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Let's face it... Tennis games are not the most popular of sports' titles. Tennis in particular, is usually liked by real enthusiasts and not by casual observers. Fortunately, Top Spin 2 is really aimed at that crowd because of its highly technical gameplay. The game's strength is in the career mode. Most of everyone will be sweating and swearing when trying to get your tennis pro to reach the number one rank as this is the most challenging aspect of Top Spin 2. You start off with the character creation which is surprisingly deep...comparable to games like Tiger Woods and Oblivion. You can essentially change every facial feature of your player. One of the major aspects of having a successful career mode is the way you customize your character as you progress through your career. I can't remember a game where character customization has such a dramatic effect on how quickly you can climb the ranks. My advice…choose carefully which skills to increase but balance is key. Tennis is a game of precision, power and speed yet, reflexes can't be overlooked. That's about the best advice that I can offer. Coaches offer you different types of training and for once, I find all of these are really helpful in learning to master the game. Not only does it increase your tennis pro's attributes but, it's a great way to learn the delicate technical aspects of every shot. Learning the shots and particularly the timing of every shot, is the key to winning. You have the safe shot with the "A" button which is the button you will mostly be using at the beginning. The "X" button delivers a slice shot which I use mostly to slow the pace of the game and to be able to get myself back in position during a rapid exchange against an opponent. The "Y" button is used as a lob shot which is pretty lethal for those who play close to the net. Finally, the "B" button is a topspin shot which is the fastest basic shot in your arsenal. Mastering all of these will greatly impact the number of successful exchanges you have versus an opponent. There are also some risk shots that can be used by pressing the right trigger before you start swinging your racket. These shots are very dependant on the momentum meter and they consume rather large amounts of it. There are also advanced shots that take up less momentum and they are triggered by pressing the left trigger before you start your swing. Finally, adding to the technical aspect of Top Spin 2, are the different types of courts and how different these play. For instance, you'll notice a major difference of the pace of the game when you play on a clay court versus a grass court. Opponents? Well, there are some I definitely didn't recognize because they are fictional. The mix of existing Tennis players is adequate but there are some that I feel should have been included: Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters, Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi would have been a good start. Nevertheless, there's enough here to keep most tennis fans satisfied.Read full review
I purchased Top Spin 2 for the Xbox 360 primarily because the original Top Spin for Xbox was not backwards compatable yet. In other words, I couldn't play the old game (Top Spin) on the new system Xbox 360. That being said the two games are very similiar and are both fun to play. With Top Spin 2, as with the original game, you have total control over your player if you decide to build a tennis player and begin a career. You start building your tennis player at the DNA level and go from there choosing everything about your player... Everything from the Serving motions, build, age of your player, facial features, eye color, etc. In order for your player to get better, i.e. serve harder, move faster, have harder ground strokes, you must pay for the training to do so. You begin your career with some money and you choose your training priorities and you train, being tested and by passing the individual skill tests you get more skill (stars). Soon you run out of money and must enter tournaments to earn more to pay for more training. This game is challenging and fun. I do think the original Top Spin was easier. A nice feature of this game is that it has recent tennis pros as characters that you play against in these tournaments. I would recommend this game to any tennis player or fan.Read full review
I first bought XBox 360 and did not have any games so I started downloading various demos. I kept playing this demo because it was fun, so I decided to purchase the game. It has a great fun factor to it when just playing an exhibition match. When you get into Career mode it gets kind of boring. All you do is train, train, and more training if you want your tennis player to actually succeed. The matches are quite brutal if your player is not trained enough. I played a lot of it when I first received the game but now it is on the shelf and my playing time is devoted to Tiger Woods 07 and Gears of War. Overall a fun game, career mode alright but gets boring. 3.5 but i will round up on the eBay rating.
At the beginning it was kind of difficult to control the shots, but with practice you'll get it. Hey...this is like real tennis, you have to practice your shots to mater them. Cons: Trying to create a player that look at you is not difficult when you find the Player ID that match you... thats really the hard part, if you skip one the is impossible to find him/her again (back is not an option) Overall. The more I play, the more I enjoy it. I starting to be away from the real court, hahaahha
First time I pickup the game, I was getting killed by the lowest ranked players. The controls are just "different" than Virtua Tennis. You need to fill up your strokes before actually hitting the ball. After you get the hang of it, it becomes like real tennis...a chess match. Evenly skilled players having to lob/drop shot/passing shot/volley/smash their way into a point. If the computer players gets easier to beat, then you go online where there are tons of players willing to test your skills. The graphics are good, but not next gen enough for an XBox 360 title. The sounds are standard fare. The training modes are ok, but generally quite repetitive. The gameplay though is everything. This is a great multiplayer game (with a caveat that both players have practiced). Not as easy to pick up and play like Virtua Tennis. Great game.Read full review
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