Top Spin 2

Top Spin 2 is the sequel to the original Top Spin, which made its debut on the Xbox, and took its place as that consoles top tennis game. Top Spin was a runaway success and had a huge fan base that enjoyed the game’s quick pace, controllable shots, and great gameplay. Top Spin 2 picks up from there and extends the single player experience with more and also new licensed players, both male and female, and also adds more character development elements to the career mode.

Career mode will let you create a player, name him or her, and of course let you customize their looks. I do have to say that, although there are numerous options to create a unique player, it is still not as extensive as many of the other games we have seen recently; for example, all the faces, clothes, and hair styles are preset. Once you’re in career mode, you will notice many tabs that help you keep track of your player’s career and status.

Your main tab includes a basic calendar with weekly events, usually a choice of a training session to raise your stars (skills), a tournament of different sorts, and a special event such as doubles or a challenge from a super star (licensed players). A training session consists of various unique exercises that will involve things like knocking down boxes, knocking a ball into a goal post, and knocking down bowling ball pins; all of this will test your shot control and teach you how to approach different challenges on the court. Once you complete a training session, or win a tournament, you will have new stars to add to your player’s attributes and increase his skills. Also, on top of the calendar you have a Voice Mail system which will constantly be updating you with news of your fan club, your coach’s opinions, and even messages from your opponents.

Your other tabs will include things like stats, sponsors, and new clothes and racquets; although I noticed the racquets are all the same performance wise and also cost the same. So as you can see, career mode is pretty extensive alone, but coupled with an online, exhibition, and custom tournament modes, this game can keep you coming back to it for a while.

Top Spin 2 really shines in the gameplay department; it still provides the fast paced action where rapid decisions are crucial to achieving victory. It seems overwhelming at first in how many ways you can score, but knowing your strengths and learning your opponents’ moves will help you exploit their weaknesses by setting up an effective strategy.

The great thing about Top Spin 2 is that, as a tennis player, I found almost anything that you can do on the court in real life; you can do in-game. Top Spin 2 lets you perform numerous shots with depth and power variations for them to be more effective. Overall, Top Spin 2 has some of the greatest shot controlling features, much more so than any of the tennis games before it. You will quickly learn that the game will require not only quick reflexes, but good decisions and strategies and helps to keep you coming back to the game.

Your basic A, X, B, and Y buttons all represent the 4 simple shots in the game: the safe shot, the slice, the top spin, and the lob shot. What adds variety to them is that holding the buttons longer will give your player a longer wind-up time and therefore a more powerful shot. The Left Trigger acts as an advanced shot and is used in a combo with the 4 touch buttons, your momentum meter will tell you when you can press the left trigger and use the advanced shots. The Right Trigger is your risk shot and what’s different about this button is that you can use it for all the shots in the game but it has a little “serve” meter to go with it; so timing is extremely crucial to pull-off this shot. It is only useful to use this shot when the ball is returned to you in a soft hit, pulling off a risk-shot on a normal or powerful return is almost impossible. But don’t worry you can always use the A button as your Safe Shot, or a shot that will always be inbound and go over the net, no matter what; what’s great about this game is that you can out-smart your opponent with constant safe shots and not even need to use any of the advanced or risk shots.

My only complaints against the controls are that there are still a few buttons that don’t really have anything assigned to them. Other than that, I disliked that the game uses a lock-on type system for your player’s movements and wind-up time, and what happens is that sometimes the game doesn’t lock on right away if you press the button a little too early. The ball then ends up just bouncing right next to your player, leaving you frustrated.