Topspin 3 Review

PAM serves up next iteration – is it “in-court” -

or a “fault” like its sequel ?

by darkmurder:

©2008 Noel Schneider

“`PAM serves up their next iteration in the series, but does it live up to its original, or flop like its sequel?

In 2003, PAM and Microsoft Game Studios launched Topspin, a game which revolutionized the way in which tennis games would be created in the future. It was marked as being both a commercial and critical success for its uncanny ability to appeal to the masses and breath new life into the tennis genre. By 2006, PAM launched the sequel, “Topspin 2”, which unfortunately had no where near the same the level of success as the original had achieved.

It fell short in the areas that had made the original so successful, despite having the heavily improved hardware of the xbox 360 to work with. PAM’s newest offering “Topspin 3” appears to have listened to the tears being shed by fans of the original by taking the game into a new era, the simulator way. Topspin always put you in a situation where you could almost be on the other side of the court, when the ball is lobbed over your head or catches the line, and still oddly players could manage to somehow get their racquet to the ball. This “arcade“ element of Topspin has virtually disappeared in the newest version of the series.

Topspin 3 takes all of the good features of the old games and gives them a new, fresh appeal in the second Topspin for next-gen consoles. The first thing that you will notice when you play the game is the polished graphics, smooth animations and annoying music. Topspin has definitely come back with a vengeance, with a revamped engine that looks brilliant and is able to sustain a competent frame-rate (yes I know it’s a tennis game, but why shouldn’t it *Cough* Topspin 2 *Cough*).

Top Spin's excellent character detail

Player customisation is the first major tool that you will need to use for your journey to become the world’s greatest tennis player and boy is it complex! Topspin 3’s player customisation isthe best player creator available on the 360 at this current time. You havemany different options available to you, starting from your physique, where you can make a tall, bulky serve and volleyer or a lean and mean baseline player.

Once you have chosen what your player’s presence will be like on the court, you move onto the face creator. You choose out of a certain amount of preset faces and can use the moulder or again presets for different facial parts to customise your character. Lifelike characters would be very possible to make and this is definitely one of the stronger parts in the game.

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The face creation in Topspin 3 is the sports version of the decal creation in Forza 2, very detailed! Once completed, you then choose your shot animation for your character, which for once doesn’t just have the Lleyton Hewitt forehand, but a vast array of choices that ensure your character will make a definate different online presence.

Now that your player has been created, to qualify for the junior circuit you need to play a tiebreak against 3 players to succeed in your path to glory. Your tail will be up coming into the match, you’ll be all ready for the pro tour and come to your match, you lose!? Yep, that’s what’s going to happen because Topspin 3 has a severe learning curve that will make even the classic Topspin players rethink how they play the game.

It is advised that prior to commencing your matches you go to the tennis school because it is one of those games that is hard to learn, but relatively easy to conquer (unless its online). The shots that you make now are based upon your position, timing and how long you hold your racquet back before the shot. In previous Topspin games, all you would need to do is hold the button down for the shot you wanted and when the ball arrived it would automatically hit it in the direction you were holding on the analog stick.

Do that same action in Topspin 3 and watch as the ball goes flying past your racquet while you stand there like a goose still holding your racquet in the position to hit the ball. Timing plays a crucial role in determining where the ball will be going, how fast or slow the shot is or simply whether it will go in or out. Positioning is also a key factor in discovering if your ball will be falling short in the middle of the court, or a decent length and near the line.

The risk shot system is still implemented, but is still one aspect of the game that needs working on. By far it is implemented a lot better than in Topspin 2 where it was near impossible to get the shots in, but it has lost its major power. You do gain a heightened power level with the shot now, but when you implement it into matches you will find that it doesn’t assist in saving important points and more often than not you still miss it. With that being said if you can nail it every time, you will be dominating in multiplayer. Once you have these aspects mastered to perfection, you are well on your way towards carving a career of greatness.

Once again the upgrade system of your player is a major part of the game that establishes what traits your player will have. It is far less complicated then the millions of options given to you in Topspin 2 that made no difference at all (eg stamina), however still has an abundance of more options than just the basic ones offered in the original Topspin. The options given include forehand, backhand, service, return, volley, power, speed, and stamina, which are all condensed to make the game experience as realistic as possible.

The game still does however have issues in terms of the sound department with only 6 songs being implemented into the game and each song looping at certain parts of the menu. This is fair enough, but when you’ve heard the song from one menu then go to another only to hear the same song, it becomes extremely annoying and frustrating.

The Jamiroquai song is perhaps the most annoying song throughout the game, due to the introduction sounding like a cheesy porno. Sure that’s alright, everyone has fond memories of all the soft core’s but every time you win, it comes up, every time you choose to upgrade your player, it comes up IT’S EVERYWHERE! The music really needed some diversity, but it is also not the only disappointing sound factor within the game. The crowds always appear to be quite the same, and even though they are leaps and bounds better than their predecessor, Virtua Tennis is still able to capture the atmosphere far better than the Topspin series can muster.

Online, Topspin 3 employs a “World Tour” mode and your basic public type matches. The do all and end all “World Tour” mode essentially requires the player to compete in any online tournament against players from around the world (using the player you have created). Winning matches will allow you to move through to the next round in a knockout type format and slowly progress through in a mission to become champion of the particular tournament.

Although this looks great on paper, the system is strange to say the least. The player could battle through 3 matches to reach the final and then match up against someone who has not played in that tournament at all yet. Obviously, it takes away the satisfaction of actually winning a tournament online, especially if you had only joined it at the final stage. Topspin titles have always had great online capabilities, yet it has always suffered from the same certain flaws.

This major flaw is lag and boy does Topspin 3 suffer more than ever. Whilst it is bearable in some matches, locking up for roughly 3 seconds in game becomes a major issue and drastically causes the timing of your player to be off, which of course is vital to the game‘s central mechanics. The idea of Topspin’s ranked online system is extremely good, however for a game that really does not have the amount of online players such as a Bad Company or Call of Duty, waiting for games soon becomes yet another deterrent of the game.

Topspin 3 takes a new direction that will have even fans of the old series’ requiring to learn a new playing technique thanks to the learning curve. Whilst it is tough, it is clearly for the better and is clearly the direction Topspin should take, due to the lack of simulator tennis games out there.

As most components of the game are fantastic and well-polished, other areas such as the online suffer greatly and really hold the game back. The game is definitely one of the best looking sports titles available and is clearly a sports genre GOTY contender. If you are a fan of tennis then Topspin 3 is a must buy, if you aren’t you will find the learning curve to be difficult to cope with, but get through it and you will love this title.

“8.1/10

©2008 Noel Schneider

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Filed under: Console gaming, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 3rd Party Games, Xbox 360 Game Reviews, Xbox 360 News | Tagged: "2K Sports", "2K Top Spin 3", "Top Spin review", "Top Spin Reviews", 2K, 3, PAM, PAM Development, Sport, Tennis, Topspin, Topspin 3, Xbox 360