For those who aren't educated in the way of the racket, Tennis 2K2 features sixteen professionally ranked players, everyone from Patrick Rafter to the Williams sisters to Monica Seles. No, it doesn't have many of the more popular players like Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Martina Hingis, but the cast that Sega has provided will certainly do the job. Yeah, I can hear some of you moan and groan about tennis hottie Anna Kournikova not being in the game, but really, do we need an overpaid and underwhelming player in this game? Hell no! Then again, if we were talking about looks, that's a different story. Sega went to great lengths to make sure that the males and the females do play quite differently from each other. The male players tend to hit harder and move a lot quicker as well as actually diving for a ball, while female players generally are slower, but can handle the ball better. Within each gender, each player also have their own attributes. The Williams sisters are known for their power, while Jelena Dokic is quick on her feet. Overall the game seems very balanced, as no one character really dominates the game, which makes it even better when playing against friends.

Tennis 2K2 uses the same system that Virtus Tennis does when it comes to your shot placements. The accuracy and speed of your shot largely depends on how fast you react to the situation. If you just barely made it to reaching the ball, the result will be a poorly made shot, which is easy fodder for your opponent. Likewise, if you are able to get in position for your opponent's return, you'll be able to drive a bullet down the line. There are also some other minor changes that have been made to the system. In the first game, lobs were easy bait for anyone to smash, because of the automatic tracking of the players and the general slowness of the shot. In T2K2 this has been fixed, and has made for a better overall game; no longer will you fear a smash when lobbing a ball over an opponent's head. New to the game is the slice button, which adds an entirely new dimension to the game. The slice buttons allows you to put a little spin on your return, resulting in a slower shot than the normal shot, which makes it great when setting up a run towards the net or returning an especially hard serve back to your opponent. The addition of the slice button really brings together a new set of mindgames that you can use or need to be aware of when playing against the computer or human opponents. When you get involved in a heated baseline rally for a couple of seconds, and then have an opponent drop a slice that just barely goes over the net, you'll realize just how the game has taken on a whole new set of techniques to master.

Sega had a good thing going with the World Tour mode in Virtua Tennis, but seeing that it didn't exactly last too long, they have gone back and refined it to make it what's quite possibly the best career mode I have ever seen in a sports game. To start off, you get to create two players to your liking. While the character editing isn't the most extensive that I've ever seen, it's more than enough to create the likeness of your favourite player. What follows is a weekly schedule that allows you to play some fantastic mini-games in order to boost the stats of your players, as well as compete in tournaments to win purse money. Just about all of the mini-games are extremely fun to play, such as the returning Pin Crasher and new games such as Disc Shooter and Alien Force. Each mini-game corresponds to a certain ability of your player (serve, volley, stroke, footwork) and by winning any mini-game, you can increase the stats of your player, which makes the World Tour mode more like an RPG than just a silly little extra that was tacked on at the end.

But you'll definitely need those extra stats when you have to enter tournaments in the World Tour mode, because the opponents can be totally unforgiving. Tournaments are split up several different ways, but for simplicity's sake, there are 4 levels of tournaments, with level 4 representing the Majors in the actual APT events. Each tournament has its own rules, such as having to play 3 rounds of 2 games by yourself, or 1 round of 6 games with a doubles partner. I enjoyed how each tournament was a little different from all the other ones, and it only gives the entire game a little more longevity than most sports games normally would have.

So let's get the bad out of the way now. While the graphics have been improved slightly, there's still the aliasing effect on the net that had plauged the first game, and the crowd doesn't exactly look too good. Oh yeah, the game doesn't have online play, and after you've picked this baby up, you'll wish they had included it into this title. Finally, whenever having the computer as a doubles partner, they tend to take over the game (which isn't a bad thing if you're looking for more cash during World Tour mode), which gets pretty annoying, since the computer does get pretty stupid at times. Is this nitpicking? Sure, but it does affect the game, and not for the better.

Overall, Tennis 2K2 is a fine choice for any gamer who is still hanging onto their Dreamcast. The game is an absolute riot in multiplayer, it contains a great single player mode in World Tour, and it's one of the few games to really be a cross between an arcadey sports game and a simulation of it as well. Tennis 2K2 is definitely the type of game that just about anyone can get into, regardless of their affection for the real game.

· · · Reno