topspinI’m not a big fan of tennis, or tennis games for that matter. I find it quite dull and repetitive. I do, however, have fond memories of playing a really basic tennis game on my Master System when I was a lad, and even fonder memories of Mario Tennis on N64. That game was a blast – simple, yet deceptively deep and brilliant fun with mates. Wii Sports Tennis is kinda fun for a short while, but the wiimote is pretty much begging for a proper tennis game to make full use of the motion controls. Top Spin would like to be that game, and while it isn’t bad, a number of things hold it back from being a great tennis sim.

Let’s get this straight – controls in this game aren’t one-to-one and are gesture-recognition based. You can control the speed of your shot to an extent (as well as whether the ball is lobbed or sliced, but this is a ‘digital’ choice), but for the most part it’s a matter of timing your waggle properly and it need not replicate a true tennis shot to be effective. You use the analogue stick on the nunchuk to move your player around, with the Z button triggering lobs or drop shots depending on whether you move the wiimote up or down.

The controls work fine for the most part, and if you play it properly, there is actually quite a decent feeling of satisfaction that goes along with swinging the wiimote with perfect timing and deceiving your opponents with drop shots and lobs. It can be quite fun, especially against human opposition, but there are a number of areas that let the game down.

Coming up next: Epic diving swing

Single player is pretty lack-lustre, with no in-depth career mode (just a choice of a handful of pros with different attributes), as is the norm for sports sims (and is actually included in the game on other consoles). Instead, you are given the opportunity to play a few matches in the guise of “Road to Glory” mode, which is actually pretty similar to just playing a few exhibition matches, with no real sense of evolution of the player (like levelling up or increased money earned or anything). Disappointing, and it gets old rather quickly. The AI is also a bit silly at times, frequently missing easy shots then firing back an awesome return out of nowhere. Additionally, it seems that the player will miss shots occasionally for an apparent mistime of the waggle that you’ll swear didn’t happen, and there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of net-game.

Graphics are bland and disappointing (par for the course with 3rd party Wii games, it seems). Though the players animate nicely, the models aren’t particularly detailed and the crowds are reminiscent of those in N64-era wrestling games. Audio is just as bad, with minimal sound effects and a highly annoying announcer (who screams “FAULT” as though the player had just insulted his mother and slept with his sister).

And just look how happy she is!

As expected, multiplayer is where it’s at, but it really comes down to how often you’ll be using this feature. If you love tennis games and frequently indulge in multiplayer Wii-action, give this game a look. Otherwise, stick to renting.

By watchers_eye

Graphics: C-

Bland in every way.

Sound: C-

Some licensed music for the menus in an attempt to hide the crappiness in-game.

Gameplay: B

Quite fun, actually, but single-player gets old quick.

Overall: B-

Decent tennis sim, but future iterations really need more depth added to the singleplayer modes.