Top Spin 2 impressions & general thread

Anyone else have this game? The original was one of my fav games of 2004/2005. Its gameplay and excellent online mode gave it almost limitless replayability, especially for tennis fans.

Imo, the sequel “just†improves on the original. Visually, there’s nothing major going on apart from higher poly counts and resolution. The animations haven’t been improved dramatically apart from some nice sliding on the clay surfaces and better transitioning from running to standing motion. The sounds and music are nothing special either.

Gameplay has changed for the better however, making for a much more balanced and dynamic game of tennis. Firstly, risk shots have basically been consigned to the bin…they’re so difficult that even the top ranked players never use them online. In their place however has emerged the “advance shotâ€Â. These strokes range from passing shots, heavy slice and drop shots and can only be executed when your player’s “momentum†gauge is high. Momentum is basically gained by stringing together successive winners. If you loose point after point or execute advanced shots your momentum gets depleted. This system is cool because it emulates the psychological high of being “on the ball†in a match but doesn’t unbalance the game as the shots themselves are not overly powerful and require some degree of skill to use properly.

Another noteworthy change is the ability for topspin and slice shots to go out of court. In top spin 1 you could yank fully left or right on the control stick and hit an impossibly accurate cross-court ball. Top spin 2 tones this down while still retaining the power of these strokes. Now you have to really think about the placement of the ball and applying the correct amount of directional control.

The power afforded the server versus receiver is now much more realistic, such that having serve feels like a sanctuary from good players to a degree. If you nail a powerful serve there’s no guaranteed supershot that your opponent can hurl back at you, which make the act of serving well very rewarding. Matches as a result tend to go to serve much more so than the original. The lob is also a much-improved shot and can be used to great effect against overly aggressive players who rush the net all the time after a big thumping serve.

The online mode is almost identical to top spin 1 except it’s much more stable and suffers from less lag. Whether this is due to improved network code or just more people having faster connections these days is open to debate. The stats tracking is a little more sophisticated this time round but one glaring omission is the lack of online tournament play. This was a real disappointment for me as I was pretty much expecting it for the sequel. I’m hoping perhaps they can patch this in at some point, as tourney play would boost the online profile of this game immeasurably.

So…if anyone wants to play online my gamertag is FreeScotland

Maybe see some of you folk online.