Top Spin review

The original version of Top Spin was released on the X-Box way back in 2003 and received such critical acclaim that it was genuinely exciting to hear that 2K Sports had bought the rights to release a PS2 version. The reasons behind this excitement were mainly because 2K sports have released some very competent sports titles over the last couple of years and also because up until now, no tennis titles have been released on the PS2 that support online play.

While Virtua Tennis and Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2 are decent enough Tennis offerings, there is definitely room for a better title to come in and completely capture the market. tennis translates so well to the world of video games that it is often surprising that relatively few titles are published when compared to other sports and the PS2 has certainly never seen the emergence of a definitive must have Tennis franchise. With all this in mind it would be easy to assume that Top Spin is bound to be a winner, however, just like Britain’s ‘Tiger’ Tim Henman at Wimbledon over the years, it has missed the mark.

A La Mode

Top Spin includes the classic game modes we have grown to expect from any tennis title: Career, Exhibition and Custom Tournament. In addition it also includes an Online Multiplayer mode which is a first for any tennis game on the PS2. The exhibition allows you to play a game of singles or doubles versus human or computer opponents. It is possible to configure the game exactly as you like it in terms of how many games to a set there are and how many sets to a match.

Custom tournament allows you to create just that but, the area of the game where you will be spending most of your time (if only because of the load times) is the Career Mode. Career Mode starts with you creating your own player, you can either spend hours choosing various facial features and modifying them or, the game supports the PlayStation EyeToy allowing you to take a suitable mugshot with which to adorn your tennis star. This is all well and good if it wasn’t for the ridiculously long loading times you have to suffer as you try to progress through the career mode.

Loads of Trouble

It’s not just the time between matches that is annoying, even just progressing through the options and maps seems to take forever. In fact it is only a slight exaggeration to suggest that choosing a new haircut for your player takes almost as long as a visit to the barber. As far as the loading times between matches is concerned, at one point I was expecting to start seeing multi-coloured bars across my screen and for the PS2 to start emitting weird modem type sounds as I was getting flashbacks to the days of 8-bit computers and loading from tape. This is simply not good enough and smacks of a lack of effort in getting this game ready for market.

Loading times aren’t the only aspect of this game that are indicative of a lack of effort, the graphics are, at best, mediocre and the sound is terrible. While you can choose to be one of 16 top Tennis male and female stars don’t actually expect the on screen character to look too much like the star you have chosen as the player models aren’t great. The backgrounds within the game are insipid and boring and even the animations are often quite jerky. Generally speaking the game lacks the attention to detail that one expects from a sports title in order to make it stand out from the crowd. The little things that add to a game’s realism just seem to be missing from Top Spin and that is a real shame.

Poor Sound

Unfortunately the sound in Top Spin is even worse than the graphics. This isn’t a whinge about the pretty terrible menu music as, I mean, who buys a game for the menu music? The sound is worse than the graphics because it fails to create any sort of atmosphere. When you are playing a tennis game, you want to hear that you are involved in a tennis match but you certainly don’t get that from Top Spin. What you get is a deathly silence that is only punctuated by the grunts of players and, the male players grunt in exactly the same manner. You could be involved in a storming rally that ends up with both players covering every inch of the court, pulling off amazing shots and all you will get from the crowd are a few claps.

Again, it’s the lack of attention to detail that lets the game down. Where are the calls from the umpire, the exhortations from the crowd, the ooohs, the aaahs, the ‘Quiet please’? The sound completely fails to evoke images of Tennis in the gamers mind and, for me; this is totally unforgivable because achieving a decent atmosphere through sound in this day and age should be relatively easy, particularly for a tennis title. The stadium announcer in the game is also very poor. OK, he does speak French when you are in France etc but, whatever language is used, the announcer sounds like the illegitimate son of Arnold Schwarzenegger circa Raw Deal and a Texas Instruments Speak and Spell. How one can simultaneously sound metallic and wooden is beyond me but they’ve certainly managed that effect in this title and it doesn’t sound good.

The Ball Was In

At this point you may feel that the title is beyond redemption. However, it is actually an enjoyable game of tennis. Tennis is a very simple sport to recreate and therefore it should be quite easy to get the gameplay right. The AI is actually pretty sound and beating the computer opponents is challenging enough to make the Career Mode durable if you can bear the load times. They’ve got the controls right and the Custom Tournament and Online modes are big bonuses. The main fault in this game is the poor attention to detail and the PS one graphics it sports. If you absolutely must play tennis online then get this game otherwise, I wouldn’t bother.