"A HUGE letdown."

Well, recently, I found myself rather fond of tennis, and tennis games. The first tennis game I have ever played was Top Spin 2 for the XBox 360. After playing that spectacular game, I knew I had to have the first one.

I was surprised to find out that Top Spin was available for the PS2. I have an XBox, but it was being borrowed by my idiot of a father, so therefore I did not get the game for the XBox. Rather than buying the game for the PS2, I decided to rent it. To this day, I think it was one of the most wisest gaming decisions I have ever made.

Graphics: 6/10

Although I was a bit disappointed with the game overall, I must say that Top Spin has somewhat good graphics. However, they weren't as I expected them to be. Compared to the XBox version ((which I now have, after recently getting my XBox back)), this game looks more like a PS1 game compared to the XBox version. While the backgrounds of the courts, and the courts themselves look good, the characters and the audience members do not. The character models are more toned down, looking almost blocky. It is also hard to tell if your player resembles their real-life counterparts, since the game has no close-up shots of them what-so-ever during gameplay, so don't even bother trying to see if Maria Sharapova or Roger Federer resemble their counterparts. And the audience, well, they look as if they were drawn by a 3 year old. There is no detail AT ALL in the audience. But like most sports games, the audience does not matter. The Create-A-Player, however, was absolutely horrible. No matter what I did to my character, they always turned out to be rather ugly. Even though you can sculpt your character's face and body, you cannot sculpt their eyes, which I found frustrating, because all of the characters I make, or attempted to make, all had eyes that were too close to their nose, making most look almost inhuman. Heck, even Hard Hitter Tennis' Create-A-Player system was better than this, and THAT was bad.

Controls: 8/10

The controls, in my opinion, were pretty good. They only took me a couple minutes of getting used to. I had played Hard Hitter Tennis before this, and the controls were pretty much the same. X or circle to hit the ball, triangle to lob it, etc. The controls were pretty good, although I had some moments where I wanted to throw my controller across the room, cause at some point where I would press a button, my character wouldn't even budge, missing the point. Overall, pretty good, but not spectacular.

Sound: 4/10

Ugh, the sound. This is what disappointed me the most. Though there is not much sound in tennis games, other than audience, racquet hits, and occasional grunts, this game disappointed me. The audience doesn't even sound like a "true" audience. To be honest, whenever they got up to clap, it sounded as if they were Rice Krispies that were snapping, crackling, and popping. The sound of the racquet hits are toned down, and no longer "echo" like they do in the XBox version. Seriously, no matter which stadium I was in, no matter how many times I adjusted the sound in the options, the racquet sound still sounded the same. The player grunts are alright, though they are all the same, and most times "repeat" themselves over and over, which gets alittle annoying. The ambiance is average, though this only kicks in when you're playing in the "Playground" type courts. Other than that, the ambiance in the Minor Pro, Pro, Major Pro, and Grand Slam stadiums are absent, giving the game a sort of "bland" and "boring" feeling. The commentator also adds to this, since it is the same voice over and over, and does not even speak over an announcing system.

Replay Value: 10/10

This is where the game really shines, in replay value. Not much to say here, other than if you want to waste some time, just play this game. It's not the best in the world, but hey, it'll pass some time on a boring Sunday afternoon.

Overall rating: 5/10

Rent or buy?

If you REALLY want this game, then by all means, buy it. But if you're not sure, rent it. However, I don't even think it's worth the money to even RENT it. I certainly regretted wasting my 6 dollars on this game, which I got bored of in less than a day. Personally, if I were you, I'd buy the XBox version. At least THAT is worth your money. I found mine on sale in Sears, brand-new, for 5 dollars. And although it seems weird to dislike a game on PS2, but like the exact same game on XBox, well, play the two and compare them.....you'll see what I mean.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/24/06