Virtua Tennis took the genre back to basics; two shot buttons (essentially, 'high shot' and 'hard shot'), automatic diving, challenging AI; at its simplest level, all you had to do was get your guy in place and decide what shot you wanted to take - OK, the same as you have to do in all other tennis games, but so easily achieved here that you could pick up the mechanics in your very first game. Obviously, this is a result of the game's arcade roots; in an already-declining industry, arcade gamers were unlikely to spend hours, and pounds, getting to grips with the complicated mechanics of a traditional tennis game.

So, the first Virtua Tennis was a hit; gamers loved its more simplistic take on things, and the groundbreaking graphics improved things further. But there were issues with the game - simplistic is one thing, but to get to the stage where both players can be right up at the net, exchanging shots in milliseconds by simple hammers of the buttons is quite another - not only overly simple, but extremely unrealistic. The computer AI was punishingly difficult for tennis game novices; the step up from Easy mode to Normal mode wasn't so much a difficulty curve as a difficulty cliff. For those who preferred a longer term game, there was no way to play a match over more than one set other than restarting after every set was completed and remembering the scores yourself.

The first thing you'll notice about Virtua Tennis 2 is how little the front-end has changed; the menu screen is almost exactly the same as the first, and the option screen is also hauntingly familiar. The character select screen and music work exactly as before, with the notable inclusion of eight female players where the eight hidden players were last time.

Into the game proper, you'll notice the drastically improved graphics on the players (in the last game, poor choice of colours and textures meant that most of the players - and particularly Cedric Proline - looked as though they had been rotting underwater for eight weeks before their models had been created, it was almost like a Sega cross-franchise Tennis of the Dead). You'll notice the far more difficult serving - it's unbelievably easy to put a serve out in this new game, which was an uncommon occurrence in the original. Above all, you'll notice how much faster and more difficult the new game is, and while your first match on Easy mode will still be easy, the game soon ramps up the difficulty to ferocious new levels. Returns come whistling past you much faster than before; try running to the net for a quick smash early on in a rally and you're more likely to fall foul of a sly lob shot than you are to slice the ball along the net out of the other guy's reach.

In short, this game plays a different game of tennis than the last one did, and those who are expecting to use the same old techniques are going to be disappointed - while they might still work against your mate in two-player mode, the computer has gotten wise and just isn't going to fall for your cheesy tricks any more. The whole game system has been tightened up - diving is less frequent, and recoveries from dives are much, much quicker than before. The pace of the game in general is higher which helps lessen those pinball situations with both players up at the net hammering the smash button for all they're worth. Thankfully, while the sound has remained effective, the music has moved on from the god-awful cod-rock of Virtua Tennis to a much more effective modernist theme. In real terms, however, the main difference between the titles, and the one which will cause the most difficulty in updating your tactics, is that the repertoire of shots has been extended to three - the slice shot makes an appearance this time round. While this dilutes the original's immediacy, it does mean that more shots are open to you (and, of course, your opponent).

Probably the most interesting feature of the original game was its World Tour mode, which allowed you to take a player from humble beginnings to world champion in what represented the game's only real long-term challenge. It's good to see that Sega have made a real effort to make this part of the game different to last time, with a calendar of forthcoming events, and the challenge matches from last time with an (almost) all new set of mini games. The mini games were a lot of fun in Virtua Tennis - in Virtua Tennis 2, they're slightly disappointing. Pin Crasher makes a welcome return to help you out with the new serving, and while you can see exactly which aspects of your playing are being tested and exercised by other mini games, the difficulty level of some of them is enough to put the player off persevering with this mode - which is a shame, as the depth of this part of the game is staggering for a sports title.

It's been described before as a 'Sports RPG' and that description isn't too far off the money - the improving attributes of your player following events are very reminiscent of RPGs, and you stand little chance of beating some of the harder challenges without enough 'levelling up' - again, a concept familiar to RPG fans. You can't take any of the 'stock' players through the World Tour mode - instead, you have to create a male player and a female player before you start, and build them up as you go on. Once you've created these players, they'll become available on the player select screen of the arcade and exhibition modes, which is an obvious incentive to improve your player's ability in the world tour mode.

Sadly, many of the original's problems remain in Virtua Tennis 2. The game is unbelievably difficult for inexperienced players - while it's easy to pick up the controls, you only have to watch a new player taking on a normal level CPU opponent (or even an easy level opponent about two or three games into arcade mode) to realize that this game is not going to appeal to those new to the genre, as they'll simply become frustrated by the computer's suspiciously good AI (read: the computer cheats in this game, just as it did in the last one). It's still all too easy to be fooled by a lob-shot; while the graphics in this game are fantastic, it's often impossible to tell that a shot has been lofted until it's far, far too late to do anything about it. You'll spend a lot of time throwing your controller on the floor as your player ineffectually waves his arms about trying to smash a shot which looked like a simple return but is actually too high for him to reach. In the same vein, thanks to the aforementioned 'suspiciously good AI', any lob shot attempts of your own will usually result in you losing the point to a staggeringly well placed smash, which is irritating - lobs are effective against human players, but not against computer players.

There is a general feeling that this game is more a tweak than a new version - this sentiment has been expressed over and over on bulletin boards around the world. To some extent, you have to agree with this judgment - this is how a home version of Virtua Tennis should have been in the first place; while the original was an admirable arcade conversion with a few funky home extras thrown into the mix, apart from the extra shot button, this is really nothing more than a new version of Virtua Tennis where relatively few significant improvements have been implemented - in essence, it's Virtua Tennis with one extra shot and an updated World Tour mode, and you can't help but feel that if EA had dared to publish a new sports game with so few real improvements as this one, they would be roundly lambasted for it. While this is hardly a FIFA style cash-in job, those who owned the first game are likely to feel that this is a good game, but a good game whose ultimate effect is to stop them from playing the original. Of course, it's intrinsic that a sequel should improve on what's gone before, while retaining the style and feel, but a good sequel shouldn't detract from its original the way this one does.

On the other hand, this is still a very accomplished game, and will present a significant challenge, both as a short term arcade blast, a mid-term five-set epic with a friend (even though you still have to restart the game after every set and remember your scores), or a long-term World Tour challenge, and to criticize it for what's gone before it seems harsh - after all, this is hardly the first sequel to show up its predecessor for what it was. Those who loved the first game and long for more of the same should look no further; likewise, those who didn't buy the first one but liked the look of it should, without a doubt, pick up this one instead - however, those who liked the first game but don't play it too much these days (as well as those who just plain and simple didn't like the first one) would be well advised to think long and hard about this as a worthwhile investment, as those who weren't particularly grabbed by the last game are unlikely to be particularly grabbed by this one either.