New Review Posted: Top Spin

Daniel Weissenberger · 11-03-2004, 02:03 AM

Mike Doolittle reviews Top Spin, and makes an embarassing admission:

"I confess—I don't know the first thing about tennis. Sure, I watch it on TV every now and then when something big is happening, but I never paid much attention to it or really understood all of its rules and nuances. After playing Top Spin, though, I gained a newfound appreciation for the sport. I'm not about to go out and buy a racquet or anything, but I think I understand and respect the game a little more. And for a videogame to be the catalyst for my epiphany, well… that had better be one fine videogame."

The rest of the review can be perused here.

stratu · 11-03-2004, 07:34 AM

There's something very (amusingly) wrong with your "Consumer Advice" sidebar for this game: "... the game is gunplay from beginning to end"?

You'll have all the FPS fans running out to buy Top Spin!

Mike Doolittle · 11-03-2004, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stratu

There's something very (amusingly) wrong with your "Consumer Advice" sidebar for this game: "... the game is gunplay from beginning to end"?

You'll have all the FPS fans running out to buy Top Spin!

It would appear as though Dan accidentally switched some CA columns.

Mike Doolittle · 11-03-2004, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moron Lite

One thing I was wondering about, though: Mike B. has mentioned a number of times that the risk shots are broken because you can figure out the timing, and this wreaks havoc on the Live experience. Has this been fixed in some subsequent update?

The shots aren't broken, but a skilled player can pull them off pretty consistently after a little practice to nail the timing. However, choosing the right shot, like a slice, can make opponents' responding risk shots more likely to go out of bounds, and you can use the career mode to build a character that has strong defense against risk shots.

Daniel Weissenberger · 11-03-2004, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littledoc

It would appear as though Dan accidentally switched some CA columns.

Actually, I just consider Mike B.'s kill.switch consumer advice such a classic that I try to post it as much as possible, then quickly overwrite it, so people have only a few hours to read it before it goes away. Kind of like an eclipse

EnduroGamer · 11-04-2004, 01:16 PM

A very good review by the LD.

When I first played Top Spin, I liked it but not enough to really invest some time with it. But then a couple weeks later I really sat down and started trying to master the game. I'm in no way a master at it, but I have definitely improved and the better I got, the better the game got in my eyes.

Setting up a multiplayer contest with all of my friends was a blast and playing the game online is quite fun too. I agree that the game's one shortcoming is that its training mini-games weren't quite as fun or effective as Virtua Tennis' were, but aside from that Top Spin is tops.

LordFarid · 11-07-2004, 09:29 AM

I agree, the single player missions of Virtua Tennis is more fun than that of Top Spin in my opinion. Also regarding the newfound appreciation of the sport tennis that littledoc described, I would personally give that honor to virtua tennis, that's the game that in my opinion put some fire under tennis games again. This all being said, Top Spin is superior in the end, because its gameplay is more extensive and because of Xbox Live.
That being said though a Top Spin review without mentioning Virtua Tennis is a sin in my opinion. In many ways, Top Spin plays and feels so much like Virtua Tennis that if it was called Virtua Tennis 3 or something alike, everyone would have believed it.

legendarypegasu · 11-07-2004, 12:27 PM

I agree with much that has been said by above posters. The single player missions just weren't all that great, both Virtua Tennis and Tennis 2K2 have superior single player modes.

But the real heart and sout of Top Spin is its multiplayer mode, right now its the favorite drinking game amongst my teammates, becoming more popular than Beer Pong.

EnduroGamer · 11-08-2004, 11:41 AM

Tennis' surge in popularity began before Top Spin was released. Top Spin was green-lighted because of the surge in the sport's popularity. This is not a chicken or the egg situation.

As much as I hate to say it, the Williams sisters are a big reason for the sports increase in popularity over the past 4 to 5 years. Perhaps the seeming rise in popularity only penetrated the middle of the country (LD, are you still in Oklahoma? Please correct me if I'm wrong) about the time of Top Spin's release, but the sport has been hit a rennaisance of appreciation since the late 1990's to 2000.

EnduroGamer · 11-08-2004, 06:49 PM

Yeah, there is no doubt that women's tennis was far more popular over the last 5 years than men's tennis.

And the Agassi/Sampras era was truly wonderful. Although my brother loves the memories he has of seeing Sampras and Michael Chang in the finals of the US Open many years ago when Sampras was staking his claim.

It's like golf. Golf is still very popular but there's no denying that as a spectator sport it rides a wave identical to Tiger's success. Viewership has been on a (almost steady) decline for the past 18 months.

QXZ · 11-10-2004, 03:27 AM

Quote:

Quoth GC_Danny:
Actually, I just consider Mike B.'s kill.switch consumer advice such a classic that I try to post it as much as possible, then quickly overwrite it, so people have only a few hours to read it before it goes away. Kind of like an eclipse

(Looks over GC's kill.switch review.)

Wow. Just noticed our Honorable Horror Geek sure looked different back in March. Something sticks out, yet I can't quite put my finger on it...

(LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Of course, if perchance Mike B. actually did write the Consumer Advice section for said game, then I retract all above statements.)