You wait days for a compelling reason to put in that PSP pre-order and then three come along at once. First EA announces Burnout Legends, then Sports Interactive says it's making a PSP version of Football Manager 2006, and now Sega smears generous portions of delicious sugary icing all over the cake by revealing Virtua Tennis World Tour for Sony's handheld wonder. The game will be developed by UK-based studio SUMO Digital, previously responsible for the criminally overlooked Outrun 2 on Xbox (if you have an Xbox and a pulse I suggest you buy it immediately) and will be launched in the autumn...
Of course it will feature real-life international players, of course it will feature a Wi-Fi four-player mode, of course there will be a new version of the famed Virtua Tennis World Tour mode where you travel around the globe competing in glamorous tournaments and trying your hand at crazy training mini-games (my personal favourite - smacking the enormous tennis balls off the court!). Ah it brings back memories... the year 2000, a stuffy office, a copy of Virtua Tennis, a Dreamcast magazine fighting the fading of the light, all of us gathered round the TV in our shorts attempting back-hand cross court volleys. "Erm, it's deadline week," shouts the production editor, "Yes, yes, just another set," I pant. "You said that three days ago," comes the stern reply. Those were the days my friends.
