Advantages: key to success and winning matches
Disadvantages: depends if you like tennis

...As I am a big fan of tennis, here is my factual information guide to one of the key types of shots in the sport, the serve. The serve is a very important part of tennis and if you ever want to get anywhere in tennis having a good, powerful and effective serve is the key to success. In tennis, a serve is a shot which starts of a point in a rally where the player aims to get the ball in the diagonally opposite service box on the court. There are four service boxes on a tennis court, two on each end of the court but you only use one per point of a game. You can have two attempts to serve in one point before you get a double fault then the opponent wins that point and you have to go onto the next point and serve on the other side. A quick and effective way of scoring points with the serve is to serve aces. An ace is a serve which... Read review

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Advantages: Easy gameplay, decent graphics
Disadvantages: Can't save games in arcade Mode, No commentary

...which is the volley. There's also a training mode, beginnings with an exercise where you have a set time in which to return a constant stream of serves, and hit giant balls hard enough to hit them back over the baseline, but they're slowly moving towards you all the time. This is difficult, especially as you only have a measly 25 seconds to do it in. It reminds me of pool played with a normal sized cue ball and 5 foot high pool balls (assuming Courier is over 6 foot tall), and the graphics on the palm surrounded tennis club, have a Playstaion 1 feel and colour to them. I've only been able to get two balls over at most, and for each ball you hit over the baseline you earn 300 points and $300 as well. You have to complete this task to move onto the next lesson, and I'll update you as to each lesson when I do. I don't know whether or not matches... Read review

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Advantages: Graphics, rane of difficulty settings, enjoyment
Disadvantages: no online mode small arcade features bring it down

...Virtua Tennis has always been an arcade style game instead of being realistic. Virtua Tennis 3 although contains great lifelike graphics is stil unfortunately cursed by the cheesy arcade factors such as the classic small explosion when the racket and ball collide and the line of yellow mist which follows the ball giving it a tail like structure. These features in the game (I believe) bring a tacky and childish part the the otherwise great game. Some would disagree with me but I want to play a sports game that is completly realsitic and although Virtua tennis has toned down the arcade like idea these tiny modifications bring you out of the illusion that this game is real life and you are infact watching a game of tennis being played at Wimbledon. Apart from the arcade defects the graphics are infact pretty amazing. This game, like... Read review

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Advantages: Good graphics, great game play.
Disadvantages: A bit dated and just 16 players available.

...Virtua Tennis 2, probably the best Tennis game around, features 16 players - 8 men and 8 women, playing top class tennis around the world. It may not have the best graphics but they are more than acceptable for a tennis game. The characters are very close to the real-life players, with realistic movements. The controls are very easy, X will simply hit the ball, O to make a drop shot, and Square to do a lob. Nothing too complicated, though you will need a couple of matches to really understand how the game plays. Matches are very easy, normally you play just 2 games, wich is a bit short compared to real-life matches where you play 3 to 5 sets. Yes, the game is easy, but when you play a final, or a high level match in the World Tour, it’s just frustrating how the other player makes you look ridiculous. He will catch every shot, and he... Read review

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Advantages: Graphics | Characters | Game Play
Disadvantages: Nothing

...This is a review on a remake of a classic Super Mario game called Mario Power Tennis. The original version of this game was made for the Nintendo 64, called Mario Tennis, but the newer / better version for the Game Cube is far better, and much more enhanced. Features ******* This game is different to the original version of Mario Tennis with all these new features. You get to do new moves, like power moves, and defensive moves. Every character has its own unique power move and defensive move. A power move consists of smacking a ball toward the enemy with a powerful weapon or a powerful attack of some sort. A defensive move is normally what you would use to get the ball when it is out of your reach, very useful at most times. In a tennis game, you can do singles or doubles, so one on one, or two on two. Also there are four... Read review

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Advantages: Great fun.
Disadvantages: Difficult to find a court, expensive.

...The game of real tennis is the same everywhere. The name given to the game differs in different countries. In Great Britain it is called Tennis or, to distinguish it from Lawn Tennis, Real Tennis or Royal Tennis. In the USA it is called Court Tennis: in France Jeu de Paume (hand ball): and in Australia Royal Tennis. The various names throw light on the development of the game. Tennis originated in France before the 12th century. The whole appearance of a tennis court is influenced by its origins. The first courts were to be found in courtyards immediately adjacent to a castle or in cloistered monastery quadrangles. Originally the players played with their hands (jeu de paume). Later they used gloves, then short bats to hit the ball. The game became very popular and in the 13th century it is said that there were as many as 1,800 courts... Read review

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Advantages: Excercise, rehab, fun.
Disadvantages: Can make your wrists stiff.

...I suffer mildly from tennis elbow and I saw these balls and apparently they can help strengthen the wrist in particular to alleviate the symptoms of tennis elbow?! I am always looking out for various gimmicks related to health and fitness. I had heard of the power ball, had watched a couple of on line video clips and I just had to have one. What is it? * * * * * * * * A power ball is a little ball, roughly the size of a tennis ball, maybe slightly bigger. It is round, mine is blue with a green inside. There is a little LCD on the top to measure and display the revolutions. The ball has an inner ball inside and a gap at the bottom revealing the inner ball, a little bit like the bottom of a computer mouse though a larger hole and heavier ball. The trick is to get the inner ball to spin and maintain and increase... Read review

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Advantages: Excellent world circuit mode, four player mode
Disadvantages: It's not free

...match has a certain “trial shot” for you to attempt, you win a lot more money by winning points using trial shots – play as many trial shots as possible to win the maximum amount of prize money. The game isn’t too difficult especially if your into sports sims – levels are easy, normal, hard and very hard, on the easy level the COM simply hits the ball straight back to you. There’s a massive difference between hard and very hard with opponents moving faster, serving faster and the level of AI (artificial intelligence) is some of the best I’ve seen in sports sims. Apart from the traditional tennis sim point of view, Virtua Tennis can be played from a “first person” perspective giving a fantastic feel of realism especially when used with the compatible vibration pack – Virtua... Read review

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Advantages: Great graphics, easy to pick up and play, lots of different games
Disadvantages: Diving shot a problem

.... And of course, the difficulty also increases. It’s a shame though, that even when you are ranked #300 you still play the professional's such as Roger Federer or Andy Roddick, except that they are terrible and play like beginners. Only later do they start playing like they should but it would have been a nice touch if SEGA had put in randomly generated players to increase the realism. The single player games are lots of fun but there is a slight drawback. Virtua Tennis requires you to press one of the shot buttons, and the longer you hold the button, the more powerful your shot will be. But when you need to run across the court to return a ball, the game takes the first available shot which, if you’ve started to charge up your shot, is a diving shot! If you hold off pressing the button then your return will be weak, leaving the computer... Read review

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Advantages: The multiplayer is one of the best on the N64
Disadvantages: Some older people think they are just too proud to play a Mario game.

...have their own effect in the game. Other items such as lightening will hit all your opponents rendering them unable to hit the ball and a Star will speed you up immensely you become a star player like a Nintendo version of Tim Henman you will play faster, hit harder and become invincible to any attacks! All this and the court you play on is surrounded by lava and will shake from side to side making for some great multiplayer madness! The Piranha challenge is were one of Mario 64’s Piranha plants shoots tennis balls at you much like the real things, it shoots 100 tennis balls at you in all sorts of different directions and speeds and you must return them, return them all and a special prize awaits. The single player cup mode is where many secrets and extras that fill Mario Tennis are unlocked, you choose from singles or doubles... Read review

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