TOP SPIN (XBOX)


Game, set & match for Top Spin

By WILLIAM BARKER

My love affair with tennis games started not with the originator - Pong - but with Tennis on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

For it's time (circa 1985) it was one of the best sports games out there, with impressive levels of replayability and, though you had nobodies playing instead of Sampras and Hewitt, the emotions often spilled over after long rallies, and Mario looked somewhat regal sitting up high as the umpire.

So, when Top Spin tennis (TST) kicks off with a killer intro - basically in game footage playing to The Vines hit single, "Get Free" - it was hard to stay calm and relaxed.

But I did it for the collective good of the human race, and the first thing I noticed when watching a colleague play TST, as I sat back with a cigar in one hand and turnip in the other, was the picture perfect motion capture - it's awesome.

While it's harder to see when you're playing (because you're looking at the ball and trying to judge its trajectory/velocity), the way players swing and hit the ball is very life-like. Other movements, such as the way players bounce the ball on the ground before serving, or dive for shots and even slide about on clay looks very realistic.

When any given player makes a shot, the effect is pleasing, with smooth and very realistic movements and follow through motions. There's also 'emotion' or quasi-taunt moves, where pressing the black and white buttons after a point results in a pump of the fist, a curt nod, or sometimes even dummy-spitting moments, like throwing the tennis racquet at the camera.

As far as special effects go, there's not a lot to write home about, though you will know when you've hit a shot perfectly as it will sound a little crisper than normal, and also create that Matrix-inspired motion blur as it cuts through the air at high speed.

Stadium and background graphics are of a high calibre, and it has to be said that playing any of the four Grand Slams is quite exhilarating, thanks to the imposing size and often ornate architecture of the stadia. And while there are no officially licensed events, such as the French or American Open, this doesn't detract from the experience and the ambient sounds that emanate from the crowd help build the tension during long rallies.

Also, one of the first 3D crowds in a sports game is a very clever touch, resulting in a more believable atmosphere.

The overall look and feel of TST is enough to make any sports game fan smile, combining high production values, complex polygon models and high res texture mapping.

The game has a polished exterior, is very well-presented, and the finer touches such as service speed indications and the split-screen replays really elevate the game to a high level - perhaps the highest yet by a tennis game.

After spending a good deal of time both off and online with TST, I think it's fair to say that it is easily the best tennis game in existence, and with the number of unique features it brings to the table, it's likely it won't be topped anytime soon, either.

After the high tempo intro, what's next? Oh, game modes: There's a career mode, exhibition, multiplayer and custom tournaments also made the cut, but assuming the career mode would initially be the juiciest of the lot, it was off the salon!

The first thing you do when beginning a career is to create a player, and styling how your custom player will look in almost every respect is rather time consuming, but ultimately very rewarding.

Johnny Demonic was a strapping young lad, with a square jaw, disfigured nose, potbelly and a killer double-handed backhand.

It was a little disappointing that I couldn't give him liver spots, or even fangs and Wolverine-like adamantium claws… But a brown fishing hat turned out to be a good alternative nonetheless.

Once you've created the ultimate tennis automaton, it's time to kick ass and belt some balls, and the career's sub-mode navigation - in order to get to games, training, sponsors and shops - is based on a map of the major continents with large icons as hotspots.

The game progresses more like an RPG-inspired tennis-related journey of truth and integrity, rather than an interesting, but fundamentally tedious exercise in tournament repetition. As such, you get the chance to improve your player as you see fit, with four major stats: Serve, forehand, backhand and volley.

Winning tournaments and pleasing sponsors accumulates money, and this can then be spent on new clothes and equipment, but more importantly on coaches, who help to improve your stats, in turn improving your game-world skills.

On top of these stats, you will also gain up to four special abilities over the course of the career that can be chosen from about a dozen different selections such as power, precision, speed, angled shots and serve ace.

Progressing through the career mode is quite challenging when you start hitting the big time, having to play harder opponents and what not, but the career mode manages to hold ones interest well, and it makes sense to try and boost your players statistics because you can take your character online and vie for domination against more than just AI scripting - that's right, real people!!

Playing online is not completely dissimilar to playing an exhibition game against the CPU, but when you can talk (and yell) to your opponent it makes things a little more engrossing. There's also the unpredictability that playing another human brings to the game, where the CPU will often always return serves in a similar direction, for example.

There are also real world rankings to keep in mind and, in general, the online experience is very favourable.

Most of the time we ended up playing Canadians and Americans, but even with the geographic separation, there was minimal lag, though the button-mashing nature of the service game meant that it suffered occasionally from packet loss or info congestion.

The most important aspect of any sports game has to be the gameplay, and thankfully Top Spin Tennis is a well conceived title with good collision detection (between racquet and ball), very good physics and perhaps the best motion capture-aided animation this side of Golum from Lord of the Rings.

These aspects come together in a spectacular fashion when the control scheme is factored in: It's a no-fuss, straightforward setup that is easy to become accustomed to, yet still allows plenty of progression and mastery.

Of the four shots on offer (lob, volley, top spin, slice), each is linked to a corresponding button, and the longer you hold the button, the more powerful the shot will be. All shots are useful and even lobs aren't relegated to the 'piss off you useless bastard!' bin. If you've got a player who keeps on playing the net, for instance, loft a gentle lob over his noggin and watch the steam cascade from his ears.

Furthermore, each shot can be used on conjunction with a direction to add more/less/reverse spin and the trigger buttons control drop shots and risk shots.

The latter is quite an interesting concept, allowing you to unleash super-genuine shots, but they're quite tricky to pull off, hence the name I guess…

The TST game engine is functional and fun - while fairly easy to pick up, it has enough scope to keep even the die-hards coming back for more, and when four players go at it in doubles matches, things really liven up.

It's quite an accomplishment really, to have catered for newbies and veterans alike, and the online gameplay is the icing on the cake, adding even more replayability to proceedings.

I mustn't forget to mention the ITZ metre at the top of the screen, either, which stands for "in the zone". Beyond it's lame nomer, this gauge fills up when you're in the zone, and you get to this enigmatic zone by riling up the crowd with killer forehands, deft half-volleys and other tricky shots. It's effect? Less risky risk shots.

However, if there is one thing that may bite TST in the butt cheeks, it would be that the style of play can get somewhat monotonous after short periods of time. For me, this was no problem - I love digital tennis and all its minutiae - but not everyone digs this style of play, and it could become a moot point for some.

When you boil everything down, Top Spin Tennis is a great game, and I for one am thankful that developers Power and Magic (PAM) have delivered an extremely impressive product, and one that I have no trouble in recommending.

With the Virtua Tennis franchise having established itself as the top dog of tennis for the last few years, Top Spin had to step up and take things to the next level, lest it drown in the sea of Sports Games Generica.

It has done this with a more realistic and involving game engine, decisive physics, sublime motion capture, high-resolution graphics, a solid character upgrade system and of course the biggest drawcard - Anna Kournikova. Err, I mean online play.

ORIGINALITY 65%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 95%
PLAYABILITY 90%
ENJOYMENT 95%
OVERALL 90%

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