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Posted on: Jun 25, 2008
Top Spin 3
WORDS BY: Paul Curthoys
Tennis games have come a long way since Pong, but the last major landmark was Virtua Tennis on Dreamcast; games since then have just refined the concepts it debuted. Not this time, though — the fantastic Top Spin 3 is the next evolutionary step.
But at first, Top Spin 3 will piss you off. It sure didn’t click with us during our brief hands-on time for our preview in last month’s issue, but with the benefit of some 20/20 hindsight, we can assure you that it’s just because Top Spin 3 masterfully turns tennis controls on their head. By focusing not on charging up but on getting your player into position and releasing your swing at the right moment, the control is loads more realistic, and it also requires more skill and finesse. Fortunately, the game helps you out with a great school mode that runs you through every detail in 30-plus essential lessons.
It’s definitely that tricky at first — for the first hour or so, you’ll stare in disbelief as your ingrained charge-up-the-shot reflexes send easy balls zipping past you. But once you get in the groove and unleash your first he’s-so-dead rocket, you’ll start to appreciate how awesome the controls make the gameplay. Even doubles play or rushing the net feels different and harder in a good way, requiring mastery of their own respective timing and patterns.
See, there’s no perfect arcade tennis here — you will crank the ball into the net on a regular basis, and if your positioning is off, the ball will comically bounce off your face. But rather than just shrugging off a bad dice roll on your charged-up shot, you’ll learn to see that you swung too early, got too close to the ball, or misread the spin. All of this boils down to gameplay that is slower-paced, more realistic, and lightyears more satisfying than Top Spin 2’s or anything with “Virtua” in its name.
Mon, 07/14/2008 - 18:44
Posted by digdug113
Well, I just bought this game and I'm a big fan of the franchise. Game #1 in the series got challenging towards the end when I was trying to win Grand Slams. Game #2 wasn't that challenging, but the training, mini-games, and items were fun. Game #3 is exactly what I wanted - challenging with customization of my character... but the customization falls short and the training was taken out for XP. Additionally, there was no K-Swiss (I play tennis too and it's my fave). I know a lot of reviewers like Virtua better because you jump in and play the game quickly, but that is not what this game is like. I like challenging games, that are easy to learn and tough to master. This game certainly fits what the Dr. ordered. It's definitely the best Top Spin version thus far. If you want arcadey, go for Virtua.
**Truth be told, I'm right and you're wrong (most of the time).**
Fri, 06/27/2008 - 22:40
Posted by mastur cheef
I was watching X Play on G4 and they gave this game a 2/5 stars because they said it was really boring...
Fri, 06/27/2008 - 13:42
Posted by PaperLantern
Yeah I've noticed now that you don't really have to, but it's nice to pull off something advanced like that.
Thu, 06/26/2008 - 23:44
Posted by Paul OXM
They'll be easier to successfully pull off once you level up your guy some more. I'm guessing your player's too much of a rookie to do too well at them right now. As to whether you have to do them, depends on how good you are at just tennis and what difficulty you're on. I play on Normal, tend to stick to mostly working the angles, and never felt like I had to use them, though I did sometimes.
Thu, 06/26/2008 - 22:23
Posted by PaperLantern
Took me forever to get through the training in the demo, but once I got it down, I was absolutely owning Andy Roddick with my smooth moves.
Paul, I have a question though... you know all those advanced techniques that you learn in the beginning (drop shots, slices, etc)? Do you have to know how to do those later on in the game to stand a chance? Because I didn't do too well on those.