Virtual Open Tennis

Acclaim is beefing up its sports collection by snatching up many other third-party games and releasing them itself. One example of this is Virtual Open Tennis. Available for both Saturn and PlayStation (the Saturn version is pictured here), Virtual Open Tennis is, in fact, a completely different game on each system, each developed by different companies.

They may be totally different games, but they seem to suffer from the same problems, problems that have appeared in just about every Tennis game to come out.The most obnoxious problem is with the camera angles. Maybe it's just me, but none of the angles seems quite right. I know a lot of it has to do with the fact that the graphics are so grainy, but depth perception is extremely difficult when you're playing on the far side of the court. Another problem, more noticeable on the Saturn, is player control. Moving that guy to wherever you want him to be is a lot more of a task than it really should be.

Other problems stem from the aforementioned angle and movement difficulties. Neither of these games is particularly bad, but a high learning curve makes what should be a fun experience nothing more than an exercise in tedium.