franchise that is going to exist forever. Its existence will be a constant for some years to come – right up until Sega's unforeseen dying day.

Sega's latest Virtua Tennis title boasts the same fun gameplay the franchise has become known for, but spotty motion controls and a lackluster world tour mode seriously hurt its replayability.

Even after a decade of time elapsing, Virtua Tennis has remained oneRead the full article…

+ Exciting arcade gameplay; + Fluid graphics and animations

I've always been a big fan of tennis games. Even when I was a little kid, RealSports Tennis was one of my three favorite games for the Atari 2600, along with H.E.R.O. and Adventure . In the days of the Sega Dreamcast, Virtua Tennis was one of the best games for the system .