Top Spin 3

by Ryan Casey - 2008/02/26 11:15am

Believe it or not, getting a tennis game firmly established in today’s market is about as easy as worming a spider. Firstly, you’ve got to make sure it has a catchy title. Face it: the public simply aren’t going to accept your little baby if you’ve decided to call it All Star Court Star Grass Court Grand Slam Tennis Tournament Cup Trophy 2009. Although, the same applies for just about every other game on the market. So perhaps the cold, hard truth about how tennis games manage to go unnoticed lays within the saddening statement that maybe no one cares. We care, and you should too. If you don’t, then perhaps Top Spin 3 is the game to make you fall in love with this massively underrated genre. Or not.

As the third title in a series originating on Microsoft’s Xbox way back in 2003, Top Spin 3 certainly has a lot to live up to. Usually for videogames, the second iteration in a series is where the old mistakes are put right; offering a cleaner, generally better gaming experience. It’s with the third instalment that the developers really have to start getting their game on. There’s two routes they can take: the lazy route, where the developers simply polish the graphics, and add a gimmicky new feature that no one cares about, often resulting in the whole package being slated by critics and fans alike. Or, they can be a bit more ambitious, rebuilding the series from the ground up, adding a new control mechanism, a new style and a whole new experience. Fans will whinge, but usually, this is the route that pays off. See Grand Theft Auto III for example – Rockstar decided to go 3D, resulting in GTA as we know it today. Top Spin 3 falls under both categories, but unfortunately, the more we look at it, the more it looks like a half arsed recreation of the second game, which made its way onto the X360 in 2006.

Granted, Top Spin 3 might well be the first title in the series to make its way onto the PlayStation 3, but it simply doesn’t look original enough for us to consider parting with our pennies, especially when we’ve already had the brilliant Virtua Tennis 3 giving us our tennis kicks for about a year now. It’ll no doubt be just what you need if you’re after a refreshing tennis sim as oppose to the arcade/retro style of Virtua Tennis, but for fans of the previous titles, we’re not quite sure what you’re going to make of it.

Okay, that’s enough of the cynicism for now. The truth is, Top Spin 3 could indeed turn out to be a very good title, and there’s very little evidence to suggest otherwise. In fact, there are several new features that could certainly elevate it above its strong predecessor instead of simply polishing it. First of all, one of the lacking areas with Top Spin 2 was the career mode. Fair enough, it had hundreds of tournaments to participate in, whether it be a minor event or a major competition, and it most certainly had a decent character creation tool. When it came to actually playing the matches though, the tedium kicked in, and before long, the game became boring. In Top Spin 3, the character customization has been given a revamp, with a brand new tool allowing you to shape your face as if it were a putty rubber. Furthermore, the underwhelming skill-building system from the previous title has been given a makeover, with online matches and exhibitions being the best ways to earn some extra points, and rise up the rankings.

At the end of the day though, it all comes down to the gameplay, after all, this is where the title will essentially impress or depress. From what we’ve seen so far, it appears to be pretty much identical to Top Spin 2. The graphics have been massively improved, which of course means one thing: tennis goddess Maria Sharapova will look even more realistic. Yum.

Jokes aside, it does look very nice indeed. Graphically, it could be one of the nicest looking PlayStation 3 titles to date. The gameplay itself though is underwhelming from what we’ve seen so far. It takes the same repetitive simulation formula tried and tested in Top Spin 2, adds a new ‘hold and release to hit the ball’ approach, and nothing else.

Top Spin 3 is certainly a game worth keeping an eye on, but the most worrying aspect is that other than the revamped graphics, there’s nothing new to look at here. Top Spin 2.5? You bet. Damn good fun? Possibly. One thing’s for sure though: if it manages to offer a multiplayer mode as solid and as fun as Virtua Tennis 3, then it’ll be a definite winner. Keep your eyes peeled for a full review in the coming months.