Top Spin 2 Xbox 360 review

Tennis games aren’t subject to the normal laws of sports games. Firstly, they don’t tend to receive an annual update, and secondly, they are usually pretty good. Tennis has a long and distinguished history on just about every console. Smash Court Tennis carried the flag on the SNES, Pete Sampras made a decent stab at it on the Megadrive, and the Virtua Tennis series on the Dreamcast volleyed them all into oblivion.

Then Top Spin arrived on the original Xbox. Although it looked incredibly similar to Virtua Tennis, it was a different beast altogether. While Virtua Tennis could be played by anyone with at least one finger on each hand, Top Spin demanded that little something extra if you wanted to excel. It was more a simulation of the sport, than the arcade type fun which Virtua Tennis offered. That doesn’t mean it was better, just that it was different.

Differences

One of the main differences was that Top Spin offered online multiplayer for the first time, including doubles. This meant that you and a friend could take on the world without even breaking a sweat, or wearing daft armbands. This, without a shadow of a doubt was the crowning glory of the original game, except for one small detail. The risk shot. Face up against anyone proficient in this and you were guaranteed a game that was really fun.

They would pummel you into the ground with their nasty elite shots which would hit the top of the net then drop like a stone onto the ground, leaving you absolutely no chance of returning the ball. The risk shot was just too hard to play properly in a live game for most mortals, given that you had to pull the trigger and hold it until just the right moment, but for those who mastered it, well, they were the kings of the game. In the end, I gave up playing randomly on Live and just played against friends, and the game became not only great fun again, but installed itself as one of my favourite online games.

Cup of Tea?

Booting up Top Spin 2 was quite an exciting moment for me. I was able to remember those fantastic matches where I would stuff my French friends and hear them exclaim ‘Oh la la!’ as their characters would drop game after game. I yearned to have that feeling back again. On loading, you are presented with a character creation screen that gives you surprising freedom in how your player looks on screen. Fancy making him look just like you? Why bother, there are enough ugly people in the world.

Unfortunately the process is teeth grindingly slow, as the 360 loads off the disc even the smallest change. Want a different sized moustache? Have a Kit-Kat while the DVD twirls like a ballet dancer trying to find the data containing said face accessory. Or how about a different hair style? You might as well go and get a genuine hair cut; you would probably be finished by the time the game loads in the new style. Do yourself a favour; have the kettle pre-boiled so you can sup some tea while all this is going on. What I ended up doing was getting bored and just picking some red haired gimp with a belly the size of the Isle of Man, just to get the bloody thing over and done with.

Deep Breaths, Count to Three

Unfortunately the loading times don’t improve once you are into the game proper. Initially, you might be a little confused by the new menu system, and to be honest there aren’t really any tournaments you can enter at this point as you don’t have a decent ranking. This means that you will want to do some training, and the training games are back with more variety than ever. This is where the loading times really start to grate. As you may or may not know, training is usually a short, sharp, shock type of a thing lasting around a minute. When this is sandwiched between a 30 second loading time, it suddenly feels more like a shotgun to the head than a short, sharp, shock. It’s infuriating to say the least, and at most puts the family pets at risk as you try and take your fury out on them by seeing how far they fly if you happen to connect a foot travelling at high velocity with their undersides.

Ignoring that for a moment (that’s an ironic statement, as it’s not remotely possible), the training games have indeed increased in variety. They are a bit harder too. Thankfully, even if you fail you still get a single star to attach to your abilities, so at least your determination to wait through those loading times is rewarded. You have many more abilities too, so it’s going to take a lot longer to get your player up to their highest skill level. Now, there are several different coaches, and you can swap between them as they specialise in different areas. Be warned, some of the training tests will try your patience like nothing else. Frustration, thy name is Top Spin 2.

Bring On the Peaches and Cream

Eventually though, you’ll get on with the business of playing tennis. This is where the anger and grumpiness at your earlier experience starts to subside. It doesn’t happen straight away though, it does take time, and you do need to persevere. If you don’t, you’ll end up trading it in thinking that it’s just not worth the bother. That would be a mistake. Top Spin 2 plays one mean sonofabitch game of tennis. It looks like tennis, feels like tennis, plays like tennis, and damn it all to hell and back, it bloody well IS tennis. The controls have been totally changed for the better. Now, you have a button that is a safe shot. Hitting this guarantees that your return will stay in the court and will pass over the net. The slice and top spin buttons are now fantastically controllable, but they come with the risk of just going wide or maybe hitting the net. It takes a bit of getting used to, but get used to it you must as you will get nowhere without them. This brings a whole new feeling to the game, and you really do feel elated when you win a point because you just know you deserved it.

It’s at this point you start to have fun and that’s a good thing as I don’t think my cat can take any more punishment. Before long I was climbing the rankings, winning matches, and delighting in the differences in how my opponents were playing. Risk shots are still in there, and they are totally different to the previous game. Now you need to press the trigger then hold down a button to get them to work, and as before, it’s virtually impossible to do this unless you have the dexterity of a bomb defusal expert. I don’t bother as I just can’t get to grips with it, but thankfully I don’t need to, as I’m still playing a mean game of tennis and winning at the same time. I think I’m having more fun this way too.

Who’s First for a Spanking?

So now I’m good, damn good at the game and I feel it’s time to take it online and bottom smack the world like I used to. The Live interface is clean and uncluttered and it’s easy to set up a game. My first game was against a silent type, who refused to talk or didn’t have a headset. It was a cold, lifeless affair, and they actually left the game in the second set as they were losing so heavily. I was awarded the points but that didn’t cheer me up, it just wasn’t any fun. I had another game and again, my opponent refused to talk and this time I got soundly stuffed. I still wasn’t having any fun and I yearned for the old days when I would banter with my French friends..

I decided that I wouldn’t play any more games with mutes, and spent the next few times in the lobby quitting until I got someone to chat to while I played. Suddenly the game became fun again as I found someone to chat to and congratulate each other as we duelled. This was more like it, and just how I remembered the original to be! After that game, I kept to the same rule of only playing with folk who used the headset, and it really opened up the game. It was lag free, except for one game which cost me more than a few points as it shuddered and juddered around a bit, but I’m assuming it was as bad for my opponent as it was for me. The feeling of elation you get when fighting back from behind to break your opponent’s serve is second to none and you’ll hit the mute button and shout out loud with delight. Thankfully, none of my opponents used the risk shot so I can only assume they have also decided that they just aren’t worth the hassle.

I Love a Happy Ending

Had I not invested the time and energy into this game that I did, I think I’d be scoring it a lot lower than I have. As I loved the first game, I was able to muster up the enthusiasm to stick it at, and find the patience to put up with the horrible loading times. The game looks and sounds delightful, and is every bit as good as you expect. None of my friends seem to have this, they seem lost in the delights of other Live games at the moment, but they are missing out on a great online experience. I’ve already managed to gather up a few regular tennis partners who share my passion, and hopefully after reading this, you’ll pick it up if you find it at the right price.