Wii Motion Plus Offers Competing Tennis Games
Virtua Tennis 2009 versus EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis
Jul 1, 2009
Electronic Arts’ own Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 on the Wii seems to be the flagship title for Nintendo’s new Wii Motion Plus add-on which it comes packaged with. Some might also notice EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis which uses the attachment as well. Possibly less noticeable however is Sega’s Virtua Tennis 2009, which makes equally good use of the motion plus. Both are good choices but have their differences.
The Question of the Better Wii Tennis
Although both games are Wii titles, differing backgrounds lead to varying uses of the platform for each game. It’s a matter of experiences versus specialization.
Grand Slam’s main advantage is probably that it was made from the ground up for the Wii, while VT2009 was ported to the Wii from the PS3 and Xbox 360. Even if Grand Slam’s visuals are off-putting, in the end they look more attractive and fitting for the Wii. VT2009’s realistic graphics and menu interface on the other hand were sloppily downgraded to the Wii hardware.
Don’t take this to mean that VT2009 is just another sub-par Wii port of a game formerly played with a standard controller. Sega has made tennis games for a decade now and the result is a solid, winning formula. The first Wii Virtua Tennis already shows serious effort and production in its design.
Regardless of each game’s background, both provide a very approachable approximation of modern tennis.
Learning to Really Play Tennis
Grand Slam having mini-sized versions of tennis stars tells players from the beginning that this is supposed to be a somewhat simplified, accessible tennis game. The Virtua Tennis franchise has its origins in arcades and was always a relatively simple game. Both titles are very approachable but each one teaches some of the intricacies of tennis in its own way.
VT2009 takes its time to teach players the mechanics and strategy behind the game of tennis. There are optional tutorials showing players how to do each kind of shot. During the career mode, VT2009’s Tennis Academy gradually teaches players the usefulness of these shots and how to play the field.
Grand Slam teaches players basically the same things but at a much brisker pace. There are diagrams displaying each kind of shot, and there’s a practice mode, but no true tutorials. All tips regarding strategy in Grand Slam are only briefly shown during loading screens and between matches.
This difference in teaching is indicative of the varying difficulty slopes of these games. The motion controls however are pretty uniform between them.
The controls work very well for both games, especially with the motion plus attachment. Different degrees of varying shots are accurately detected for power and direction, offering more control than on a standard game pad. Although VT2009’s controls are slightly more reliable and don’t require any button inputs, both games control pretty much the same.
The only real difference is the Virtua Tennis series’ charge-based shot system. A holdover from the conventional controller setup, it puts more emphasis on positioning, so fewer shots will probably be missed. In Grand Slam’s Wii original system however, timing is just as important as positioning on the court.
The Curve of a Wii Tennis Career
Grand Slam makes itself out to be a relatively tough game from the start of its career mode. VT2009 on the other hand runs on a more gradual slope.
Grand Slam pits players against real tennis stars at events like Wimbledon and the US Open early on, and on medium difficulty requires real strategy from the get-go. With the mini-sized characters also comes mini-sized courts which actually makes the game feel slightly more strategic than VT2009.
When players start the career mode in VT2009, they must first face fictional amateurs and rise up hundreds of ranks before facing pros. These amateurs are pushovers, and the AI doesn’t really get into gear until the later parts of the game.
Regardless of singleplayer content, both games offer great, fully-featured multiplayer components that include doubles with four players. Each title also has its own set of crazy minigames.
Bottom Line
Both EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis and Sega’s Virtua Tennis 2009 take the nuances of the sport and make them approachable, making great use of the Wii Motion Plus. Minute differences exist between each game’s control system and their career modes take different approaches. Neither game however is a bad choice.
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