Everybody's Tennis: PlayStation 2 Tuesdays #2

Clap Hanz has a long history of developing fun, accessible golf games with their Everybody's Golf series (aka Hot Shots Golf in the US).  They date back to the original PlayStation, and the franchise is still going strong today with the latest release on the Vita.  Back in 2007, they decided they would also take a stab at the tennis genre.  For whatever reason, this never caught on and the PS2 version of Everybody's Tennis (along wth a slightly updated PSP port) remains the only one so far.  This a bit of a shame, because while it's not the deepest tennis game out there, it certainly is a whole long of fun and offers a decent amount of gameplay. I remember picking this game up a few years ago when I saw a copy in my local supermarket.  I had no idea it existed before seeing in there on the shelf, but I decided to buy it based on the strength of the golf franchise.

The structure of the single player mode sees you starting off in the novice league, with four courts and two characters unlocked. You are told that you will advance to the amateur class once you've won four matches, and each of these matches also unlock other items along the way.  These could be courts, characters, clothing or different umpires. The courts in Everybody's Tennis are all very nicely designed, being full of colour and rich in little details like trains passing by in the background or a rogue football bouncing across the court in Sakuragoaka Park.   All the different court surfaces such as grass, clay, hard and wood are all represented in the game.

Sound is a either OK or awful depending on your tolerance for whimsical music and bad voice overs.  It does suit the nature of the game but I can see how it would definitely start to grate on the nerves of some before too long. This biggest problem is probably the umpires.  These are of various nationalities but the poor acting makes them sound like bad racial stereotypes and could be potentially offensive, which is definitely not the intent!

Get past this though and you do have a solid and responsive tennis game, thankfully. As I said before it's not the deepest on the market - if you want that I recommend Sega's Virtua Tennis series for the World Tour mode.  What is on offer here is a lot of fun though and the PS2 version can be found easily for just a few quid (the PSP goes for considerably more) so I would say give it a go if you enjoy tennis games.  Oh, and besides the aforementioned single player mode there are also training and multiplayer options, with the game supporting the Multi Tap for four player fun.   Hopefully Clap Hanz and Sony will decide to revisit the franchise again (maybe on the Vita?) - it deserves another shot.

Virtua Tennis 3 review

The Virtua Tennis series first appeared in the arcades as a companion piece to all of Sega's other Virtua titles (e.g. Racing, Cop, Striker, Fighter) and offered a stripped down and accessible version of the sport. As well as local multiplayer, the machine also featured a single player mode where you faced off against some of the most well known professional players of the time, with each match getting progressively more difficult. Eventually the game was ported over to the Dreamcast and it was a very faithful conversion, but without friends to play against the game lacked depth in the home environment.

This was rectified with the release of Virtua Tennis 2 towards the end of the life of the Dreamcast, which introduced a comprehensive career mode, and for those who played it, it was one of the finest and most addictive games on the system. The game was later made available on the PS2 as Sega Sports Tennis and on the PSP as Virtua Tennis: World Tour. It took Sega the best part of six years to continue the series with Virtua Tennis 3 on the Xbox 360 and PS3, and this time the reigns have been handed to Sumo Digital, who have previous handled the PSP version of Virtua Tennis 2, as well as the two PSP Outrun games and the Race Driver franchise. Can they bring anything new to the series while remaining true to the spirit of the older games? Read on...

Format: Xbox 360 (also available for PS3, PSP, PC)
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sumo Digital
Genre: Sports
Region: PAL (Europe)
Price: Around £20

Graphics: 8 out of 10
The graphics for the most part are crisp and clean, and a good representation of the real life sport. However the players look a little odd close up - more like wax work models than real people. You can tell who they are supposed to be if you know what the real players look like, but the skin has an unatural sheen to it. The animation on the other hand is smooth and convincing, so as long as the camera remains zoomed out the illusion isn't shattered and you could almost believe you were watching a game being broadcast on TV.

I did encounter a couple of freakish bugs while I was playing - in one of the replays a racket was floating around in midair next to the player, and another time there was a strange thick black outline around the mouths of the players which made them look as if they'd been attacked by the Joker! I only encountered both of these graphical bugs once, but there was also a gameplay bug which was rather more serious which I will get to later on.

The game offers a good approximation of real life locations and courts, even if they're not allowed to be called by their real names (Sega didn't get the licences). So the clay court in France, and the English grass court look just like they should. In the mini games (more on this later) over sized fruit rolls around in a convincing fashion and giant bowling pins tumble as you would expect.

Sound and Music: 8 out of 10
Virtua Tennis 3 features a nice range of music tracks which are upbeat and catchy and help to make the games more exciting. There is usually one main theme for each court and then a second tune which plays when Match Point is reached to help raise the tension.

The sounds of the balls thwacking against the racket strings are authentically reproduced, as are the grunts and groans of the players, and in a nice touch the umpires in the different countries each speak in their native tongues.

Each of the different surfaces play slightly differently, either speeding up or slowing down the pace of the ball. Here you can see the VT3 version of Germany, complete with worn out patches of grass.

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10
The Virtua Tennis series has always offered a more simplified version of the sport than the likes of Top Spin, and have appealed more to my taste for that reason. That's not to say that control has been compromised however, as it's still possible to put the ball where you want it, at least after you have trained up your custom player.

As well as offering a Tournament mode, much like the one found in the first Virtua Tennis, where you can play as a fully powered up tennis star such as Federer, Henman, Hingis or Hantuchova, the game offers a full World Tour mode. You are first tasked with designing your own player (either male or female), and then you start and rank 300 and have to work your way to rank 1. There is a calendar that you can access at any time from the world map which shows you which tournaments are taking places as well as the entry requirements. For starters you will only be able to enter the Challengers events, until you get your ranking below 204.

Right at the start of the World Tour your player will move sluggishly and suffer from underpowered shots. They might just be good enough to win some of the easiest matches but in order to progress onwards and upwards you will need to train them and raise their stats. By playing various mini games, you will increase the ability of your player in a number of areas, including Serving, Volleying, ground strokes and movement. The mini games include knocking down bowling pins with your serve, trying to hit a bullseye, destroying ball launchers that are advancing towards the net space invaders style, and protecting chunks of meat from alligators by knocking the ball into spinners which winch them backwards. Yes, I did say alligators. Most of the mini games are larger than life and add to the fun factor of the game without making it a complete mockery of the sport (unlike Sega Superstars Tennis).

Everything I've already mentioned was also present in the Dreamcast version of Virtua Tennis 2, but there have been some minor additions as well. Eventually you will start getting offers of practice matches from the other tennis aces and these will also raise your stats. In addition, you can go to the Tennis Academy and learn the basics of the sport while increasing your stats again. Eventually you will be good enough to take part in the 4 Grand Slam tournaments, and if you do well enough in those you will be able to enter the King of Players tournament and be one step away from the top rank. In addition to the Tournament and World Tour modes, you can also play multiplayer versions of the various training mini games, and go online to play ranked and unranked singles and doubles matches.

Now it's time to talk Achievements, and in VT3 they vary from ridiculously easy (creating your custom player or winning your first match), reasonably challenging (earning the top rank in the World Tour) and very tough (winning 50 ranked matches online). This is the right sort of balance as you will steadily unlock more achievements the further you go into the game.

Innovation and Cleverness: 5 out of 10
While most of the mini games are very inventive, the fact is that most of them made their debut in Virtua Tennis 2. Nearly everything about the game is a polished version of what has gone before, and the major additions (online play for example) are really no less than what you would expect from a game in this day and age, so I can't justify giving out a high score in this category.

Value and Replayability: 8 out of 10
It will probably take you around 10 hours to get to the number one spot in World Tour mode, and then you can continue playing if you want for up 20 in game years. Then you could always go back and play as a character of the opposite sex for a slightly different route to the top. After this is done and dusted, you will probably turn to the mulit player modes - and I have to say playing this game with friends is great fun. There's no tricky controls to master but you still feel that you can put the ball where you want it to go. If you don't know anybody else who owns the game, then go online and challenge the world - but be warned there are some damn good players out there.

Overall: 8 out of 10
Virtua Tennis 3 is an incredibly enjoyable game and pretty much as good as tennis is going to get on a home console. Sure, it doesn't really offer much that the 6 year old Virtua Tennis 2 didn't have, but what's on offer is well put together (barring the odd bug). Sumo Digital went on to develop Sega Superstars Tennis, which features famous Sega characters, but the power moves unbalance the game so much it becomes something of a farce. It does feature another selection of smart mini games though (but no World Tour mode this time).

Virtua Tennis 3 Trailer

Albatross18: Realms of Pangya review

Hi once again and welcome to another review, this time for the relatively unknown game Albatross18: Realms of Pangya.

Format: PC

Developer: Ntreev Soft

Publisher: Hanbitsoft, GameFactory Inc

Genre: Massively Multiplayer Online Golf RPG

Region: US and Europe

Where to buy: Sign up and download for free at www.albatross18.com

There have been many quality golf games over the years, from Leaderboard back on the Commodore 64, through the Links series, to Mario Golf, Everybody's Golf (aka Hot Shots), The Tiger Woods PGA series and beyond. With the odd exception (such as EA's Tiger Woods games or Nintendo's Touch Golf on the DS) the basic controls and the way each game works has remained the same. Except this game melds the traditional golf game with ideas borrowed from Japanese RPGs. Intrigued? So was I...

Graphics: 8 out of 10
The graphics in Albatross18 are extremely impressive considering this is a free game. The courses are all very well designed and there's quite a bit of variety between them, including sunny tropical beaches, snowy festive landscapes, huge battleships and windy valleys. In Korea, where the game originated from, they have additional courses that haven't been released here, which include a desert region, an icy course and a hellish volcanic area. This will no doubt eventually make it to our version of the game, but Korea is already in Season 3 of the game and we only have Season 2, so we have some catching up to do.

Considering how good the graphics are it's surprising how little loading time there is, and lag is also noteable by its absence. This really is a slick package. Characters are all drawn in an anime style, featuring big eyes and other exaggerated features. They all look like something you'd find in a typical traditional Japanese console RPG (except of course this game was made in Korea).

Sound & Music: 7 out of 10
Now I must admit that when it comes to the music in Albatross18, you will either love it or hate it. It's very catchy, upbeat, cheerful and cute, not to mention bordering on annoying. I love certain tunes (including one of the ones that plays in the background of Blue Water, but I really can't stand others (the music of North Wiz comes to mind). You'll either be tolerant of it, or you'll turn it off straight away.

There's not a lot of sound effects, but what is there is decent enough. There's the shout of "PangYA!" whenever you pull of a perfect shot (which apparently means bang in Korean), the whistle off the ball as it flies through the air, the thwack as you hit it and other small, unobtusive sounds. Again, considering that this is a free download, the production values manage to outstrip expectations quite easily.

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10
If you're familiar with other casual golf games such as Mario Golf, you will be able to pick up and play Albatross18 without any problems whatsoever. The same style in swing bar that has been featured in golf titles for close to two decades is in place. Basically, you have a bar at the bottom of the screen with the maximum yardage of your selected club displayed on it, and measurements in between. The first click of the left mouse button (or press of the space bar) starts a small bar moving from left to right. You then have to click again to decide how hard you hit the ball, and the bar will start heading back towards the left. Finally, you have to stop the bar as close to the middle of the pink section at the start as possible, to decide the accuracy of the shot. If you miss a little to the left or right your shot will go to the left or right respectively. If you miss by a lot the shot will be a complete mishit.

You all also have a small picture of the ball in the bottom left with a blue dot in it. You can move this dot to the top to put top spin on the ball, or to the bottom to apply backspin. You can also move it to the left or right to curve the ball, which is very useful if you have a tree directly in front of you which you need to avoid, for example. The controls don't end there, as special moves can also be pulled of by keying in various combinations of the arrow keys as the shot is taking place, including super topspin and backspin, the tomahawk shot and the cobra shot. While the game is very easy for newcomers to get used to, these extra moves and advanced features give the pros plenty of flexibility and depth.

Speaking of depth, you character starts off at the Rookie F level, and moves up to Rookie A where they will then become Beginner E. This pattern then carries on all the way through Junior, Senior, Amateur, Semi-Pro, Pro and National Pro, with the amount of experience needed to advance increasing exponentially from one level to the next. Moving up ranks gives both advantages and disadvantages. For example as a Rookie player you will have a special necklace that increases your accuracy, but as soon as you reach Beginner you won't be able to wear it anymore. Instead Beginner players get an additional Power slot to spend on their character.

Characters can be powered up in various categories, including power, control, spin and accuracy, usually by equipping certain items and sometimes when leveling up. There are two ways of powering up, the first increasing certain attributes by equipping an item, the effects of which are lost when you equip something else. However, some items also come with "slots" which you can spend Pang (the games main currency) to upgrade, which are then permanently part of your character (or at least until you downgrade them).

Pang is earned by playing skillfully, in a similar manner to the way that Kudos is earned in PGR3. You get certain amounts for completing a hole at par (typically 3 to 10 Pang depending on the difficulty of the course) with significantly higher amounts being awarded for Birdies, Eagles, Albatrosses and a Hole in One. You also get pang for hitting the ball further than the clubs typical range (either by using a slope, spin or the wind), very difficult chip-in shots, long putts and for pulling off the special moves. An extra 1000 Pang is awarded every time you beat your personal best on one of the courses, but considering that the really useful stuff in the Shop starts at 5100 Pang minimum and goes up to around 300000 for the really good stuff, expect to be saving for a while. Extra characters and caddies also have to be bought with pang, or with Cookies, which is the way that Hanbitsoft make their money.

Cookies can only be gained by buying them with real money on the web site, with prices ranging from about $10 to $50. Certain items of clothing in the shop, or extra charters can only be bought with Cookies. Now, I know what you're thinking, what's to stop rich kids from just buying tons of Cookies and then just buying all the good stuff?

Well, they can... but in most cases the Cookie versions of clothing and items are only a little bit better than the Pang equivalents. Plus if you buy an item of clothing with slots on it you still need to pay out a load of pang in order to upgrade them. So while you gain a slight advantage buy paying out some cash, it isn't really that much of a big deal. If you don't want to spend your money on this game, don't bother. Chances are however you'll find yourself enjoying yourself so much you'll actually want to support the developers by reinvesting some cash into the game.

There are several modes of play. To start with you will only have access to the VS room, where you can play Stroke or Match games with 2-4 people, with each person taking turns. This is the best way to earn experience and to have a more personal game with just a few people. Once you advance past the first level, you will unlock access to the Tournament server. Here, up to 30 people play a full 18 hole round of golf at the same time, with a maximum time limit (usuallly between 30-40 minutes) for everyone to complete the course. Scores are updated in real time and the wind and weather are hard to predict, giving a different experience every time. Then we have the new Pang Battle mode, which is basically like Skins in traditional golf where you put a certain amount of Pang on the line per hole and the winner takes the pot. Finally, there's Family mode - which lets you and other real life friends or family play on the same computer.

Innovation and Cleverness: 7 out of 10
While casual golf games have been around for a long time, and even a golf RPG has been done before (the Game Boy Color version of Mario Golf) the way that Albatross18 fuses the two genres together makes it a rather unique playing experience. When I've mentioned the idea of a golf RPG to some of my friends they have been both confused and a bit disgusted by the idea, but you really should give the game a chance. There is practically no risk involved seeing as the game costs nothing to download and runs smoothly on modest PC's - in fact I'd say the only risk is that you will become addicted to the game and spend the next few months of your life playing golf with strangers on fantasy islands. There are those who will never "get it" and will remain content to just waste away their lives playing Halo 2 until the end of time - their loss in my opinion. If you fancy something different then don't be afraid of giving it a try.

I would also like to mention the Clubstar Calendar system as something I found particularly innovative. On your account page on the Albatross18 web site, you will find your very own Clubstar Calendar page. For every day that you play a full game and then log out, you will earn a sticker on the calendar. Prizes are then awarded for those that manage to play on 7 days, 15 days and full month, with the prize getting better each time. Furthermore, there are 5 additional randomly selected days where you will also earn an item just for playing that day. This gives you an incentive to keep coming back, and the better prizes are really worthwhile. At the moment you can earn a special ball for playing everyday in a month - the Golden Phoenix, which is only available this way and can't be bought with Pang or Cookies, although this could change at any time. It's really not that difficult to play everyday, because a 3 hole, 2 player VS game only take about 15 minutes at the most.

Value and Replayability: 10 out of 10
Being a free game, Albatross18 is of course exceptional value, but there's a ton of things to do in the game as well. To start with there's 8 courses in the game at the moment, all of which have their own little quirks, so these will take a fair bit of time just to get used to and improve your score. Then there's the leveling up system, which will take you a fair old while to get all the way to the top. It takes most people an average of 30 hours just to get from Rookie to Beginner, so you can imagine how long it will take to get to National Pro. There's also the items, character upgrades and random variables such as the wind and weather that ensure you never experience the same game twice, even on the same course. This guarantees things will never become boring. Finally, you have all the real people that you will meet and talk to as you play, which have to be one of the nicest on line communities I've yet come across. Golf is a much more gentle game than an FPS and I can't help thinking that this has some effect on the attitude of the people on the servers, there much less aggressive and less likely to swear at you. There's also a fairly high percentage of female players which makes a refreshing change.

Overall: 9 out of 10
At first I only downloaded this game out of curiosity because I heard that a version of it was coming to the Nintendo Wii (Super Swing Golf PANGYA) but it didn't take long for me to be hooked. Now it has become one of the best games I have played all year and I sincerely recommend it to anyone who isn't afraid to try something a little different, or is strapped for cash and want a good new game to play. With Albatross18, Ntreev have scored a hole in one!

Moto GP 06 review

Here it is, the 7th and final part of my week dedicated to Xbox 360 reviews. This time I'm taking a look at Moto GP 06.

Format: Xbox 360

Publisher: THQ

Developer: Climax

Genre: Motorbike simulation

Region: NTSC (Game is region free!)

Price: PAL version £50 - NTSC for as low as £22

Where to buy: www.gameplay.co.uk, www.gamestation.co.uk, www.play-asia.com

First off, I want to say that I will try my hardest to be unbiased while writing this review. You see, one of my oldest friends Kim Burrows, was a programmer on the game. He even put my name in the credits in the Special Thanks section just after his newborn baby boy. As such I have more of a vested interest in this game than most, even though under normal circumstances I probably wouldn't have bought it, as motorbikes aren't really my thing.

Graphics: 8 out of 10
The visuals in Moto GP 06 fall somewhere in between those of PGR3 and Ridge Racer 6. It isn't quite as insanely detailed as Bizarre's game, but is definitely a step up from Namco's racer. The sense of speed, especially when you are in the first-person view, is really quite phenomenal. Thoccasionalal bit of texture tearing is evident but it's nowhere near as noticeable as GamesTM magazine would have you believe.

The Grand Prix tracks all look pretty much as they should - beinmodeleded on real life locations, but some of them are rather sparse. This isn't really the developers fault - they're merely representing the tracks as they appear in real life. The other half of the game, the Extreme mode, features much more lavish tracks which are full of background details such as fountains and rides which you will just about get a glance of as you go hurtling past at breakneck speed. Each of the Extreme races take place at sunset as well so there's some nice lighting effects on show. Really, the GP tracks do exactly as they should - they give die hard fans of the Moto GP season accurate representations of the course they've seen on TV or visited in real life, whereas the Extreme tracks are really an opportunity for the designers and artists at Climax to show off.

When you get this many real life racers going through the same corner, expect there to be casualties.

Sound and Music: 6 out of 10

The sound effects, much like the graphics in the GP mode, accurately represent real life bikes and are well done. Personally, I thought the music was alright, but not spectacular. One major downside of them music though is that the particular tune chosen for a race will repeat over and over instead of another tune being selected, which can begin to grate on longer races. I usually find myself making use of the custom soundtracks option in this case and streaming something from my PC (I recommend the Pirates of thCaribbeanan soundtrack - strangely it works!). So, the sound isn't horrible, just not as good as it could have been.

Game Mechanics: 8 out of 10
Moto GP 06 is split into two distinct halves - the Grand Prix mode and the Extreme mode. Within the Grand Prix mode you will find a full simulation of both the 2005 and 2006 Moto GP seasons, with all the real life tracks (17 of them) and riders you would expect. The learning curve is actually quite smooth, because there are four difficulty settings, a decent tutorial mode, and a variety of challenges geared around helping you learn the toughest parts of each circuit.

At first you will probably fall off your bike at regular intervals, but as you slowly a) get used to the game and b) improve you statistics blevelingng up your rider this should become less frequent and you will start to enjoy the game. You can either choose a quick race or a full-on season comprising of 17 races each with Challenge, Practice, Qualifying and Race options. The number of laps can also be adjusted from 1 up to a full length race for those who take they're racing really seriously.

On the other side of the coin is the Extreme mode, which is much features handling which is much more forgiving (almost, but not quite arcade style), and 17 fantasy tracks based around locations around the globe. As well as the same four difficulty settings as the Grand Prix mode, Extreme mode also features 600cc, 1000cc and 1200 bikes. In order to race in the faster leagues you will first have to earn enough money to buy one of the bikes. This mode also allows you to buy upgrades for your bike, and so gives a bit more freedom and depth than the Grand Prix races.

One thing I wasn't that keen on was having to race a full Grand Prix season before I could try the Extreme mode, as I wanted to try that first. To be fair though, this was probably a stipulation that the Moto GP association made, as after all it is an officially licensed product. Really, Climax didn't have to include an Extreme mode at all, and it's a really nice extra for those who wan't a break from the more serious Grand Prix races or prefer they're driving a bit more on the forgiving side. Look at Namco's Moto GP series on the PlayStation 2 - they didn't offer anything like an Extreme mode in that, did they?

Then there is the Xbox Live mode, which lets you do everything you could do in single player but up against real life opponents. It really works very well and as yet I haven't encountered any problems with lag or slowdown. The online mode also has two extra modes - Stunt and Tag, which are fun asides from the pure racing if you're in the mood for something a bit different.

You start off with a seed of 100, and everytime you beat people who are seeded higher than you (either online or off) this will go up. At first this will improve quite quickly, but when you get to around seed 70 it will start to slow down.

The achievements include things like racing a certain number of times, reaching a certain seed, and completing the challenges. Some are quite easy to complete, others will take quite a bit of work - which is the ideal balance, in my opinion.

Innovation & Cleverness: 4 out 10

Because this is the fourth iteration of the Moto GP series, and nothing much has really changed since Moto GP 3 on the original Xbox (other than glossier presentation and some new tracks), I'm afraid I have to give the game a fairly low score in this category. It is a very solid game and has plenty to offer newcomers - however if you already own a previous version of the game you may want to think twice before buying it again.

Value & Replayability: 9 out of 10

Moto GP 06 scores very highly in this department, because of the sheer amount of stuff for you to do. There are two very distinct modes with 17 tracks and 4 difficulty settings in each, many different options to play with and challenges. Add the Xbox Live mode which in theory you can keep playing for as long as you want, and it will take you a fair old while to experience everything that Moto GP 06 has to offer. Next, I'll let you in on a little secret that you may not know. Moto GP 06 is region free, and Play-Asia currently has it for sale for £22, which is where I got my copy. Now, I'm not so sure I would have paid out £40-£50 on this game seeing as I'm not a big fan of bikes in the first place, but for £22 it's a bargain.

The replays are packed with detail.

Overall: 8 out 10

Moto GP 06 will initially take a bit of getting used to, but once you do adjust to the correct way to drive a bike your level of enjoyment will rise immensely. Playing through the various seasons in single player is good fun, but nothing beats driving with a bunch of real life friends or rivals on Xbox Live. The extra muscle that the Xbox 360 gives just about justifies this 2006 update to the series, but I can't really see that there's much further to go.

Finally, don't confuse this game with the Moto GP series on the PS2 - they are completely separate entities developed by different teams. For the record, the Xbox games by Climax are better by far - they look nicer, are more enjoyable, have better controls and feature more to do.