Brought to us by our friend’s at Sega Sports, Virtua Tennis manages to once again shed any doubt on which console plays the best sports games. This game has the addictive quality of a drug, leading me to see where people can get addicted to things. Wow.

To be blunt, this game looks absolutely incredible! Incredibly detailed real life players look and move almost better than their "versions" on television. From the opening sequence where doubles partners line up by the net to have their pictures taken (and then proceed to slam it back and forth), to full out dives reaching for the ball, this game has it all. The ten stadiums are second to none, what with animated spotters, ball boys, and Sega’s best looking crowd yet, but it really is the players that shine. There is no robotic tendencies normal with a video game. Players look and move EXACTLY like they do in real life. Virtua Tennis looks so incredible that I feel like I’m watching tennis on the tube (not that I actually watch it… Oh, wait.) AND playing my Dreamcast at the same time. Wow.

Still, graphics are nice, but it’s the gameplay that’s most important for any sports title. Virtua Tennis doesn’t have gameplay in spades, it has it far greater quantities than that! From the very start this game is incredibly easy to pick up and learn. Using either control pad and only two buttons this game controls like a gamer’s dream. It’s simple, yet that’s the beauty. The learning curve is maybe five minutes and then your able to hit a smash with the best tennis players in the world. Easy controls leave the player free to worry about the on-court action and not fretting with making his guy hit the ball over the net. Wow.

Arcade mode, Exhibition mode, and World Circuit mode; this could also be called sleep inhibitor mode. In arcade mode you take on the computer in either singles or doubles and lay the smack down on five increasingly difficult opponents. In exhibition mode your free to grab three friends and sit there for hours playing doubles, singles using computer and human players in whatever combination.

In sleep inhibitor mode your set with the task of becoming the number one ranked player in the world, all the while unlocking new players and courts to be used in exhibition mode. Got it? If only it was that easy. Computer opponents start off easy but quickly get hard. Not, I’ll try once to beat this guy, but I just spent two hours of my life and have nothing to show for it hard. Coupled with singles and doubles matches World Circuit also has some awesome mini-games ala training events. From bowling down pins with your serves to trying to hit balls into upright garbage cans, it it can be done in real life the training mode probably makes you do it, yawn… I really am tired!

Musically this game features some kick-ass guitar work reminiscent of Dead or Alive 2. Interestingly enough, one of the rifts featured in a track is an almost awesome throwback to the tetris days. If only tetris had dreamed to sound like this. Announcers call out points in various languages, depending on where in the world your playing. French in France, Russian in Russia, and English just about everywhere else, you get the picture.

Unfortunately I don’t make a commission, but in concluding if you own a Dreamcast and love addicting fast paced games this is a must buy. As a matter of fact if you don’t own a Dreamcast and love well done games, Virtua Tennis AND the system are probably a must buy. Forget waiting months and months for something else, gaming goodness is here now, in a word: "wow."

Grade: A baby, yeah!