Its Almost as if the Developers Intended for this Game to be Mediocre
The gameplay is decent in this version of Top Spin. However, this is impaired by certain technical issues throughout the game. There are different shots available for you to use such as lob, topspin, and flat. You can also take a risk shot by pressing R1, or L1. These shots are more difficult to execute, but are more likely to be missed by your opponent. Serves and risk shots are determined by a meter that appears above you when you take one of those respective shots. The graphics in this version of the game, to put it nicely, are not good. The character models look plain, and the tennis courts are not as crisp looking as other Ps2 tennis games. Certain court effects have either been removed, or are toned down (wear and tear on Grass, kicking up of dust on clay). Also, the crowd animations could have looked much better. The sound in the game, like the graphics, is also disappointing. You get your general music tracks on the menu screen, which aren't anything special. But, when you get to the actual tennis match there is hardly any sound at all. There are a few grunts which pretty much all sound the same, a cheesy announcer, and hardly noticeable crowd noise. I can understand if they want to go for an "authentic" tennis atmosphere. But they could have at least added more than one or two different grunts, and better sound effects like shoes skidding, better crowd noise etc. The technical problems that exist throughout the game make the whole experience disappointing. Slowdown issues are common during tennis matches, especially on clay court. In fact, even when there wasn’t slowdown, I still felt like I was playing in slow motion. The loading times are downright atrocious. I'm not usually one to complain about loading times as I have owned a Sony system for some time now and am use to them, but this was ridiculous. It seemed like every little thing needed time to load. Even when going into your sports bag in the career mode which holds your clothes, it seemed to take forever to load. Loading matches also takes a while. Getting in and out of matches takes some time, and will likely discourage even the most patient gamer.
All in all, technical issues and what seems like either downright laziness on the part of the developers, or a rushed release turned what could have been at least a good tennis game into one that is very disappointing for all tennis videogame fans.