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Customer Reviews of Top Spin

A fun tennis game buried beneath aggravation
On the one hand, Top Spin can be a fun and addictive tennis game--easily the best on Xbox and, in most respects, more than a match for the classic tennis game, Virtua Tennis. On the other, Top Spin is weighed down by numerous little points of irritation and frustration. Alone, none of them would make a major difference, but when put together, they really hurt the overall product.

First, the good. Top Spin is easy to pick up--if you've ever played any console tennis game, you can get the basics down in a minute or two; and if you haven't, there's a quick and easy tutorial. The controls work well here, with each button hitting a different kind of shot (normal, slice, top spin, lob), and the triggers allowing for more difficult drop and risky shots. The graphics are great, with gorgeous stadiums and nicely animated players. And the career mode is nice, with a create-a-player feature that lets you design even the particularities of your player's face and body type. As you play in career mode, you can develop an individual set of skills for your player. You might want to serve-and-volley, or stay on the baseline and hit with power. Any type of player is easily created.

But Top Spin has too many problems. The handful of licensed (real life) players are powered-up over and above their stats, so that the difficulty level swings wildly between the made-up players you'll face and the real-life ones. Second, the game abuses the risk shot system--obviously, the game doesn't have the same timing issues as a player, and your AI opponent will frequently kill you with perfect risk shot after risk shot. Perhaps most annoyingly, given that the Xbox has a hard drive, you can't quit playing in the middle of a tournament in career mode and come back later--you have to forfeit. Probably for this reason, in career mode, you win a set at 3 games, not 6. This makes the game even more frustrating, because if you're broken by the AI, you have to immediately break-back or the set may well be over.

All told, I enjoy Top Spin, but only in small doses, and not nearly as much as I might have. It remains the best tennis game on Xbox, but if the obvious points of frustration had been solved during development, it might have simply been the best tennis game.

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Very Addictive
I have never played tennis before. On the video game or real life. But, I must say I wish I had. I never imagined that I would have so much fun playing tennis. My boyfriend is a fan of tennis and video games. He purchased Top Spin and I couldn't get him from in front of the television. He played for hours hollering and yelling at the game. I wondered what was the big deal. Then I played. I was in for a surprise. I instantly became addicted. At first it took me sometime to get use to the control buttons and understanding the whole game of tennis (My boyfriend acts like my coach when I play.) Top Spin has an awesome gameplay. There are different modes to play. The graphics are good. You can build your player, purchase cloths and tennis equipment. In the career mode, you can become sponsored by Reebok, Yonex, Addidas etc... The sound of the game gives you a feeling that you are at a tennis match. Eventhough this game is very fun, it is also very challenging. As you rank higher and enter different tournaments you play harder and more experienced players. All I have to say is go out and get the game. You will hours of fun. i guarantee you will be holloring and yelling at the television like me.

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Almost there
I am a huge virtua tennis fan and was really excited to get Topspin. Much of what has been said i agree with. The biggest problem is with the career mode like mentioned earlier it comes to an end. You get to #1 quickly and then win all the tournaments. If you continue in that career you can play the tournaments again but they don't go into your trophy case and don't show up as a headline. This can be fixed by following a calendar. Make it realistic. Every month there are tournaments and you can decide to compete if you qualify.

The other problem is with the AI and the drop shots. You can't slug it out from the baseline with any of the pros for two long without them hitting a drop shot which is easy to read. Serves are also way too easy. Also Pete Sampras never serves less than 100mph let alone 69?!