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A fun tennis game buried beneath aggravation

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 22 / 24
Date: November 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

On the one hand, Top Spin can be a fun and addictive tennis game--easily the best on Xbox and, in most respects, more than a match for the classic tennis game, Virtua Tennis. On the other, Top Spin is weighed down by numerous little points of irritation and frustration. Alone, none of them would make a major difference, but when put together, they really hurt the overall product.

First, the good. Top Spin is easy to pick up--if you've ever played any console tennis game, you can get the basics down in a minute or two; and if you haven't, there's a quick and easy tutorial. The controls work well here, with each button hitting a different kind of shot (normal, slice, top spin, lob), and the triggers allowing for more difficult drop and risky shots. The graphics are great, with gorgeous stadiums and nicely animated players. And the career mode is nice, with a create-a-player feature that lets you design even the particularities of your player's face and body type. As you play in career mode, you can develop an individual set of skills for your player. You might want to serve-and-volley, or stay on the baseline and hit with power. Any type of player is easily created.

But Top Spin has too many problems. The handful of licensed (real life) players are powered-up over and above their stats, so that the difficulty level swings wildly between the made-up players you'll face and the real-life ones. Second, the game abuses the risk shot system--obviously, the game doesn't have the same timing issues as a player, and your AI opponent will frequently kill you with perfect risk shot after risk shot. Perhaps most annoyingly, given that the Xbox has a hard drive, you can't quit playing in the middle of a tournament in career mode and come back later--you have to forfeit. Probably for this reason, in career mode, you win a set at 3 games, not 6. This makes the game even more frustrating, because if you're broken by the AI, you have to immediately break-back or the set may well be over.

All told, I enjoy Top Spin, but only in small doses, and not nearly as much as I might have. It remains the best tennis game on Xbox, but if the obvious points of frustration had been solved during development, it might have simply been the best tennis game.

Not quite the equal of Virtua Tennis

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 28 / 37
Date: November 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

As a major fan of Sega's Virtua Tennis and Tennis 2K2 on the Dreamcast (the latter also appearing on the PS2 as Sega Sports Tennis), I could not wait to get my hands on Power And Magic Development's newest virtual tennis game, Top Spin Tennis. A relatively unheralded console developer, PAM has done a fantastic job taking Sega's amazing formula and attempting to refine it - in fact there are aspects of Top Spin that are improvements - but despite the online capabilities of Top Spin, the gameplay itself doesn't quite match the fine-tuned perfection of Sega's efforts.

Top Spin was designed from the start to be more of a simulation than the arcade-based Virtua Tennis, and as such has more complex gameplay. Each face button on the Xbox's controller is used for a different kind of shot: A is a "safe" shot, X is a slice, B is an angled top spin shot, and Y is a lob. These shots can also be used to mix up your serves. In addition, each trigger performs a "risk" shot, which can be quite a potent weapon when mastered. The R trigger is used for power smashes, and the L trigger is used for drop shots. As a result, the game doesn't quite have the same instant pick-up-and-play accessibility of Virtua Tennis, but once some time is spent behind the controller, the shots become second nature. Top Spin also features an In The Zone meter, which is basically a power meter meant to simulate adrenaline. Play well, and the meter rises, and once full, risk shots come easier and the player performs at his/her peak. To help with this, you can have your player react in between points, celebrating a great effort or complaining at a missed opportunity.

Top Spin features several modes, including a tutorial, Exhibition for up to four players, and a mode that lets you create a Custom Tournament. Most of your single-player hours will be spent in Career Mode, in which you build your own player using a pretty robust creation system and send him or her out on tour in a quest to become number one in the world. Your player travels from continent to continent, competing in various tournaments, earning sponsorships, and visiting coaches to learn skills. This aspect of Top Spin is closer to an RPG than Virtua Tennis, as you must choose distinct strengths for your character instead of becoming a superhuman performer. It is important in Top Spin to choose skills that will cover up your weaknesses (as you cannot max out all abilities), but it is also possible to become a specialized power baseliner or a quick serve & volleyer. You earn money for match wins, which you can use to purchase more gear and to pay coaches to train you, and victories also assure a rise in rank, but should you lose a match or two, your rank will drop. The Career Mode is a very nice idea, but it doesn't have the imaginative challenges of Virtua Tennis (where you'd serve to knock over bowling pins, etc. etc.) and you can enter any tournament at any time, rather than having to wait a simulated year before retrying. When you add that Top Spin's AI can be easily exploited, the battle to become and stay number one can drag.

Visually, the game is terrific, especially the detail of the courts. Fully polygonal crowds cheer, real-life ads are everywhere in the larger arenas, and cities rise in the background. There are even playground courts ranging from in the middle of the desert to indoor arenas with snow falling outside or joggers out for some morning exercise. Player animation is very well-done, and the licensed players look strikingly lifelike, even down to signature animations (Lleyton Hewitt's serve looks just like it does on TV). However, there are no night courts, the ball boys don't chase the ball, and ambient shadows don't change during play as in Sega's games.

Top Spin's sound package isn't quite as remarkable. Matches can get very quiet with no music or crowd noise - only the grunts of the players and the smack of the rackets. It's supposed to simulate real matches, but the option to include music would have been welcome. In addition, crowd noise will suddenly appear as a roar out of nowhere, which can be jarring.

The gameplay itself is good, but doesn't quite measure up to Virtua Tennis or Tennis 2K2. New players will have trouble making risk shots, and as a result, points can be unnaturally long, especially in doubles. Sega's games did a great job allowing many types of shots with just the control stick and a single button, but it's not so easy to pull off a drop shot in Top Spin. Players will often lunge when you don't want them to, and then won't lunge when you DO want them to. Top Spin also is a lot more sensitive when it comes to player position in relation to the ball - in order to hit with power, you've got to be in exactly the right position, even after being fully trained. You'd think that a pro player could adjust, but Top Spin is a little too precise. Also, once players get the timing of the risk shots down, matches end up going far too quickly and lose a lot of the sim nature.

Still, even with these slight problems, Top Spin is quite an achievement. It looks great, plays well online or off, and has a deep Career Mode. With a couple of changes, Power And Magic could very well upset Sega's Tennis 2K2 as king of the virtual court.

Very Addictive

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have never played tennis before. On the video game or real life. But, I must say I wish I had. I never imagined that I would have so much fun playing tennis. My boyfriend is a fan of tennis and video games. He purchased Top Spin and I couldn't get him from in front of the television. He played for hours hollering and yelling at the game. I wondered what was the big deal. Then I played. I was in for a surprise. I instantly became addicted. At first it took me sometime to get use to the control buttons and understanding the whole game of tennis (My boyfriend acts like my coach when I play.) Top Spin has an awesome gameplay. There are different modes to play. The graphics are good. You can build your player, purchase cloths and tennis equipment. In the career mode, you can become sponsored by Reebok, Yonex, Addidas etc... The sound of the game gives you a feeling that you are at a tennis match. Eventhough this game is very fun, it is also very challenging. As you rank higher and enter different tournaments you play harder and more experienced players. All I have to say is go out and get the game. You will hours of fun. i guarantee you will be holloring and yelling at the television like me.

multiplayer-excitement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Top Spin for many people is just an upgraded version of pong, with sweet graphics, but the game is supprisingly deep. Now I am not a huge tennis fan, but after playing a few matches you feel the need to pick up a real raquet and go whoop your friends on a real court. The Graphics for this game are quite simply amazing, one of the top 5 games graphically on the xbox. The gameplay while may take a few matches to get used to, becomes an immediete reaction when playing a game, never questioning what type of shot you should use and when. The single player experience is so deep that you can almost start to believe you are the character in the game. Which brings me to a good point, whenever starting a career you have to create your character from scratch. This is the best create-a-player I have ever seen. Create yourself with that huge nose or big eyebrows, because you have dozens of options on how to mold your face into different categories. Putting yourself into the game is not hard, by anyone's standards, you can pretty much mold any aspect of your body or face to match your real life looks. After spending days just creating funny characters you actually have a whole career to go through. Play tournaments, get sponsered by major companies (Wilson, Prince, K-Swiss) and work your way from rank 100 to number 1. Of course the real fun in this game is the multiplayer game. Having doubles tournaments with three buddies is unbelievably entertaining, and taking your game online to play against rivals from other countries will never get old. However the only downfall is once you play through the career mode once, you will probably never play through it again with another character. This game is a must for any tennis fan, or for anyone that is looking for an intense multiplayer game whether that is with all your buddies gathered around one tv, or online against some loser that dares challenge you.

Great Tennis Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: June 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Top Spin is the only tennis game I have played for Xbox, but it is certainly one of the best. I'll break down the goods and the bads for you:
GOOD
The graphics are THE BEST I have ever seen.
The sound effects are perfect . . . you can here the players groaning and the crowd cheering.
The game contains most of the world's elite tennis players but NO ANDRE AGASSI.
You can play in either smaller tournaments or Grand Slams all across the Globe.
The different types of courts: clay, grass, composite. You can feel the differences in the playing surfaces like you couldn't believe.
You can choose from any type of sponser you want, who will give you free gear the better you get.
You get to train what parts of your game that you feel need improvement.
The controls are easy to learn and easy to use.
You can choose what type of swing you want to put on the ball(lob, slice, normal, top spin, risk shot, or drop shot)
Long career mode in which you create your own player

BAD
You cannot save the game in the middle of tournaments, which means you either have to play all the way through or for-feit.
There is not that much of a difference between the #2 player in the world and the #22 player in the world difficulty wise. They should have made the higher ranked players harder to beat.
Xbox Live was Big Disappointment.

With the goods easily outranking the bads, I strongly suggest you buy this game. Its fun to play and provides great entertainment.

Good but with flaws

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Excellent graphics and gaming experience overall. The different surfaces really have an impact on how the ball bounces.

However, there are a few things that Top Spin 2 should improve:

- Stamina. If you run the other guy from side to side for a whole match, it has no impact on his stamina.
- Replays. You have to press the button to skip replays after each point. It gets annoying after the first hour.
- Slices: In real life, the shot is used to slow down the pace. But not here, you can hit winners with slices from all over the court.
- The safe shot should be the top spin shot, which aims high over the net.
- Hard top spun shots sometimes bounce over the opponent's head. Completely unrealistic.
- You can't miss. Over a three month period, I've hit maybe five shots long and three wide.
- Slice serves. Looks like something out of a Harry Potter book.
- Stupid AI. Serve to the outside of the box, run to the net and hit a volley to the other side. Never fails.
- Risk shots are the only way to win on a high level, but are nearly impossible to pull off.
- Volleys are to easy to hit, even from close to the baseline you can hit drive volleys that always goes over.

Top Spin is best played with a human opponent, which makes for a great time. It wears out a bit if you play against the computer.

tennis can be fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: November 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Perhaps the best XSN game and more. Tennis may sometimes be crap, but not in this game. This masterpiece will blow any other tennis game away! definetley the best sports game this october of 2003. You will love yourself for picking this over
espn nba baksteball, nba live 2004, amped 2, and SSX3! Yep, it's that good!

Wow, tennis games can be really fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I like tennis and I decided to get a tennis game. In XBOX magazine, this game got a 9.0, so I decided to give it a try. The graphics are terrific and you get 16 male pro's and 16 female pro's (including Anna Kournakova :) .The gameplay is simple yet hard to master. "A" for a flat shot, "B" for a top spin shot, "X" for a slice, "Y" for a lob, left trigger for a drop shot, right trigger for a risk shot. Risk shots, while hard to execute are extrememly rewarding. The AI is basically ok... although they either put in too much effort or little effort. I was playing this guy and one set, he made like 10 diving shots, yet in the next set he stared as my risk shots whizzed by him, one top spin shot hit him in the face. Also after diving, the AI is slow to get up and after they make a diving shot, you can whiz anything right by them. Aiming is key in this game. The tennis school is lame, there i said it. It shows you instructions in small print and shows some loser doing the shots, always perfectly hitting them. I find risk shots nearly impossible to perfect. The AI always gets them... This game is by far the best tennis game i've played and big tennis fans and casual tennis fans will enjoy it.

Best Tennis Game of all time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

There is no other tennis game out with better graphics or more realistic game play.If you have xbox live the fun only gets better no lag and plus it has quick play matches.This game is the real deal it puts virtual tennis to shame the PS2 couldn't eve get close with the graphics alone.

GOOD BUT NOT THE BEST TENNIS VIDEO GAME OUT THERE

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

THIS GAME IS MORE FOR THE CASUAL TENNIS FAN THATS WHY YOU HAVE SO MANY REVIEWS OF PEOPLE SAYING I DONT PLAY OR WATCH TENNIS BUT I LIKE TOPSPIN.SMASHCOURT TENNIS 2 IS MORE FOR THE TENNIS HARDCORE ELITE.TOPSPIN IS TOO EASY FOR HARDCORE TENNIS FANS AS MYSELF.I CAN BEAT CHANG ON HARD LEVEL 6-0,6-0,6-0 IN FACT I CAN BEAT ANY PLAYER ON HARD LEVEL WITHOUT LOSING A SINGLE POINT.TOPSPIN DOESNT REQUIRE YOU TO BE RIGHT IN POSITION TO HIT A BALL OR VOLLEY LIKE SMASHCOURT TENNIS 2 DOES.ALSO TOPSPIN PLAYERS TELL YOU WHERE THEY ARE GOING TO SERVE BY WHERE THEY ARE STANDING ON THE SERVICE LINE.IF THEY ARE STANDING OUT WIDE THEY ARE GOING TO SERVE OUT WIDE,IF THEY ARE STANDING IN THE MIDDLE THEY ARE GOING TO SERVE DOWN THE LINE.SO THIS MAKES THE GAME TOO EASY.THE GRAPHICS ARE GREAT SO IS THE GAME PLAY BUT ITS MORE ARCADE LIKE THAN REALISTIC TENNIS.IF YOU ARE A HARDCORE TENNIS FAN GET SMASHCOURT TENNIS 2 IF YOU ARE A CASUAL TENNIS FAN THEN GET THIS.ALSO SUPER NINTENDO HAS A GREAT TENNIS GAME CALLED SUPER TENNIS.IT MAY NOT BE UP THERE WITH GRAPHICS LIKE TOPSPIN BUT THE GAMEPLAY IS GREAT AND NEVER GETS TIRING.SMASHCOURT TENNIS 2 IS MORE OF A CHALLENGE FOR TENNIS FANS.

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