Game | | Top Spin | Format | | X Box | Publisher: | | Microsoft Game Studios | Release date: | | Out now |
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It's fair to say that my first impressions of this game were not good. The initially awful service method and so so graphics combined with your fledgling players lack of skill made certain that this was a long way from being love at first sight. The game also had to compete with the fact I was locked head first into F Zero and going from travelling at 3000 kph to playing tennis was a bit of a culture shock. This was also added to the fact that when I started Top Spin I was literally only about 5000 goes away from getting the F Zero AX tracks. So it was with a peeved and somewhat black heart that I began my tennis career - appropriately on career mode. This begins by giving you the option of choosing your players DNA - ohh fancy! You can obviously choose to be male or female and as I have very little interest in dressing up and making a male character better looking (I could do that to myself - if there was any room for improvement that is) I obviously chose some prime female DNA, or so I thought. When the glorious visage of U. Tility (do you get it?) was revealed I was more than slightly shocked - Anna Kournikova? More like a fat Martina Hingus only with the worlds squarest head!  | | Phil rates the Xbox baseline bashing tennis simulator. |
Still, after changing her eyes, cheek bones - (in fact I wont bore you by listing them all, let's just say if my woman had been paying for all these changes her face would be a more expensive plastic mess than Lesley Ash's!) - She turned out to be, well, passable - from behind. The aim of career mode is obviously to become - simply the best, better than all the rest, better than anyone, and very nimble at the net. I'm stuck on your heart I - whoops sorry, got a bit carried away there. You achieve greatness through all the usual methods i.e. winning tournaments, and, uh winning tournaments. You start with the measly pro-am competitions and work your way up to the Grand slams, which don't feature the likes of Wimbledon as you might expect, but the lesser-known Grand Slams such as the Great British Open - catchy (obviously an official licence was too rich for Microsoft's blood - what's wrong Bill couldn't you just buy the competition like you normally do?!) You also have 14 (I think) career stars to spread amongst your various skills (serving etc), but it costs money to pay for the training. Each training session takes the form of a test of skills to be completed, most of which offer a healthy challenge and are a great way of mastering the game mechanics. So there you have it, win tournaments, make 'coin' spend said 'coin' on improving your skills and Robert's your father's brother. The movement of the player is excellent as they skid and lunge for the ball. No diving though, which is a shame. Add to this the various muti-player options and you have a game which is a definite keeper. It turned out to be the perfect comedown from F-Zero and whilst certainly not love at first sight I can now safely say my hearts set on it! 8/10 Phil Utility | 
