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Developer: Pam Development
Publisher: 2K Sports
Genre: Sports
Region: NTSC
Format:
Release Date: 26 Sep 05
User Rating
9.8 (25 votes)- Preview
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- The sublime Xbox tennis game looks set for a turn on the PS2, but becomes almost unplayable due to its obscenely long loading times and visual glitches.
Overview
One of the most popular sports game to ever grace the Xbox was developed under the XSN Sports license. Developers Power and Magic took the sport of Tennis and made one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever had on the Xbox. Let's just say I have had some great times with that game. So fast forward a couple years – the XSN brand is gone, and publishers 2K Sports have picked up the game and decided to take this extremely popular tennis experience and bring it to the PS2. So is Top Spin the same great experience on the Sony console? Read our full review to find out!
Gameplay
For those who were not around here when I reviewed the original Top Spin game, you can say I was a little impressed. It was one of the few times I have ever given a game a perfect score. That is because the game just played beautifully, both online and offline, and all I could do was say wow. To this day I still play Top Spin for the Xbox and enjoy it just as much as the first day. Can Top Spin for the PS2 continue on this same feeling?
Top Spin has a few different modes, which includes Exhibition, Career, Multiplayer, and Tennis School. The tennis school is just a very basic tutorial of the game's controls and shows all the different shot variations that you can use. This is actually a worthwhile tutorial, because for those people who don't know much about the sport of tennis, you will figure out at least the basics behind the sport.
When you start the game, you are immediately allowed to create your own character, which is supported by the EyeToy. This feature is not provided in most tennis titles, but is executed well in Top Spin. You are given tons of different options on how to customize your character. Once you have created your player, you are then able to take him into the Career Mode. If you do decide to use the Eye Toy camera, then be prepared for not the best looking character model, even if you're the next GQ model.
One of my only issues with Top Spin is the career mode, which in fact ends up being too short. You start the mode at the bottom playing on schoolyard tennis courts just trying to make it ahead. During this time, you can work on gaining points onto your different shots. The basis behind the mode is quite simply to make it to the top of the ranks and win all of the major grand slam events. While these matches does get increasingly difficult, but once you have gotten through a good portion of the career mode, the AI becomes somewhat predictable. This ends up making the career mode a bit shorter then it was meant to be. One of the interesting additions to the career mode that I enjoyed was the sponsorship idea, where you get a sponsor and have to complete tasks in order to get more gear.
The core gameplay of Top Spin is still the same as it was on the Xbox. However, the game does not play near as well on the Playstation 2 as it did on the Xbox. First off, while the Xbox version enjoyed very short loading time, the PS2 unfortunately has some of the longest load times I have ever had for a sports games. There are times where I just left to get a meal while waiting for the game to load; yes, it's that long. Not only that, but the gameplay itself filled with issues that weren't even problems on the Xbox. The gameplay never seemed to run as smooth, nor did it seem to feel as good, as the Xbox version. The gameplay felt extremely choppy and did not have the same consistency as the original Top Spin game.
I must say it was disheartening to see a great game like Top Spin struggle as it did on the PS2, which really doesn't bode well for developers 2K Sports. The game felt apparently rushed and although this is the only tennis game to go online for the Playstation 2, this is not enough to make the gameplay stand out over Sega's Virtua Tennis game.
Graphics
Some of the most noticeable differences, besides the massive load times, is the presentation, which changes the way you play the game, and this is not a good thing at all. First off Top Spin for the Xbox played so smooth with literally no graphical hiccups at all. So when I started playing this PS2 version, I was astonished with how poorly the game was ported. There are a whole lot of graphical issues that slowed this game down, and stopped it from actually being able to run at a smooth pace.
The character models are nowhere near as detailed as they were on the Xbox, and this is actually a bad thing when compared to Virtua Tennis, which has much stronger character models. Top Spin as a whole just really lost a lot of its flair in this port. It was just disappointing to see such a great looking game on the Xbox go to such a problem plagued game on the PS2.
Fun Factor
While Top Spin is not going to give PS2 fans the same sort of satisfaction as Xbox owners got with their version, but t is still Top Spin, and it is still a good tennis experience. Whether you are playing the game online or offline, the experience was still a solid tennis game that to me was still fun to play. I have to admit I was extremely disappointed not to see any improvements made to the game's formula, but I guess they figured if it's not broken, don't fix it. In the end, Top Spin is a fun experience that takes a lot of patience with the load times, and a realization that this is not the best looking PS2 game on the market.
Overall
Top Spin is one of those ports, which in my opinion, should not have been ported to the PS2 at all, because of all the problems that the port is now facing. Sure the game still offers a decent tennis experience, but it took a literally perfect game and turned it into a disappointingly average and problem-filled tennis game on the PS2.
- Gameplay
6.0 - Graphics
6.0 - Fun Factor
7.0 - Overall
6.0
