Top Spin

 PlayStation 2
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 12 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 12
  3. Negative: 1 out of 12
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  1. VahndD
    Oct 18, 2005
    6
    Just another tennis game. but it's quite a little bit improvement better than once i played in dreamcast. the hard spin gauge aliitle bit difficult to do for the first time. but in the end it makes me a little bit annoying.
  2. WesR.
    Oct 2, 2005
    6
    Choppy gameplay, slow loading times, but other than that decent tennis game.
  3. Duke_Nukem
    Sep 24, 2015
    7
    Top Spin plays like most mediocre tennis games, it has it moments but it doesn't feel special at all. The presentation of the game is simple and the graphics are just adequate. The grass and gravel terrains look rather ugly, the hard courts are a bit better looking. The sound effects are just so so: when your player falls on the floor it sounds like someone dropped a big bag of potatoes,Top Spin plays like most mediocre tennis games, it has it moments but it doesn't feel special at all. The presentation of the game is simple and the graphics are just adequate. The grass and gravel terrains look rather ugly, the hard courts are a bit better looking. The sound effects are just so so: when your player falls on the floor it sounds like someone dropped a big bag of potatoes, quite laughable really.

    But how about the control and gameplay? After all that is the most important part of a sports game. Well, the controls are not bad and the game is easy to pick up and play. The x-button makes your character perform a normal ground stroke, the square button makes him perform a slice, the circle button a topspin ball and the triangle button a lob ball.

    The introduction of special moves performed by holding the R1 or L1 button is in my opinion a really bad idea. It makes the computer player perform not very realistic winners, but for the human player it mostly makes him play the ball out off the court or in the net. There are no buttons to give effect on the ball after you hit it, which is a pity.

    Another miss hit from this game is the choice of camera positions. There are only 2 camera positions: close and far. The close camera position is not practical at all, it's simply too close to the back of your character. When the players change courtside, your character goes to the far side of the court and the only way you can get a camera position at the back of your character is by chosing the close camera position (yep, the one that's not practical at all!).

    Top Spin is not a bad tennis game but also not a very good one. The problem is that there isn't any really good tennis game on the market for PS2. If you're looking for a fun arcade tennis game on the PS2 you could consider going for Virtua Tennis 2 or even Slam Tennis. Both those games are older than Top Spin, but they are better looking and the gameplay is also pretty smooth. Unfortunatelly they suffer from the same problems as Top Spin: a bad camera position when you're changing courts (Slam Tennis even has only 1 camera position!) and the redicilous special moves (except for Slam Tennis). I give all three games 7 out of 10.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 28 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 28
  3. Negative: 2 out of 28
  1. PSM Magazine
    65
    It's a good, basic tennis game, reasonably enjoyable with solid, if not too demanding game mechics. To quote a phrase, it's "Mostly Harmless." [Oct 2005, p.92]
  2. IGN
    74
    A fun tennis game, though aside from the play mechanics it feels somewhat dated, and maybe even slow paced due to its lengthy load times.
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  3. Next Level Gaming
    83
    It's definitely the best PS2 Tennis game out there. But if you already own the Xbox game there's really no reason to switch.
    Read full review
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