Virtua Tennis 3 Roster Revealed
You just might recognize some of these names.
Published: August 24, 2006
"With an impressive roster of internationally-ranked tennis pros in SEGA's Virtua Tennis 3, players can take on the world's top tennis stars and Grand Slam champions," begins Scott "don't forget the initial" A. Steinberg, Vice President of Marketing at SEGA of America. "Virtua Tennis 3 maximizes the technological advancements of the new consoles and injects a variety of new mini-games, player creation customization features, and a new multiplayer Court Game mode for a non-stop, action-packed experience."
And thus begins a small but impressive update to the saga of Virtua Tennis 3, a game that has had us drooling since the first time we saw the game unveiled earlier this year. It's gorgeous, but more exciting is the fact that it's the continuation of what most consider to be the single best tennis series ever to grace consoles. The return of mini-games (10 of them in all this time around) and the addition of multiplayer games that mix said mini-games with the draw of playing against another human mean we're even more psyched.
And then there's the fact that the game will sport the likenesses of actual tennis pros. While it's certainly not a new addition, it's still nice to see who made the licensing cut. Both sexes get love here (wow, could that have come out any more wrong?); Amelie Mauresmo, Lindsay Davenport, Maria Sharapova, Martina Hingis, Nicole Vaidisova, Venus Williams and Daniela Hantuchova rep the girls' side, while Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Gael Monfils, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Rafael Nadal, Sebastien Grosjean, Tommy Haas, David Nalbandian, Tim Henman, Lleyton Hewitt, James Blake, Mario Ancic, and Taylor Dent all appear on the guys' side.
Of course, if you don't want to play as a pro, you can create your own character with an improved creation system, and then take them around the now-famous World Tour Mode playing games and training to improve stats. All of this (minus the fancier graphics, of course) will make the leap to the PSP as well, though we're hoping for a little cross-talk luv between the PSP and PS3 versions. Nothing's set in stone yet, and there's plenty of time between now and the Spring 2007 release to see if there as any Sony-on-Sony love. Updates as we get 'em.
And thus begins a small but impressive update to the saga of Virtua Tennis 3, a game that has had us drooling since the first time we saw the game unveiled earlier this year. It's gorgeous, but more exciting is the fact that it's the continuation of what most consider to be the single best tennis series ever to grace consoles. The return of mini-games (10 of them in all this time around) and the addition of multiplayer games that mix said mini-games with the draw of playing against another human mean we're even more psyched.
And then there's the fact that the game will sport the likenesses of actual tennis pros. While it's certainly not a new addition, it's still nice to see who made the licensing cut. Both sexes get love here (wow, could that have come out any more wrong?); Amelie Mauresmo, Lindsay Davenport, Maria Sharapova, Martina Hingis, Nicole Vaidisova, Venus Williams and Daniela Hantuchova rep the girls' side, while Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Gael Monfils, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Rafael Nadal, Sebastien Grosjean, Tommy Haas, David Nalbandian, Tim Henman, Lleyton Hewitt, James Blake, Mario Ancic, and Taylor Dent all appear on the guys' side.
Of course, if you don't want to play as a pro, you can create your own character with an improved creation system, and then take them around the now-famous World Tour Mode playing games and training to improve stats. All of this (minus the fancier graphics, of course) will make the leap to the PSP as well, though we're hoping for a little cross-talk luv between the PSP and PS3 versions. Nothing's set in stone yet, and there's plenty of time between now and the Spring 2007 release to see if there as any Sony-on-Sony love. Updates as we get 'em.