Reviews// Top Spin 4

Do you think that the kind of people who disregard guitar-based games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero (yes, I know there are other instruments) because “You should go out and learn to play proper guitar” have the same dismissive attitude regarding tennis games?

I hope so, because they won’t be playing Top Spin 4 because they’ll be down at the tennis club getting wet and not being able to power-serve. They will certainly not be able to add and remove tattoos and lovely – if a tad garish – skirts and make-up in the blink of an eye.

At least with this latest tennis-ball larruping title from 2K I get to try out those garish costumes in the guise of Ms Spongella SPOnG before even taking to the practice courts.

You might think that means that I’m not truly getting into the spirit of things here. You’d be wrong. After getting trounced a few times due to what initially appeared to be over-complex controls, I flounced back to the locker room to tart Ms Spongella up.

In fact, I totally designed her face and body. Then I dressed her up a bit in skirts and tops. Then I changed her shoes; gave her some tasteful tattoos; looked at some wristbands and then considered her overall colour scheme.

It wasn’t good enough. There’s not enough choice of clothes or looks or kit.

Apparently I actually had to go and play some tennis in order to unlock more stuff in the locker room.

Dressing Rooms
Oh, come on! Play tennis? Yes, sadly, that’s a major part of Top Spin 4. Okay, not so sadly as it’s a genuine pleasure to learn your way through what are in fact not complicated controls at all. Not once you’ve spent more than a few moments going through some of the training elements.

Basically, you’ve got four shots to think about: slice, lob, flat and top spin. Each of the shots is assigned to a button on the controller. I would have liked to have been able to explain this in terms of Move controlleration as well, but no Move-based copy arrived in time.

Each of the button-shots is given additional flavour via the use of the left-analog for swing and therefore left/right direction, as well as for length of shot. I have to say, however, that for too long I was pulling back on the analog to provide additional length rather than the other way around. That’s my poor form though. Seriously, the controls are simple.

This is even true when you add in the use of the right trigger to provide ‘Drop’; as in ‘Drop shot’ and ‘Drop volley’.

It’s the timing and choice of shot that provides the challenge and sense of achievement. This actually brings one minor irritation to the forehand; the advanced training can get seriously tedious as the game appears at first to have a totally arbitrary notion of what differentiates a ‘Perfect’ shot from a ‘Too Late’ or ‘Too Early’ shot.

I say “appears” because once you realise that this is down to timing your unleashing to the bounce of the ball plus the release of the shot button plus the swing (in that order) things soon become clear.

This means that – like games of yore such as Sensible Soccer, which I reviewed on its release – winning or losing comes down to how you play the game.

Net Benefits
Well, I say that. There’s also the question of levelling up. Yes, like in an RPG or somesuch fantasy outing. This all comes down to earning XP and fans for your created character.

Ms Spongella SPOnG very quickly earned both XP and fans by playing flashing passing shots and picking out an incredibly accurate service. In fact the game kept telling me that I’d made enough points to go to the next level. I didn’t bother to listen and soon stacked up a few thousand XP.

I was then walloped in a Special (e.g. non-tournament event) by some French or Eastern European beauty who appeared to have developed superhuman speed and technique off the back-hand.

Enough was enough; it was time to develop some skills. This entails heading into a separate set of screens (Player Evolution or somesuch twaddle) and electing to spend your hard-earned on a new coach.

There’s an element of selecting new coaches to up your perceived weakness or weaknesses (I chose those coaches who would enable me to batter opponents into submission from the baseline having first pummelled them with my serve). Frankly, however, I found that once I’d earned enough XP to level up to 20 where I was mixing with ‘Gold’ rated trainers the whole RPG thing was extraneous to my desire to win Grand Slams.

Slam!
Stupid me. I’d suggest that if you’re going to play the game, you should follow the career path and not, as I did, simply return again and again to playing tennis. I’d suggest that you do this.

I won’t. Although all that good stuff resides in the game – along with the clothing, the unlocks and the like – the sheer pleasure of Top Spin 4 is the timing of shots, the elongated rallies and especially in beating your nemesis.

It’s just such as damned fluid game to play. Sure, there are annoyances such as the timing of the button/trigger drop and reversed shot combinations occasionally resulting in you standing there watching as a simple return passes your static form. Or the fact that playing at the net inevitably results in simply twatting buttons as fast as possible.

Those control issues aside, if you’re not playing set after set against the AI (which can go from dullard to super-human in the space of two sets) or against a pal on the not-split screen, then you simply don’t enjoy a remarkably well executed sports video game.

I’d suggest you take up Guitar Hero in that case.

Conclusion
Plenty of non-tennis-playing options such as dress-up, level-up, unlocks, and special events such as massage sessions add to what is at its core a superbly well-executed sports simulation.

SPOnG Score: 95%