Virtua Tennis
(for Dreamcast)
Secret Costumes Guide
Version 1.0
11/3/01
By Some Bored Guy
[email protected]
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Table of Contents
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I. Introduction
II. Overview
III. The Games and How to Beat Them
A. Big Wall
B. Cannon Ball
C. Bulls Eye
D. Drum Shooter
E. Smash Box
F. Giant Ball
G. Return Ace
H. Pin Crasher
IV. The End
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I. Introduction: Or, This Game is Old, What's the Point?
========================================================
There are plenty of FAQs and code listings for Virtua Tennis, but they all
lack one thing: they don't tell you how to beat those %$!%in training
games. Sure, you know you have to get all strikes in Pin Crasher to get
a secret costume, but how the heck do you do it? It took me weeks to get
all eight costumes, and if I had known some of the tricks I list below, it
would have gone a whole lot faster. Thus, if anyone is still trying to
beat the games on their own, I offer this FAQ.
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II. Overview: Or, What Am I Getting Myself Into?
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Just in case you don't know, here's how the secret costumes work. In
Circuit Mode, you know how you can buy extra costumes from the shops? Well,
you can also get a secret costume for mastering each training game (Note
that I said "mastering," not beating. Beating each game on Level 3 is
nothing compared to the secret requirements). Big deal, you might say, so
I get an extra shirt. Well, they aren't regular costumes, they're funny
ones. Wouldn't you like to play tennis using a giant sunflower as your
racket? No? Well, who needs you.
Ok, before you start, a couple rules to make things easier. One, I used
Courier. You can use another character, but since each one handles slightly
differently, some of these tactics may not work. Second, once it's clear
that you aren't going to beat the game, start over. There's no sense in
getting the extra hundred dollars for playing all the way through. Third,
remember that playing training games still tires your character out. Check
every five to ten games to see if you're flashing red in the status screen.
If so, it's time for some "energy drink" and new strings. And finally, USE
THE ANALOG. Some people think it's easier to use the D-Pad, but trust me,
you will not be able to do this without the analog.
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III. The Games and How to Beat Them: Or, How Virtua Tennis Ate My Brain
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Ranked in order of difficulty, according to me. Your mileage may vary.
Big Wall
--------
This one's probably the easiest. You need to win with at least 5 seconds on
the clock. Start in the middle and sweep to one side using lobs to hit the
top row of panels. Then come all the way back to the other side using
regular shots to get the low ones. Finally, lob to the last couple top
ones. It's best to stay at the baseline, or maybe a little closer. It
doesn't take a lot of speed or accuracy, and you can get away with a miss or
two, but you should be able to hit a panel on each shot.
Winning gets you Costume 22: A Hawaiian shirt, and a giant sunflower as
your racket. It makes a strange "plop" sound when you hit the ball.
Cannon Ball
-----------
This one looks annoying, but isn't that bad. You have to turn off all the
machines with about 15 seconds left. The main thing you have to do is AVOID
THE RED BALLS. Even touching them will turn a machine back on, so make that
your top priority. Stay at the baseline so you have more time to react.
You don't have to be too exact with your aim, so just aim in the general
direction of whichever machines are still on.
Winning gets you Costume 24: Camouflage and a giant walkie-talkie as your
racket. You hear static when you hit the ball.
Bulls Eye
---------
You need at least 7000 points. Naturally, this means you need mostly
bullseyes. Master serves all over the place, so I found it best to stay at
the baseline and run back and forth. Use the lob and hold either left or
right on the analog. It's basically a guess how much pressure to put on the
analog, but you should get a feel for it after a few tries. You shouldn't
have to adjust up and down, but you'll see what works best depending on where
you are on the court.
Winning gets you Costume 23: Your racket is a tambourine. Guess what sound
it makes when you hit the ball?
Drum Shooter
------------
To win, you need to get a ball into a drum on every hit. That is, you have
to win in 8 shots. The general rules are as follows:
1. Only lob (duh)
2. Hit it to the side the ball is served to. i.e. if Master serves it to
the far left, hit it to the left corner drum.
I stood a little behind the baseline and held down-right or down-left to get
the corner drums, and stood a little ahead of the baseline and held up (and
maybe a little to the left or right) to hit the middle two drums. The others
I stood at about the baseline and aimed for the closest drum.
Winning gets you Costume 26: A giraffe outfit, and your racket will have...
well, giraffe ears I guess. No funny noise.
Smash Box
---------
You need to win with about 10 seconds left. I'm not exactly sure what the
cutoff is, but it's at least 10 seconds. Center yourself under the ball
(usually your character auto-centers), and wait until the last possible
second. Then pull down-left or down-right and tap A to smash it. Aim to the
opposite corner that the ball is. For example, if Master lobs it to the left
side of the court, hold down-right to smash it to the other side. If you're
lucky, your first two hits should clear out all but one or two boxes, and
after that it's just a matter of precision with the analog. With the
remaining boxes, you'll probably want to hold down A early to get the most
control over your shot.
Winning gets you Costume 25: A zebra outfit. Your racket gets ears. No
funny noise.
Giant Ball
----------
You have to knock all the balls off with about 10 seconds left. This is a
major pain, because they're big and heavy, and take a lot of power to move.
Run up quickly and slam the first ball slightly off its center. That should
knock the back corner balls out right away (If you don't hit the back two
balls out on the first shot, you should probably start over). Stay close to
the net and attack the closest ball. Try to only hit to the side the
(tennis) ball is on. So if it's served to the left side of the court, hit it
back to the left. You'll also want to hold up (or up-right or up-left) to
put more power into your shots.
Winning gets you Costume 28: A black shirt that says "Fire" and a racket with
"flames" shooting out of it (not as cool as it sounds, though). No funny
noise.
Return Ace
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This one took a very, very long time, but luckily, there's a trick to it.
You have to clear all nine boxes in two hits. There might be more than one
way to do it, but this was how I got it to work: First of all, Master's first
two serves can't be at max. If he does a max serve, you won't have the time
to set up a good shot, so I'd suggest you save yourself some time and start
over. Hold down A early so you make a strong hit. For the first shot, I
stood a bit ahead of the baseline at the bottom-right corner and held up,
aiming at the bottom right box. i.e.
o o o
o o o
o o x
u
Aim for the "x," the "u" is you.
If you're lucky, you'll get something like this for serve 2:
- - -
o - -
o o -
For shot two, do the same thing (stand in the corner and aim straight up),
and with a little more luck, you'll nail 'em all.
- - -
o - -
x o -
u
Winning gets you Costume 21: Your racket becomes a frying pan (maybe a wok?)
and makes a loud "bong" when you hit the ball.
Pin Crasher
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Wow. This one is insanely hard. You have to get seven strikes in a row. One
for each frame and three in the fifth. Here's the deal: although they vary
slightly, there are really only nine different positions for the pins (left,
center, right; with front, middle, back), so if you can figure out how to get
a strike on each one, it'll be that much easier. Basically what you want to
do is serve it to the front-most pin with enough power to knock it over, but
soft enough that it falls over slowly and takes down the rest smoothly. It's
a good idea to not move from your starting position. That'll make it easier
to remember how to hold the analog for each situation. Here are some general
rules that I used, but you'll learn better by trial and error. (These are all
assuming you're at the bottom right. Reverse the directions when you're at
the bottom left)
Pins at the Far Back & Left:
3/4 power, up-left on analog. This one I found to be the biggest pain.
Sometimes serving with the lob button works.
Pins at the Far Back & Center:
3/4 power, up on analog.
Pins at the Far Back & Right:
3/4 power, hard right on analog.
Pins at the Middle & Left:
1/2 power, hard left on analog.
Pins at the Middle & Center:
1/2-3/4 power, usually don't have to aim at all.
Pins at the Middle & Right:
1/2 power, right on analog.
Pins at the Close & Left:
1/2 power, hard down-left on analog.
Pins at the Close & Center:
1/2 power, down on analog.
Pins at the Close & Right:
1/2 power, down-right on analog.
It's usually a bad idea to hit at max power. You get much more control over
the ball by hitting it softer. Start over if you don't get a strike. Spares
aren't good enough, even in the final frame.
Winning gets you Costume 27: A "Virtua Bowl" shirt and a giant bowling pin for
a racket. Makes a slightly different noise.
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IV. The End: Or, Done and Done. And I Mean Done.
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A final note: getting all the secret costumes is incredibly frustrating and
will take a LONG time. I would suggest avoiding it if you value your life.
But if you're one of those people who must unlock EVERYTHING in a game (or if
you find this "fun" somehow), then I hope this guide is of some use to you.
I don't plan on updating this, especially since Virtua Tennis 2K2 is out now
(and not as good, in my opinion). I can't really get much more specific on
the hints, either. It's a lot of luck, and a lot of precise control on the
analog. Best of luck to you.
Rest in peace, Dreamcast.
