Top Spin is one of the best tennis games on the market today. In Top Spin, you are cast as a tennis player that has his or her eyes set on becoming the number 1 tennis player in the world. You will play against real life tennis pros on your journey to the coveted number 1 spot. Top Spin allows you to create your own player from scratch. You change the size and shape of your character's nose, head, mouth, etc. You can also change if your player is left or right handed and which type of backhand you want to use, either one or two handed. You can also choose from many different styles of clothing for your character to wear. The career mode is nothing new to the gaming scene, your player is trying to become the number one player in the world and must win tournaments to do so. Top Spin also includes something new: sponsorships. You can sign up for sponsorships from real world companies such as Oakley, Wilson, and Reebok. When you become a sponsored player, you get cash and exclusive gear from your sponsor, who sometimes gives you challenges to complete. The graphics in Top Spin are great and realistic. Some of the characters don't look too much like their real world counterparts (Pete Sampras) and some of the more well known players are not even included (Agassi, Roddick, Federer, to name a few). The tennis courts and stadiums are well created and realistic and the court surface also affects your performance. On clay courts, you lose some traction, so you slide while trying to stop, and on grass courts, the ball doesn't bounce as well as a hardcourt. Sound in Top Spin is well done, and the crowd sounds realistic, and if you and your opponent have a long rally with spectacular diving shots, the crowd will actually cheer louder than if you have a quick put-away. Your tennis racquets have a realistic 'pop' when you hit a good shot, and your player grunts when he/she hits a power shot. There is some background music on the map screen and menus, but there are only a few tracks and get repeated often. Gameplay in Top Spin is very simple to pick up when just learning. The competition and map screens are easy to navigate and the controls are simple too. The face buttons each designate a different spin shot, which range from flat (no spin), to side and top spin, to drop shots and underspin. The right trigger is used for risk shots, which are powerful shots that are very hard to return. When you pull the right trigger, a meter appears with a bar rapidly moving up and down. Let go of the right trigger to stop the bar, and the closer to the center, the more accurate and powerful the shot will be. Risk shot success is also proportionate to you In The Zone Meter, or simply, your adrenaline or momentum meter. The better you are doing in the match, the higher you ITZ meter is. Top Spin also includes Xbox Live so you can play aginst other tennis players using XSN Sports. This is a nice feature that certainly adds greatly to the replay time. Top Spin deserves a spot in any tennis player's collection and to most other gamer's collection also.
By dsplayer1010 | Review Date: Feb 10, 2007 | XBOX
i got thi and ncaa 2005 as a pack-in when i got my xbox. and i was surprised how good it was. now im not a diehard, or even casuual tennis fan, ( i can name like 1 player, but he retired,) but this is really fun and addi... Read Full Review
I have never been a real fan of tennis but I thought I would give this game a try as it was in the bargain bin of my local store. I loaded it up and was at first impressed with the quality of the graphics. The animati... Read Full Review
