Hi, I am Mie Kumagai, Executive Producer for Virtua Tennis. Welcome to the final blog in my series where I have looked at how we have implemented the unique new features of the PlayStation Vita to full effect in Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition.

The PlayStation Vita has allowed us to provide a full console experience in a handheld game, with hi-res graphics and a really extensive amount of game content. Virtua Tennis consists of a full World Tour map, with an exclusive new season for PlayStation Vita and a wide variety of mini-games to take on.

In addition to this core experience, we have also worked to fully take advantage of the unique new features’ of the PlayStation Vita.

Touch Panels

We took full advantage of the touch screen controls when we were developing Virtua Tennis. The front panel allows the player to hit a variety of precise shots with just a touch of the fingertip and the rear panel enables quick and easy navigation around in-game menus and the World Tour map.

You can hit a variety of different shots by sliding your finger across the front panel of the console in different ways. Sliding your finger forward plays a topspin shot, a backwards movement plays a sliced shot and a sharp backwards followed forward slide plays a lobbed shot.

We have also created a multiplayer option called ‘Touch Versus’, which allows two players to play against each other on one console using touch controls and the dual analog sticks to control the players.

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Hi, I am Mie Kumagai, Executive Producer for Virtua Tennis. Welcome to the third of four blogs where I will talk about how we have implemented the unique new features of the PlayStation Vita to full effect in Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition. Today I will talk about the PlayStation Vita cameras.

PlayStation Vita has both front facing and rear facing cameras, with supporting features such as face detection, head detection and head tracking that can be used for personalisation and customisation.

There was a great opportunity with Virtua Tennis to allow the player to personalise their experience as much as possible using the front and rear cameras.

You can put your face in the game using the front camera and rise up the World rankings as you progress through your very own World tour career, competing against top players along the way.

The face detection function of the front camera allows you to import your face onto the PlayStation Vita, before customising every aspect of your player. You can change your appearance, kit and tennis accessories to make your player as similar to you as possible. You can also go on World Tour as your favourite player.

For the rear camera we used augmented reality to allow you to take photos and input your favourite players into them. You could have a photo of you and your family at dinner with Roger Federer hitting shots on the table or Andy Murray posing on your desk at work. It’s a fun extra that I’m sure people will really enjoy playing with.

Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition is out on 22nd February, 2012.

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Hi, I am Mie Kumagai, Executive Producer for Virtua Tennis. Welcome to the second of four blogs where I will talk about how we have implemented the unique new features of the PlayStation Vita to full effect in Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition. Today I will talk about motion controls.

The PlayStation Vita allows you to play games using motion sensors; by simply tilting the screen at angles of up to 360⁰ you can take full control of how you view the game.

In Virtua Tennis you get the most realistic tennis experience possible with a new game mode we have called ‘VR Match’, exclusive to PlayStation Vita. This game mode gives you a first person view of the game and really makes you feel as though you are on the court with the players.

The control you get over the game and how you view the court and its surrounding areas provides a great gaming experience. Matches can be viewed with 360⁰ views of the court and all it takes is to tilt the console to wherever you want to look. This really gives you the feeling of being on the court with the pros.

Another feature using the motion sensing controls is the mini-game ‘Rock the Boat’. This is a fun extra which puts the player against a timer to score the highest score possible. You must reach the checkpoint score in the allotted time to keep the game going and keep increasing your score.

The aim of the game is to hit the targets on the boat; you can do this by ‘rocking’ the boat to reach more targets, by simply tilting the console left and right. When a target lights up red it means you can earn more points when it is hit.

We are sure you will have hours of fun with these new motion sensing features and that they will have you hooked to your PlayStation Vita!

Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition is out on 22nd February, 2012.

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Hi, I am Mie Kumagai, Executive Producer for Virtua Tennis. Welcome to the first of four blogs where I will talk about how we have implemented the unique new features of the PlayStation Vita to full effect in Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition. Today I will talk about the front and rear touch.

When we were developing the game we wanted to incorporate the new features of the Vita into Virtua Tennis as much as we possibly could, whilst obviously making the best game possible.

One of the key features for the PlayStation Vita is front and rear touch. Virtua Tennis takes full advantage of this technology and allows players to play the most precise and responsive shots with a touch of their fingertips.

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Hi again, we’re back for some more Virtua Tennis 4 action, and today we’ll be focusing on the demos. We have two of these and both are coming exclusively to PS3.

One of our big new features for Virtua Tennis 4 is the World Tour career mode, and the this time out we’ve decided to rip up the calendar-based career mode and replace it with a fun board game style.

It’s a completely different take on the career mode as the team wanted to put the fun back into the single player experience. Whilst the calendar themed career was fun, we received feedback from our fans that once you’ve finished the first season the subsequent seasons had a very similar feel to them and there was a feeling of repetition. So the new World Tour is much shorter and your career runs over four seasons, each taking place in a different area of the world culminating in a major tournament, firstly in Australia, then France, then England and finally the USA.

There are many different paths you can take to get to this major tournament so no two careers will ever be the same, but along the way you will need to train, play tournaments, but also boost your star rating by signing autographs and attending charity events.

The key is to balance your success playing tournament with boosting your profile away from the court so that you have the ranking and profile to get invited to the biggest tournaments the tour has to offer.

As it’s such a revolution for the career mode we thought the best way for people to get an idea of what this new World Tour has to offer is via a demo. You will be able to play through around 1/3 of your first season, which will involve designing your character, entering a few tournaments and boosting your profile.

It’s only a teaser of what you can expect from the full career mode, but you will be able to continue your career if you buy Virtua Tennis 4, so in essence it acts as a way of getting your career started before the game is out. Check out the trailer below to find out more about the new World Tour mode.

It’ll be available on 13th April for PS3 gamers only, and also keep an eye out for another PlayStation Move and 3D demo due for release as the real tennis season reaches its peak!

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