Virtua Tennis

n/a

Virtua Tennis

System(s): Sega NAOMI, Sega NAOMI GD-ROM, Sega Dreamcast, Windows PC

Publisher: Sega,

Empire Interactive (EU), Activision (US)

Developer: Sega AM3,

Hitmaker

Peripherals supported:

Dreamcast VGA Box, Dreamcast Jump Pack, Dreamcast Arcade Stick, Dreamcast Keyboard

Genre: Sports

Number of players: 1-4

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1999-12^[1]	¥?	840-0015C
US	1999	$?	840-0015C

JP	2000-11-23	¥5,8005,800	HDR-0113
US	2000-07^[3]	$49.9949.99^[4]	51054
US (Sega All Stars)	200x		51054
EU	2000-09-08		MK-51054-50
AU	2000	$89.9589.95^[5]
JP	2002-07-11	¥6,800 (7,140)6,800 (7,140)	HCJ-0326
US	2002
EU	2002		EI-1439
EU (Xplosiv)	200x

ESRB

Sega

PEGI

ELSPA

USK

OFLC

aDeSe

SELL

ESRA

DJCTQ

Virtua Tennis, called PowerSmash (パワースマッシュ) in Japan, is an arcade game developed by Sega AM3 for the Sega NAOMI arcade board, as either a ROM board or a GD-ROM. It is a tennis game where the user can play as a number of real-life professional tennis players of the era competing in a number of real tournaments. Initially released in 1999, it was ported to the Sega Dreamcast in 2000, and Microsoft Windows in 2002.

At the time of release it was widely regarded as the most realistic tennis simulator ever produced, and received very positive reviews from critics. It has since been followed by a number of sequels, starting with Virtua Tennis 2 in 2001 and ending with the recently released Virtua Tennis 2009.

The Dreamcast version is compatible with the Dreamcast Fishing Controller. The Game Boy Advance and N-Gage versions of Virtua Tennis are different games.

Gameplay

Players

Virtua Tennis only includes male players, specifically those active in the game during the late 1990s. Female players were not introdced until Virtua Tennis 2.

	Jim Courier (USA)
	Courier retired from the game in 2000, although is still retained in the 2002 PC version.
	Tommy Haas (Germany)

	Tim Henman (United Kingdom)

	Thomas Johansson (Sweden)

	Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Russia)

	Carlos Moyá (Spain)

	Mark Philippoussis (Australia)
	Mark Philippoussis is absent from the PC version of the game due to licensing issues.
	France Cédric Pioline (France)

History

Release

In North America, Foote, Cone & Belding's "naked man in a locker room" print advertisement garnered several complaints, forcing Charles Bellfield to defend it publically^[6].

Sales

In the US the title sold 368,035 units through January 2003 according to NPD Group. In the UK it officially debuted with 9,598 units in the week ending September 9th, 2000, making it the top selling game across all formats for that week according to Chart-Track, bringing the total to 10,246 units after a small number of additional copies were sold early by some retailers the previous week. In Japan it debuted at number two in the Famitsu charts with 31,483 units in the week ending November 26th, 2000, and finishing the year with a total of 50,824 sales.

Production credits

Dreamcast version

Producer: Mie Kumagai
Director: Katsumoto Tatsukawa
Chief Programmer: Mitsuharu Saikawa
Programmers: Kazuyuki Kawanuma, Masayuki Inoue, Takeshi Numazawa
Chief Designer: Kazuko Noguchi
Designers: Takahiro Kajimoto, Harumi Azuma, Kenji Shimizu, Yasuhito Tanaka, Akira Fujiki, Yuko Nishimura
Sound Producer: Chiho Kobayashi
Publicity: Shintaro Takaya
Assistant Director: Masaru Futaki
Localization Team (SOJ): Shinobu Shindo, Kaoru Ichigozaki, Luke Valentine
Technical Advisor: Hans van Veenendaal
Executive Producer: Hisao Oguchi
SOE Product Development: Naohiko Hoshino, Matt O'Driscoll, Akiko Koutstaal, Roberto Parraga-Sanchez, Angelika Michitsch, Dave Thompson
SOE Thanks: Jim Pride, Mat Quaeck
Special Thanks: Fujifilm, Opel, Bridgestone, Yonex, Citizen, evian, weider, Tennis Monthly Magazine, Tennis Goods Nobu, Head, Philips, Dunlop, Babolat, IBM, Volvo
Presented by: Sega
Translated by: Hitmaker

© Sega Enterprises, Ltd., 1999, 2000

Other credits

SOA Product Development: Joseph Edwards, June Honma, Pedro Ponce, Michael Rhinehart, Osamu Shibamiya
SOA Marketing: John Golden, Heather Hawkins, Stacey Kerr

Magazine articles

Main article: Virtua Tennis/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

PDF

Print advert in GamePro (US) #143: "August 2000" (2000-xx-xx)
also published in:

Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #134: "September 2000" (2000-08-08)^[7]

PDF

Print advert in Dreamcast Magazine (JP) #2000-36ex: "2000-36 extra (2000-11-17ex)" (2000-11-03)
also published in:

Dreamcast Magazine (JP) #2000-38: "2000-38 (2000-12-01)" (2000-11-17)^[8]

PDF

Print advert in MAN!AC (DE) #2000-10: "10/2000" (2000-09-06)

Artwork

Physical scans

NAOMI version

Sega Retro Average

Publication	Score	Source
Arcade (UK)	100	№15, p103^[9]

	100
Based on 1 review

NAOMI, JP

Cart

Dreamcast version

Sega Retro Average

Publication	Score	Source
Arcade (UK)	80	№23, p82/83^[10]
Computer & Video Games (UK)	100	№226, p98-99^[2]
DC-UK (UK)	90	№13
Dreamcast Magazine (JP)	87	№2000-38, p20^[11]
Dreamcast Magazine (readers) (JP)	92	№, p32^[12]
Edge (UK)	80	№88, p94/95^[13]
Famitsu (JP)	83	№624, p33
GameFan (US)	98
GamePro (US)	95	2000-07-12
GamesMaster (UK)	94	№98, p74/75
Next Generation (US)	100
Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK)	90	№12, p66-70^[14]

	91
Based on 12 reviews

Dreamcast, US
Cover
Disc Inlay

Dreamcast, US (Sega All Stars)
Cover
Disc

Dreamcast, EU
Cover
Disc

Dreamcast, JP
Cover

Dreamcast, EU (white label)

Disc

PC version

PC, US
Cover
Disc

PC, JP
Cover

PC, UK
Cover

PC, UK (Xplosiv)
Cover

PC, FR

PC, DE
Cover

PC, DE (Xplosiv)
Cover

PC, ES
Cover

PC, ES (FX)
Cover
Disc

PC, ES (Xplosiv)
Cover

PC, IT (Xplosiv Gold)

PC, SE/NO/FI/DK (PC Best Buy)
Cover

External links

Sega of Japan catalogue pages (Japanese): Dreamcast, PC

References

Games in the Virtua Tennis* Series*
	Virtua Tennis (1999) \| Virtua Tennis 2 (2001) \| Virtua Tennis 3 (2006) \| Virtua Tennis 4 (2011)
	Virtua Tennis (2000) \| Virtua Tennis 2 (2001)
	Virtua Tennis (2002) \| Virtua Tennis 3 (2007) \| Virtua Tennis 2009 (2009) \| Virtua Tennis 4 (2011)
	Virtua Tennis 2 (2002)
	Virtua Tennis (2002)
	Virtua Tennis (2003)
	Virtua Tennis: World Tour (2005) \| Virtua Tennis 3 (2007)
	Virtua Tennis 3 (2007) \| Virtua Tennis 2009 (2009) \| Virtua Tennis 4 (2011)
	Virtua Tennis 2009 (2009) \| Virtua Tennis 4 (2011)
	Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition (2011)
	Virtua Tennis Challenge (2012) \| Virtua Tennis Challenge Free (2012)
Sampler Discs
Power Smash Taikenban (20xx) \| Power Smash 2 Taikenban (20xx)

[:File:DCM_JP_20000526_2000-18.pdf_p151-1] File:DCM_JP_20000526_2000-18.pdf, page 151

[:File:CVG_UK_226.pdf_p98-2] 2.0 ^2.1 File:CVG UK 226.pdf, page 98

[:File:ODCM_US_07.pdf_p40-3] File:ODCM US 07.pdf, page 40

[:File:ODCM_US_07.pdf_p91-4] File:ODCM US 07.pdf, page 91

[:File:Hyper_AU_084.pdf_p68-5] File:Hyper AU 084.pdf, page 68

[:File:EGM_US_136.pdf_p47-6] File:EGM US 136.pdf, page 47

[:File:EGM_US_134.pdf_p134-7] Electronic Gaming Monthly, "September 2000" (US; 2000-08-08), page 134

[:File:DCM_JP_20001201_2000-38.pdf_p2-8] Dreamcast Magazine, "2000-38 (2000-12-01)" (JP; 2000-11-17), page 2

[:File:Arcade_UK_15.pdf_p103-9] File:Arcade UK 15.pdf, page 103

[:File:Arcade_UK_23.pdf_p82-10] File:Arcade UK 23.pdf, page 82

[:File:DCM_JP_20001201_2000-38.pdf_p20-11] File:DCM_JP_20001201_2000-38.pdf, page 20

[:File:Dorimaga_20021011_JP.pdf_p32-12] File:Dorimaga_20021011_JP.pdf, page 32

[:File:Edge_UK_088.pdf_p94-13] File:Edge UK 088.pdf, page 94

[:File:ODM_UK_12.pdf_p66-14] File:ODM UK 12.pdf, page 66

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Games in the Virtua Tennis* Series*
	Virtua Tennis (1999) \| Virtua Tennis 2 (2001) \| Virtua Tennis 3 (2006) \| Virtua Tennis 4 (2011)
	Virtua Tennis (2000) \| Virtua Tennis 2 (2001)
	Virtua Tennis (2002) \| Virtua Tennis 3 (2007) \| Virtua Tennis 2009 (2009) \| Virtua Tennis 4 (2011)
	Virtua Tennis 2 (2002)
	Virtua Tennis (2002)
	Virtua Tennis (2003)
	Virtua Tennis: World Tour (2005) \| Virtua Tennis 3 (2007)
	Virtua Tennis 3 (2007) \| Virtua Tennis 2009 (2009) \| Virtua Tennis 4 (2011)
	Virtua Tennis 2009 (2009) \| Virtua Tennis 4 (2011)
	Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition (2011)
	Virtua Tennis Challenge (2012) \| Virtua Tennis Challenge Free (2012)
Sampler Discs
Power Smash Taikenban (20xx) \| Power Smash 2 Taikenban (20xx)

Virtua Tennis

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