’m sure Sega fans are getting their white shorts dirty in anticipation of the series’ return, but it’s hard for me to understand what all the hubbub is about. When you cling so slavishly to the norm like this, you’ll have to forgive me for not throwing a parade.

I like the career structure of VT 3 and how you juggle minigames, practice matches, and tournaments with needing sufficient rest to replenish your stamina. The minigames are a nice change of pace, and I like how they level up differently for your forehand and backhand. Unfortunately, even the respite of fun in the Avalanche (where you have to pick up rolling fruit while dodging giant tennis balls) and Curling minigames is not enough to bolster the flawed gameplay.

I dislike how tennis games such as this one have player movement and shot direction on the same analog stick. This can make running in one direction and hitting the ball in the opposite direction difficult – something it’s not hard to do in real-life tennis. I also found that your character will freeze when you’re trying to pre-load your shot and move at the same time. Having movement on the left analog stick and a free analog swing on the right could clear this up (think Fight Night), as well as make the tennis more realistic.

Virtua Tennis 3 is a perfectly serviceable tennis game (pun intended) that fails to provide a big enough splash to make it anything else than just another tennis title. Next time I hope it won’t take Sega seven years to come out with the same game.