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Guides


Playstation 2 : Top Spin Reviews

Gas Gauge: 72
Gas Gauge 72
Below are user reviews of Top Spin and on the right are links to professionally written reviews. The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Top Spin. Column height indicates the number of reviews with a score within the range shown at the bottom of the column. Higher scores (columns further towards the right) are better.

Summary of Review Scores
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ReviewsScore
Game Spot 72
Game FAQs
IGN 74
GameSpy 60
GameZone 85






User Reviews (1 - 11 of 16)

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I Love This Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

STRENGTHS:
Great graphics; Easy to play; Packed with options: customize your player from DNA; doubles option, career mode, training mode and many available tennis courts; Women are there too!

WEAKNESSES:
Not many leading players are present; Game loading times are longer than expected; Risk shot option is very hard and unrealistic; Training wasn't much useful.

CONCLUSIVE OVERVIEW:

This is the best tennis game I've ever played so far! The graphics are really good and gameplay is smooth that I can feel the player. It has a lot of features such as career mode in which you can customize your player starting with its DNA. Yeah, sounds funny but it's true. You even customize face details, hair color and style, height of the player, body build, etc. Not only that, you can design your own uniform. I wish there were more players. Some prominent players available are Roger Federer, Carlos Moya, Gustavo Kuerten, Tim Henman, Sebastiyan Grojan, Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, Martina Hingis and a few more.

In a career mode you go from one tournament to other and with every win your rank will progress. But you won't be able to win all tournaments at once! It may take a full day. So, prepare your memory card to save the game.
There are a few available sponsors such as Reebok, Adidas, Wilson, Prince, Dunlop and more. In order for them to become your sponsor you must beat their challenges. Training mode is very interesting but it is hard to go up to the last level - gold. I could reach silver status, but again not it all categories. :) Supposedly through training you can improve your serve, flat shot, backhand, volley. However, I found training not as sharpening your skills but rather completing a set of various challenges which supposedly will improve your gameplay and statistics. I did't find it useful that much.

I do play regular tennis and have idea of tennis strategy, so I love this game even more. First time I played this game with a person who didn't really want to play it. But she got caught by smooth and easy gameplay and made many laughs. That first time I played about 5 hours straight!

Please read game instructions before you play. Otherwise "X" button will be a risk-free shot button to use. You may actually direct your shots by left-right arrow buttons and make your opponent to run from one corner to another. It works pretty good if you have a basic idea of tennis strategy.

I like doubles option. You can even play doubles by yourself. In this case your partner will be PC. So, basically it will be you and PC vs. PC+PC. That was fun too.

This game is definitely one of the best tennis games, I highly recommend it to everyone!

Top Spin Tennis for Playstation 2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: August 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Its an amazing game for tennis lovers. Very realistic graphics and player movements. Sound effects make you feel like your actually in a real tennis tournament. You play against number and former number one tennis players, male and female. You can make your own characters in detail. Race, color of skin, hair color, hair length clothing changes etc. Its great game.

Amazing Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Top Spin is amazing in every sense of the word. Although players who desire in-depth commentary will find this game lacking, most players will enjoy the noises of the crowd and the ball hitting the racket. I am happy that the game developers strayed away from the tinny commentary voices that we all hate.

This game is VERY easy to learn and that may be one of the only negatives about it. A real tennis player expects to win some and lose some(unless you're Federer) but, if you play Top Spin, you can expect to win 95-99% of your matches. The only loss that I have sustained(throughout my entire career) is to Dementieva, and that was a fluke(I swear). Those of you who are looking for a hard, challenging game, will find this somewhat lacking.

Anyways...Enough Negatives!! This game is perfect in every other way! The Graphics are crisp, the sounds are real, the crowd noise is perfect, the player development is fun, the courts and tournaments are realistic, and the game is a bargain, what more do you want? I rate this game 9.4 stars only because it is a little too easy.

Top Spin

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game is only fun if you play beginner or intermediate, which can also be challenging sometimes. But when you want to push yourself to the ultimate challege and play hard, it is almost impossible to win. You have to hit almost all your shots using the risk shots. I found it very challenging, which made the game very interesting for me. But I did wish that the risk shot could have been a little bit much easier to hit. The computer seems to never miss a risk shot, especially at the big points and big moments in the match. The few I won was due to luck I have to say, so I never played it again for I had many bitter losses. I like smash court tennis pro tournament 2 better than any of the tennis games so far because it is very easy to control the players. But it is not challenging at all as much as Top spin. I have great skill in tennis and also tennis video games. I am not a beginner who just cant play tennis games. I have success beating many tennis games including this one, but the one thing that bothers me about this game is the risk shots, which basically is 25 of 100 chances of working for me (if I am lucky), as to the computers 90 of 100. It is really not fair, but again as I said, it is very challenging, you be the judge.

Fun for the tennis fans.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Pros:
1. Detailed in-game playing options in career mode, you not only can choose how to develop your player, what sponsor to take on, which tournament to play, etc., but this game also have tons of details to design your player, from the body size, chin size, eye style... Personally I usually just go with the default but it's nice to know you have those options.
2. Simple play control. Aside from the risk shot/drop shots (which aren't really that hard to get done) everything else is easy to do, and you'll almost never hit the ball out of bounds if you only use the "X" button (Yes you can win in Hard mode using only that shot).
3. Graphics is decent, not the best I've seen out there but definitely enjoyable. Commentators don't really yap a lot during matches, which is one thing I didn't really like from some other tennis games.
4. Multi-player mode can support 4 people playing (I know most tennis game has this feature but I still want to stress that), it's always a blast when I get a few of my friends over the house.

Cons:
1. I can see the detailed play options being a pain for some people, it can take quite a while to set up a player in career mode. The first time I played it took me about 20 minutes before I actually get to play my first match. It's nice to have all the options but sometimes they get to be a bit too complicated.
2. Limited choices of players in exhibition mode. You do get Federer, Hewitt, Henmen, Moya, etc., but they left out quite a few good players, the list can definitely be expanded.
3. Lengthy load. Probably due to the complexity of the game, loading can take quite a bit time.

Other thoughts:
I tried a couple other tennis games on PS2 before I picked up this one, I've been playing it for a while now yet it is still challenging in Hard mode, even with the top-rated Roger Federer I'd still have trouble beating Hewitt in a 6-point/5-set match. Unlike what some other people have said in the review, the computer doesn't get the risk-shots EVERYTIME, although they do have a VERY high chance getting in on a serve, but after ball is in even if they get it perfectly they still hit the ball out of bounds 2 out of every 5 times. I have won the exhibition in hard mode using only the "x" button and risk shots only on serve, I'd like to expand my game play more but I find it easier to win when I just keep it simple. I would recommand this game to anyone who likes tennis, especially for the price people are selling on here.

Good...but not great!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I had been looking forward to this game for a couple of months, and was hopeing for somthing amazing after seeing the quality of the xbox version-but I was slightly disappointed. The gameplay is very good with the players making realistic shots and ocasionaly missing the ball-unlike smash court pro tournament 2! But there is slow loading times which can make you bored whilst waiting for a match to load. The graphics aren't half as bad as people are making them out to be-but the crowd are a little umm...fake! I agree the world tour is not as realistic as smash court 2-with the game not even having dates! But when you are actualy playing in a tournament you totally forget that because the gameplay is so good. So I'd say give this game a go-because if you can see past the long loading times and crowd, you will not be disappointed...

Not impressed

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: September 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am not at all impressed with this game because of fuzzy and dark graphics. I was expecting them to be great. This reminds me of an old ps2 game. The tennis school is terrible, all it is, is reading. When I tried to start a career it said memory card insufficiant, I have never had that before.

Top Spin

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am a regular tennis player so this game has a natural appeal. The game is highly addictive and you can get seriously engrossed in the action moreso if the the computer controlled player is highly ranked. The graphics are however aged when compared to what is now available. So too is the commentary which is boring and monotonous. I would love to purchase an updated version if one comes available for the PS3.

Better than nothing........

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: October 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The bad thing about being a tennis fan is the lack of tennis games out there. So while Top Spin has its kinks, it's better than nothing at all.

The bad things(I've only played with the female player):

1. Only Venus Williams looks close to how she should. Martina Hingis is way taller in the game. You can tell they spent a little bit of time on Hingis and Maria Sharapova, but everyone else looks generic.

2. Elena Dementieva serves over 100mph..those of us that follow tennis know she rarely breaks 85mph, generally serving in the 70s.

3. They don't give you enough chances to pratice. You get these stars and once you've used up all your stars...that's it. No more training.

The good:

1. I love that you're sponsored by a real brand. I started out with Addias and right now I'm with Prince.

2. Some of the tournaments are real tournaments. Last night I played the Nasdaq 100 and The Pacific Life Open.

3. You have a ton of outfit choices and you can change the colors.

I really can't make up my mind on this one...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Well, after anticipating this game since I heard the reviews for the X-Box version I couldn't wait to get my hands on this game. Then I did, popped it into the PS2's hard drive, and then immediately loved the title screen and the opening movie.

Then came the game itself. The career mode is, for lack of a better word, absolute crap: no calender or any realism at all, not to mention the fact that you are unable to have multiple sponsers and you have to go to various contries to improve your game.

The only thing I really liked better than Smash Court's version was the gameplay itself, which plays much more like real tennis, and you dont go entire matches without missing a shot. But the fact that you are able to hit shots near perfection in no-mans land is completely inaccurate.

The graphics are mediocre and grainy, though I wouldnt call them blurry, and the courts in the game are generally unattractive and boring, with fans scarcely doing anything and the players having few cutscenes.

Overall, I like the gameplay enough that I probably woln't go back to Smash Court, due to the sheer simplicity of Namco's gameplay. But I do conclude this review wondering why the hell EA Sports can make games such as rugby, cricket, and golf and why EA is unable to make a tennis game. Without using profanity its hard to quite say to the company what I wish to, but I defidently will be looking into why the most succesful sport's game company is neglectful of tennis.


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