Top Spin

"It's all in the wrist."

One of the few sports that rely on self-discipline, individual skills, and individual accomplishments is tennis. The game of tennis, while lacking team unity that other sports are known for, it more than makes up for it with individual stardom and skills. The ability to move around all over the court, even when the return volley seems hopeless is a testament to these battle hard athletes. With real life tennis players like Hingis and Kournakova, this game had the mechanics and the star power.

One thing is certain; the game lacks a potent lineup of tennis players. While it has some good ones, some of the more prominent ones are also noticeably missing. In Top Spin, the player can create their own character and take them through a career mode, which spans through your successes as well as your failures. Career mode is quite deep, and has plenty of features. In career mode, you can improve your player, so your player will gradually get better and have a chance to challenge some of the world's best.

While the career mode is deep and should take a good while before completion, the career mode could have used a more balanced difficulty. For one, the game starts off so easy that you shouldn't expect to lose anytime soon. The computer hardly reacts to the ball, and any hard hit and well-placed ball would go through. Such is the case for a number of opponents. But once you start getting high in the rankings, some of your opponents become so hard that it seems unjust that the jump from the previous rank to the next rank is so high. I can understand that the competition is tougher, but you're also improving and not staying stationary, so what's the deal with the unbalanced difficulty? I wish I knew.

The game's racket hitting action revolves around a power bar that lets you utilize the accuracy and power of the shot. What's even better is that there are plenty of different shots. Placing the ball at the corner of the court is also quite easy. But at times it feels too easy, and the player should have no problem pushing the action and making the computer struggle to volley back. There are also plenty of different shots that you can utilize.

The game is also brought to life with different sponsorships that allow you to feel apart of the game. There are also quite a few tournaments for you to play, which gives this game some much needed value. While there are definitely some flaws, the career mode is lengthy and should keep you busy for a while.

The graphics in this game definitely looks good. The character models are detailed and have a certain realism to them. Characters like Hingis and Kournakova resemble their real life counterparts. The stadium designs also feel good and seem to bring the game into perspective. The various courts also bring the game to life. But one thing that pops out is the background. C\The crowds in the stadium leaves a lot to be desired, but of course most sports titles offer little to no details on the crowds.

The game lacks a commentator, which really sells this game short. Most of the time, the lack of commentating and good music leaves a sense of forsakenness on the court. After a while, I was only focused on the sound of my racket hitting the ball, which felt barren and lonely. The sound department was pretty much a nonexistence. With a nice create a player mode and a handful of famous tennis stars; the game has a nice presentation with some depth and realism.

Top Spin is a solid tennis game, but there are plenty of noticeable flaws. For one, the difficulty feels unbalanced. Commentating was M.I.A. And sadly the game's easy to use power bar can make for some easy and punishing volleys that the computer just cannot match. Not to mention, the lineup of real life tennis players, while good, lacks quantity. There are only a handful of tennis stars, and while most of them were good, some of the more impressive tennis players are not to be seen. Despite most of these flaws, Top Spin still has solid mechanics. The power bar, while a bit overpowering, still offers a nice perspective in playing the game. I would highly recommend you to rent this game first. But if you can overlook some of these obvious flaws, then by all means pick it up because this is one of the few tennis games on the market; let alone being any good. With a lack of tennis games on the market, Top Spin is a solid title that is worth checking out, whether it is through renting or buying.

Graphics – 8/10
Gameplay – 7/10
Sound – 5/10
Value – 8/10
Presentation – 8/10
Overall – 7.3/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/05