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Not perfect, but very very realistic...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 51 / 53
Date: June 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have been waiting for a really great tennis game for the Wii since it came out. I have played Wii Sports Tennis many times and have found it to be loads of fun... But it wasn't very realistic. Enter, Top Spin 3... Much more realistic and much more accurate than the Wii Sports Tennis. The controls are not easy to pick up... Timing is very important in this game, much like real tennis. Body position is important too since you have to take a good back swing. I must tell you that I got quite a workout playing this game... The graphics are not the best, but I already expected that. The Wii was never designed to be able to give amazing graphics. It was designed to be interactive and fun. I have heard so much criticism about bad the graphics are compared to the Xbox, and PS3, but like I said, it's not about the graphics... In any case, they are not terrible by any means, and they don't take anything away from the game while playing. In fact, like real tennis, you have to keep your eye on the ball in order to play well, so you really don't even notice if the graphics are good or not... I found some things really interesting about the game play. I took several tennis lessons in my life, and I can remember the instructor stressing to me that I should start my back swing as soon as my opponent hits the ball and I see which side it's going to (my backhand or my forehand). The sooner you start your back swing, the better your position will be when the ball gets to you. This is very much like in Top Spin 3... Your player reacts to your back swing, and you must start it early in order to be in good position and take a good swing, and the wider and rounder the swing, the better. It also causes you to have a good follow though, which is very important in tennis. It's not like the Wii Sports, where you can just kind of jerk the controller and make the shot. I found this to be very much like real life. So, you use the nunchuck to move your player and after you start your back swing, to place your shot. You have much more control of the player and the game than you could ever have with Wii Sports. Another thing I liked is that, unlike in Top Spin 2 where you can almost predict what your computer opponent is going to do, in this game you can get into nice long rallys and wait for the right time to make your move. I do wish that you could create a player so that it would play more like you do in real life, and I'm sad that there is no online play, but the game is very much fun, and realistic. To me, there is nothing like interacting with a game. So, if you want amazing graphics and you want to sit on your butt and push buttons, then get the game for the Xbox or PS3... But, if you want to get into the game and feel like you are playing a real game, then this is for you... Once you get the hang of it, and the timing, you will find yourself loving the great passing shot you made, or the amazing volley... I hope this helps, enjoy...

Lefty? Don't Buy!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 16
Date: June 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game cannot be played left handed, which was a major dissapointment. Also cannot create player or play online. Save your money.

Not what it was billed as

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: June 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Im so disappointed. Two of the main reasons i decided to buy Top Spin, was that amazon billed it as having online playability, and also billed it as having a player creator that allows you to make your own 'people' that look real.

The wii version comes with neither. Also the tutorials are crap. I expect a tutorial to be interactive and tell you whether you're doing what you're supposed to do. Top Spin has no 'tutorials' in that sense, it just has 10 seperate screens where there are typed instructions for how to do a certain 'action'.

I will give points for the music-- its fantastic, but Im thorougly disappointed with everything else. Even the 'fun games' mode is nothing more than regular tourney play with a slightly different 'point' system.

So disappointing.

Lots of fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: June 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My husband and I were addicted to Wii Sports tennis, and we maxed out the game play on it. Top Spin 3 is alot of fun. The music is great. We are still learning how to play it and haven't figured out all of the shots yet. I highly recommend!

Was Waiting a Long Time...For This...(sigh)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: June 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

As soon as I got my Wii last October, I was waiting for a good tennis game, since tennis and Wii seemed to be made for each other. Sega Superstars Tennis is just plain garbage, and then I found out the TopSpin3 was coming out for the Wii. The original date was the same day WiiFit was coming out, so they pushed the release of TopSpin3 back a month. I had heard great things about the Wii version of this game from people who had played advanced copies of it.

Finally, I picked it up the day it was released, having reserved a copy of it at a local store. Let's just say it was a different game than what I was expecting.

First, the players. As was mentioned in other reviews, there is NO Player Creator. Also, as far as oldies are concerned, there is NO Bjorn Borg or Monica Seles...Becker is the only blast from the past here (unless you count Henin). There are some made-up players, but here is a list of real players on this game:
MEN
Roger Federer
Tommy Haas
Gael Monfils
David Nabandian
Andy Roddick
Andrew Murray
James Blake
Mario Ancic
Tomas Berdych
Mark Philippoussis

WOMEN
Maria Sharapova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Justine Henin
Nicole Vaidisova
Caroline Wozniacki
Amelie Mauresmo

Also, don't expect to find online gameplay, because it isn't there.

Gameplay itself wasn't bad, but there are a few things that make it goofy. First, you have to hold the WiiMote on the side. I don't know how that makes it feel more like a tennis racquet, but whatever. Because the controller is on its side, the "B" button is the key button that gets you into everything, and that takes a little getting used to. The stick on the Nunchuck both moves the player as well as controls the direction of the ball, so it's a little difficult running one direction and hitting to the other (for instance, running to the left and hitting to the right), but even that can get better with practice. Net Volleys are VERY difficult to execute with any consistency, so you are almost forced to stay at the baseline. Serving has a timing meter that you get to see AFTER you commit to your swing, so it takes a bit of feel to get serving down (so in other words the meter shows you WHETHER you hit a good serve, but it doesn't help you TO hit a good serve, because ou have already committed to the serve before the meter registers anything). One nice feature on the serve is that the "Z" button will automatically lollipop in a 2nd Serve for you, so you don't have to double-fault all the time until you get serving down.

There are various games to go through in a type of Career Mode. There are 11 such games, and it took me a while to figure out how to save in the middle of each of the 11 legs, but I have since learned that it can be done.

And that gets me to the manual. It is of very minimal help when learning this game. For instance, Mauresmo isn't even in the manual as one of the players.

The music has been mentioned as a plus. My favorite part of that is the fact that in a few of the screens, they play the disco song that Napoleon Dynamite danced to in the movie while he was helping Pedro win the class presidency. Now if they had made Napoleon Dynamite one of the players...that would have been pure genius.

All told, this is the best tennis game out for the Wii at the moment. I have had a lot of fun playing it over the past two days, but it almost seems too easy for me. I have never lost a set. Maybe it will get more challenging, but I doubt it. The more I play this, the more it seems like a game that is going to be going for half its original cost in a few months. I am glad to own it, but I hope TopSpin4 will be a vastly improved version of this game. Until then, this will have to be my tennis fix during the long Midwest winters!

A good video game. Bad Wii game.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: June 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I love the tennis that comes with Wii Sports - it's fun and easy. Unfortunately it is not a complete game. You can't play a full set, and don't have a choice of shots (like drop, etc).

I was hoping that TopSpin3 was the answer. Sadly it is not. It is essentially a tennis video game adapted to use the Wii controller, instead of a full Wii game.

For example. No backswing is necessary for backhands. You just swing and it does the work for you. We played this a few minutes last night, then switched back to Wii Sports tennis and had way more fun.

Hopefully Nintendo will build out each of the games that comes with Wii Sports and sell them as fuller, richer individual games.

NO PLAY FOR LEFTYS!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: June 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

THIS GAME SUCKS!! How can a tennis game be released that does not play left handed! I guess if Rafa Nadal, Jimmy Conners or John McEnroe (all hall of famers & lefty's) wanted to play they should forget about it. Wii Tennis (a cartoon game) can be played lefty and this supposedly realistic game can't? The programmers who made this game are a joke to their profession and are seriously LAZY! Also, you can't create your own player. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!

Could have been better

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I was really looking forward to this game, and I have to say that I can only hope EA sports decides to get into Tennis. Playing Madden and (to a somewhat lesser extent) Tiger Woods Golf really immerses you in the sport, with loads of players to choose from, the ability to create your own player, etc. The gameplay in Top Spin 3 is ok (impossible to volley is a minus, and unless the opposition gets better I'll never actually lose a set to anyone), but the relation to real pro tennis is pretty minimal. If EA can go into so much detail that you're actually lining up golf sponsorships to be able to afford better golf clubs, I think 2K can do better than a handful of real stadiums and players with no ability to create your own player or improve your skills or play on tour. It's obviously a game they developed for Sony and XBox and decided to cash in on the success of WII Tennis with a half-hearted effort.

Need some time to swing well. Okay for multiple players but very little fun for single player.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 16
Date: July 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

****__Control
***___Family Fun
**____Individual Fun
***___Overall

--- Descriptions ---
1) Control:
Much more realistic control than Wii Sports but more complicated (i.e. You don't need to move the player and only need to swing in the way you like it in Wii Sports). The control is a five-star for me but not for everyone. So I have to give it a four-star.

For beginners of sport games, it might takes a while to learn the simultaneous motions of moving the player by left thumb, choosing the swinging type (i.e. regular swing, slice swing, etc.) by left index finger, and swinging the bat by right hand. Also, the timing of swinging takes a while to get use to. The experience of Top Spin does help to the timing. In Top Spin, you need to move the player to proper location and push the swing button pretty early than you imagine. Once you push and hold the swing button, the player only "slides" a little bit toward the moving direction due to inertia (i.e. slides more on the sand in Paris) and the direction control becomes the control of aiming. For example, if you want to move toward left and swing the ball toward the right, you need to do the following control: (1) click left button (2) when you think the player reach the good spot for swing even the ball is still on the way, click and hold the swing button (3) at the same time, you need to release left button and hold right button.

Similarly, Top Spin 3 is following the same theory as Top Spin. You need to run to the proper spot for swinging and swing the bat even the ball is on the way to the spot. Once the ball reaches the spot, change the direction control (by left thumb) to the direction for aiming. If these control can be performed smoothly and the player has good ability for the motion, you can see a very smooth and strong performance of the player. Beyond that, if you can choose proper swinging type (by index finger) and swing properly (bottom-up diagonal swing for top spin, top-bottom diagonal swing for slice) at the same time, you will become a pro of the game.

Because of the way to control this game, when the opponent serves a super fast ball, you might have difficulty to catch the ball. The timing between the ball is released from the opponent and the ball reaches the swing spot, which is the exact time you have to make a decision for swing, is very short. When you face this kind of speedy serve, you can only guess and make either forehand or backhand swings within that timing. And cross your fingers that you can reach the swing spot in time and switch the direction control for aiming.

2) Family Fun
I give the game a three-star for this section because you will need four sets of Nintendo Wii Remote and Nunchuck Combo to play two-on-two. Furthermore, it's difficult to have four competitive people who all get used to the control.

3) Individual Fun
Unlike Top Spin and Virtua Tennis 3, "create new player" is on longer available. Yes, it's fun to play with known players. But it's even more fun to create a player on your own and watch his growth through numbers of trainings. All you can do from the game is "Road to Glory Mode". It's a tree structure of events. You need to pass the events from the bottom of the tree and reach the glory by finish all the events. There are around 1x events totally. You can save after you pass some of the events and load to continue the rest next time.

4) Overall
I don't recommend to buy this game. If you want to enjoy the fun of swinging, you need to practice more or have some experiences from the previous game. If you want to have fun with your family, you need four Nunchucks. If you want to create a new player and build up his ability in the way you want, sorry this is not the game you want to buy. I will recommend the training games/tasks in Top Spin and Virtua Tennis 3, and the way you can increase the world ranking of your player in these two games.

Greatly disappointed

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is greatly disappointing. The primary problem I had was that you have to play with the numchuck in your left hand, which makes you feel like playing tennis with a 2 foot rope tied between your two hands. As a result, the swings are not natural and your balance during play is nothing like real tennis. Maybe it would be more natural for people who hit both two handed back-hands and fore-hands where your left and right hands are allways close together. Having to control your character's running motion and the direction of the ball via your left thumb on the numbchuck expounds the bizare unnatural feeling. The game requires you to hold the controler in your right hand also in a strange manner with your index finger against the trigger button, and worse than the normal way to hold the controler in other games which is more like a tennis handshake type grip. i could only take this for about 15 minutes after which I smashed my elbow into a light while trying to time the serve swing with both my arms in the air. I won't play the game again. A big waste of money.

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