Top Spin

"Who can resist a little one on one with Kournikova?"

With the landslide of sports titles hitting shelves at the moment it may be hard for a gamer to decide which title to spoil themselves with. American football, soccer, league, snowboarding, basketball and ice hockey are all being represented and it seems that this season tennis fans will not miss out with a brilliant racquet smashing hit known as Top Spin out on Xbox. It is to tennis what Pro Evolution 3 is to soccer – a polished simulation of a popular sports game that is great in single and multiplayer. There haven't been many tennis games out lately and certainly none of those have especially impressed and in that sense Top Spin will be welcomed with open arms by tennis fans dying to get back onto the virtual court. After even a short game of Top Spin you will soon come to realise that this game was well worth the wait.

Top Spin is the complete tennis experience allowing Xbox gamers the chance to play a top tennis game in the awesome single player career mode or in online competitions with Xbox Live! and XSNSports.com. In the career mode players can assume the role of their favourite tennis pro or create their own tennis star (male of female) and make the way to glory in the fierce world of professional tennis. Players have to manage tournament entires, sponsors, and their own financial situation as they work their way up the world ranking list. Players can also book sessions with coaches to develop certain skills like lobbing, drop shots and various other aspects of tennis From these coaching drills gamers will obviously become more accustom to the control setup in Top Spin and attributes will be increased on the player within the game so attending the clinics is an essential part in the road to the top. You can expect to meet a number of real pros on the way, including:

- Lleyton Hewitt
- Pete Sampras
- James Blake
- Meghann Shaughnessy
- Tommy Robredo
- Jan-Michael Gambill
- Michael Chang
- Gustavo Kuerten
- Anna Kournikova
- Daniela Hantuchova
- Sebastian Grosjean
- Martina Hingis
- Barbara Schett
- Ashley Harkleroad
- Elena Dementieva
- Amanda Coetzer

Of course anygame is better when the opposition is another human and the intensity goes up another few notches when your name is on the line. Players can work their way up the world ranking list amongst other Top Spin gamers thanks to and XSNSports.com. Essentially players can create, organise and join tournaments and custom events/games and challenge other players from across the world. The website pulls all the information from Microsoft's Xbox Live! service and gamers can pull down game schedules and results to any web browsing device (including your own personal computer). With everything on one central website it is easy for gamers to build rivalries with people from across the world and prove if they have what it takes to be up their with the best.

Players can create their own player with the create a player option, there are plenty of attributes to tinker with and making a virtual version of ones self is remarkably easy. With Xbox Live! players can jump into a quick match of tennis anytime and using the Optimatch feature the Live service will find a gamer at the same skill level with a set of options that you the player are comfortable. Using the voice communicator you can compliment, sledge and annoy the other player – whether you can back it up on the court is another matter.

Like all tennis games players are able to serve, lob, volley and smash there way to victory. The controls in Top Spin are simple enough to pick up with a button for top spin (B-button), back spin (X-button), safe shot (A-button) and a lob shot (Y-button). On top of that players can also perform power and drop shots with the R and L triggers respectively.. In a real game of tennis performing either types of these shots comes with a certain amount of risk and as a result the developers have employed this in the way these hits are executed.

When a player wishes to hit either a drop or power shot they must hold the specific button and a risk meter will appear with a bar moving up and down. Players must then release the button when the bar is in the middle of the meter to achieve a perfect power/drop shot. Extreme accuracy is required as even the slightest imperfection could see the ball being hit out or into the net. After playing for not much longer than 15 minutes the beauty of the risk meter is apparent with players able to blow a game open with a well timed power shot or destroy their hopes with a poorly executed drop shot.

In the top left (or right if you are in multiplayer modes) there is a 'in the zone' (ITZ) meter. This charges when you win points and pull off exciting saves. As the meter charges you will be able to pull of risk and drop shots easier and your standard range of shots will also become more effective and you can really build up momentum by keeping this meter high and really drilling your opponent into a position where it's almost impossible for them to win.

Serving in Top Spin is as easy as it comes with players able to use safe, slice, topspin, power and spoon serves to try and catch out their opponent at the start of a point. The power and spoon serves work by using the risk meter as mentioned above and these are great to use on the first serve (in tennis players have the chance to take two serves at the start of each point, if their first serve goes out then they take the second serve - otherwise it's play on). The spin, slice and safe serves allow players to always hit the ball in (providing they don't touch the analogue stick) and its a simple case of pressing A-button, B-button or X-button once to begin charging the power meter then pressing the button again at the desired power point and the ball will be served.

Top Spin's great gameplay is matched by its aesthetics. The graphics do the job well and are easy on the eye making the game a joy to play from start to finish. During the cut scenes between points the player models look amazing and young Anna Kournikova looks impressive in polygon form as do the male tennis stars (so my girlfriend assures me). These models also move and act realistically on the court as they run back and forth, diving to and fro. Variation between each of the players is noticeable and there are many different swing and serve animations and these are accurate reflections of real-life tennis action.

The playing surfaces vary depending on the type of court and the difference in the way each plays is represented visually with clay, grass, hard and synthetic courts all packing different visual effects. As the ball hits a the top of the clay court puffs of red dust will be displayed and on the grass court players can expect different areas of the court to change colour when a particular area is used heavily Off the court, stadiums are gorgeous to look at with plenty of detail in the crowds. Sponsors boards, ball boys and linesman are all nicely done and they really complete the wonderful visual package.

Players grunt and groan just like in a real tennis match and the sound of the ball bouncing of different court surfaces sounds authentic. A power shot sounds satisfying as it is fired off the racquet and the crowd cheers can really spur you on especially if you have a home court advantage. Unfortunately other aspects of the sound department were not taken care of so effectively. No custom soundtracks can be used and there is a lack of preloaded tracks on the disc to begin with – disappointing. It would have been really nice to sit down and listen the my music on the Xbox hard drive but alas the development team thought otherwise. The commentary is also rather limited with no in game coverage at all and only bits and pieces as a competition begins or ends. Definitely something for the developers to think about for the sequel.

Audio faults aside, for my mind, there has never been a better tennis game. Sure it's an easy sport to replicate with such simple gameplay rules but so many times in the past game developers have butchered this simple formula and produced something that doesn't come close to reflecting the nature of the sport. Top Spin allows player to take risks or play the safe approach and either method is a viable option making for some great multiplayer battles if players have differing tactics. The career mode is satisfying and players have many options when it comes to building up skills and playing in various tournaments against the pros. However it is a little easy to get through and once you have beaten it once there may not be much to come back for. But with Xbox Live! Top Spin becomes one of the finest examples of how online play can add so much depth to a title and with the XSNSports.com world ranking system you can have intense rivalries with players across the globe or just enjoy friendly games with local gamers. This is certainly a must have title for anyone looking at getting Xbox Live! and even those without the online services will enjoy the career mode and system link action. Game, set and match - Top Spin!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/03