Game, Set, Pad

Virtua Tennis 4 has destroyed two of my control pads. Once was unlucky, but twice is foolish of me. This is not from anger. I did not throw them against the wall in frustration (although trying to unlock the hidden character King pushed me close to doing so). My PS3 pads broke in the same way - the rim that surrounds the left analogue stick collapsed and broke off. Virtua Tennis caused just too much harsh back and forth, the pad could not stand up to the repetitive punishment. My first pad was black, my second was white, for my third pad I bought a gold one. I also decided to move onto Topspin 4, and although it is also a tennis game it shows the difference between the two games that the golden pad is still working fine years down the line.

I'm not saying Virtua Tennis 4 is a bad game, after all it is intended to be more of an arcade version of tennis than a full simulation. Playing it with an arcade stick would work best. I must get one as I do miss some Virtua Tennis.

Speaking of broken pads, I remember a friend of mine who used to get so frustrated and angry with his games he used to bite down hard on his control pad. You'd notice the teeth marks on them when you went round his house. But then the only games he had for his Mega Drive were Dark Castle, Fantasia and World Cup Italia 90 so maybe the bite marks are understandable.