Next-Gen Top Spin

With a little creative thinking you could label the first ever video game (Pong) as a tennis game, and no doubt the sport has been popular with the gaming crowd over the years. With Top Spin™'s critically acclaimed splash on Xbox®, a new franchise was born, and now Top Spin™ 2 is set to embrace the next generation with its appearance on Xbox 360™.

Now it's a waiting game filled with questions and expectations. While I can't deliver the game to your door prior to release, I can at least clue you in on what to expect.

Great texture work on the court.

Visual Wizardry
Though you don't travel through exotic lands and gaze over epic vistas, Top Spin 2 goes to great lengths to offer a stunning visual experience. Beyond sheer detail and great character modeling, it's the subtle effects that give life to the game: the deep texture-like quality to each court, the soft shadows that feel natural, the bits of dust and flurries of grass particles, and above all, the natural grace of the spot-on animation. Back and forth rallies are not only fun, but look so fluid and natural you may catch yourself gawking at the movements and forget to pay attention to the ball.

Earn the respect of sponsors, buy your own
gear, and play matches all over the world.

Gameplay
Graphics, career mode, and even online play over Xbox Live® notwithstanding, it's the game mechanics that make Top Spin 2 shine. Veterans of the original will notice an immediate difference in the control of shots like slices, lobs, and top spin shots. They are both easier to pinpoint and harder to keep between the lines.

Picturesque in high-def.

Lining up a cross-court baseline slice shot in the corner is more possible than before, but so is slicing it wide. The level of precision is greater, meaning more skill is required, but without any additional complication to the control scheme. It's simply a matter of a more "sensitive" control scheme.

At the same time, you can always fall back to a "safe" shot. Any time you hit the ball with the A button, you know it won't go out of bounds. Of course, you won't score many winners with this tactic, but it's excellent for setting up shots or getting yourself out of trouble.

The more complicated special shots are available after you boost your morale meter. Whether you just want to send a scorcher down the line, slice a banana shot to the corner, or hit a wicked top spin shot that skips over the baseline chalk, you've got specialty versions of each shot. Better yet, there's now the opportunity to counter them with perfect timing.

I'd try the safe shot.

Character Building
The sheer scope of customization options for creating a character rival that of the most complex wrestling game. Each feature and attribute can be molded to fit exactly your vision. From adding age lines, good or bad complexion, the slope of the nose or brow, the slant of the eyes, and much more, create the perfect avatar.

Creation is just the beginning though, as you pick a trainer and play mini-games to increase skills, earn the respect of sponsors, buy your own gear, and play matches all over the world to earn seeding for the more prestigious tournaments and eventually build yourself up to the number one ranking.

Top Spin 2 is no fantasy tennis game, either. It boasts a large number of highly regarded real-life players, from the incomparable Roger Federer to Andy Roddick, Jeff Blake, Maria Sharapova, and many more. Battle wits and skill with the best players in the world.

Little is known right now about the Xbox Live component, but you can be sure that it will rival and exceed the excellent online options from the original Top Spin, so look for more details on Xbox.com as soon as they're available.

Top Spin 2 is that elegant blend of fun gameplay and accurate tennis simulation. Whether you're a serve and volley player, a thundering baseline specialist, or an ace-serving master, every strategy and tactic of professional tennis is expertly rendered along with the polish of a top-tier next-generation game.

Article by Ryan Treit