Virtua Tennis 2

Virtua Tennis 2, known as Tennis 2K2 in North America and Power Smash 2 (パワースマッシュ2, Pawā Sumasshu Tsū) in Japan, is a sequel to Virtua Tennis that was released for the Sega Dreamcast, Sega NAOMI arcade unit and Sony's PlayStation 2 (known as Sega Sports Tennis in North America) in 2001–2002. New features included the ability to slice and play as female players such as Monica Seles, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport and the males such as Patrick Rafter, Magnus Norman, Thomas Enqvist and Carlos Moyá and mixed doubles matches. The game was created and produced by Hitmaker, with Acclaim Entertainment publishing it in Europe for the PS2. This was the last Virtua Tennis game to be released for the Dreamcast following its discontinuation.

Virtua Tennis 2
European Dreamcast cover art
Developer(s)	Hitmaker
Publisher(s)	Sega Acclaim Entertainment (Europe, PS2)
Director(s)	Katsumoto Tatsukawa
Series	Virtua Tennis
Platform(s)	Arcade Dreamcast PlayStation 2
Release	Arcade 2001 Dreamcast NA: October 23, 2001^[1] JP: November 15, 2001 EU: November 23, 2001 PlayStation 2 NA: July 30, 2002^[2] JP: November 7, 2002 EU: November 29, 2002
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade system	Sega NAOMI

Game modes

Tournament

The player must win 5 matches played on different surfaces and venues to win a tournament. If the player performs well enough, he is challenged by either King or Queen, the game's bosses, depending whether the selected player is male or female.

Exhibition

This is a single match in which the options are customizable.

World Tour

This is the main mode of the game. For the first time in the Virtua Tennis series, the World Tour mode features yearly based and calendarized seasons. Users have to play and win tournaments throughout the seasons, as well as to complete training exercises, in order to progress. Also, unlike any other game in the series, the World Tour mode on Virtua Tennis 2 requires the user to play and train both a male and a female players simultaneously, who can also team up to play in mixed doubles tournaments. The user enters with a rank of 300th for both male and female players, which improves as matches and tournaments are won. In addition, the players' abilities can be improved by completing different training exercises. The focus of the training exercises are to be fun, rather than realistic. Each exercise has four levels, with the difficulty increasing progressively. By completing the hardest difficulty with a certain amount of time left or points scored, an outfit is unlocked, which players can wear in all modes.

Game Content

Playable Characters

Patrick Rafter   Tim Henman   Cédric Pioline   Yevgeny Kafelnikov   Tommy Haas   Thomas Enqvist   Magnus Norman   Carlos Moyá

Venus Williams   Serena Williams   Lindsay Davenport   Monica Seles   Mary Pierce   Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario   Jelena Dokic   Alexandra Stevenson

SPT World Championships Tour Competitions

•   London, Great Britain
•   Melbourne, Australia
•   New York, USA
•   Paris, France
•   Tokyo, Japan

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
	Dreamcast	PS2
Metacritic	90/100^[3]	83/100^[4]

Review scores

Publication	Score
	Dreamcast	PS2
AllGame	^[5]	N/A
Edge	8/10^[6]	N/A
Electronic Gaming Monthly	8.17/10^[7]^[a]	8.17/10^[8]
Eurogamer	6/10^[9]	9/10^[10]
Famitsu	31/40^[11]	N/A
Game Informer	9.5/10^[12]	9.25/10^[13]
GamePro	^[14]	^[15]
GameRevolution	N/A	B+^[16]
GameSpot	8.5/10^[17]	8.5/10^[18]
GameSpy	8.5/10^[19]	84%^[20]
GameZone	8.5/10^[21]	8.8/10^[22]
IGN	9.6/10^[23]	8.5/10^[24]
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine	N/A	^[25]

The Dreamcast version received "universal acclaim", while the PlayStation 2 version received "favorable" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.^[3][4] In Japan, Famitsu gave the former console version a score of 31 out of 40.^[11]

Also in Japan Game Machine listed the arcade version in their December 1, 2001 issue as the seventh-most successful arcade game of the month.^[26]

Notes

1. Three critics of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Dreamcast version each a score of 8/10, 9/10, and 7.5/10.

References

1. . Sega Sports. October 23, 2001. Archived from the original on December 30, 2001. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
2. Douglass C. Perry (July 22, 2002). "Hands-on Sega Sports Tennis". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
3. "Tennis 2K2 for Dreamcast Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
4. "Sega Sports Tennis for PlayStation 2 Reviews". Metacritic. Fandom. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
5. Skyler Miller. . AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
6. Edge staff (Christmas 2001). "Virtua Tennis 2 (DC)" (PDF). Edge. No. 105. Future Publishing. p. 85. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
7. Dan Leahy; James "Milkman" Mielke; Jonathan Dudlak (January 2002). "Tennis 2K2" (PDF). Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 150. Ziff Davis. p. 232. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
8. EGM staff (September 2002). "Sega Sports Tennis". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 158. Ziff Davis. p. 152.
9. Tom Bramwell (December 28, 2001). "Virtua Tennis 2 (Dreamcast)". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
10. Kristan Reed (November 19, 2002). "Virtua Tennis 2 (PlayStation 2)". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
11. "ドリームキャスト – POWER SMASH 2". Famitsu (in Japanese). Vol. 915. Enterbrain. June 30, 2006. p. 54. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
12. "Sega Sports Tennis 2K2 [sic] (DC)". Game Informer. No. 105. FuncoLand. January 2002. p. 90.
13. Matt Helgeson (September 2002). . Game Informer. No. 113. FuncoLand. p. 81. Archived from the original on January 27, 2008. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
14. Four-Eyed Dragon (October 25, 2001). . GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 13, 2004. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
15. Air Hendrix (August 19, 2002). . GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 22, 2004. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
16. Ben Silverman (August 17, 2002). "Sega Sports Tennis Review (PS2)". GameRevolution. CraveOnline. from the original on September 29, 2015. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
17. Ryan Davis (October 24, 2001). "Sega Sports Tennis 2K2 Review (DC)". GameSpot. Fandom. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
18. Ryan Davis (July 29, 2002). "Sega Sports Tennis Review (PS2) [date mislabeled as "October 21, 2005"]". GameSpot. Fandom. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
19. Tom Chick (November 7, 2001). . PlanetDreamcast. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on January 31, 2009. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
20. Gerald Villoria (August 7, 2002). . GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on January 1, 2006. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
21. Louis Bedigian (November 11, 2001). . GameZone. Archived from the original on September 29, 2008. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
22. Nick Valentino (August 19, 2002). . GameZone. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
23. Anthony Chau (October 29, 2001). "Tennis 2K2". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
24. Douglass C. Perry (July 26, 2002). "Sega Sports Tennis". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
25. Todd Zuniga (September 2002). "Sega Sports Tennis". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. No. 60. Ziff Davis. p. 118. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
26. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 – TVゲーム機ーソフトウェア (Video Game Software)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 647. Amusement Press, Inc. December 1, 2001. p. 17.

External links

• Virtua Tennis 2 at the Killer List of Videogames
• Virtua Tennis 2 at MobyGames