We've finally tested out Wii MotionPlus, courtesy of some hands-on time with Virtua Tennis 2009, and we're pleased to tell you that it works really well. Right off the bat (or racquet as the case may be) it's simple to direct your shots, put more or less power on them and add top spin or slice. It really is satisfying running an opponent out of position to set yourself up for a winner down the line, or seeing an opponent come into the net, allowing you to scoop up with the Wiimote to send a lob over his or her head to bounce just inside the line.
Virtua Tennis 2009 doesn't go for one-to-one motion replication, and while this means it's not the ultimate demo for the technology, we're very pleased that the team has focused on playability.
First of all, grip is important – at the start of each point you're asked to calibrate the Wiimote by pointing it at a particular point on screen (just to one side of your player). This way it knows how you're holding the Wiimote and can judge your swing accurately. Thus, you can adjust your grip for slice or top spin shots. Of course, the flipside of this is that you need to keep the same grip, otherwise the game could misinterpret what shot you're trying to play.
We also found that – to get the most out of the controls - you really need to use your whole body. Stepping into shots and swinging as you would in real life is – gratifyingly – much more effective than standing woodenly, twitching with your arm. This is not going to be a game you can be good at while sitting on the couch. Nope, you've got to get into the game and treat it like tennis.
Naturally enough, you'd assume that the Wiimote + MotionPlus + Nunchuck would be the ultimate combo… and for the seasoned player you'd be absolutely right. There is, however, quite a learning curve associated with using MotionPlus, and at least initially, we found it was more fun taking the Nunchuck out (which you can do at any time – even midway through a rally) and letting the game move our player around so we could concentrate on timing our swings and positioning the ball. At least to begin with, you really don't want to have to be moving your player into position on top of hitting the ball cleanly. This is especially true during multiplayer games when you're often playing at the top of the screen – maybe we're just a little slow, but switching between forehand and backhand, down the line and cross court, gets just that little bit harder at the top of screen because you're, well, you're facing yourself, not your opponent.
Online play has made it in (with everything from the online World Tour mode, which crowns a new world number one every week, to more party game functionality like the ability to play mini-games online with friends… should you want to, not to mention matchmaking by ping, as well as skill), as has character creation and the World Tour mode. The visuals are also very reasonable – sure, it's a much lower resolution and has much lower polygon characters, but it still looks excellent and importantly, has the full animation sets so player movement is top notch.
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