Top Spin 3

Top Spin 3

The wonderful thing about videogames is that they give ordinary people the chance to experience extraordinary things. Only through games can most of us know what it’s like to drive a Ferrari around the Nurburgring, snowboard down Mount Everest, pilot a fighter jet, or take to the war-torn streets of Basra. They make the impossible simple by translating the complex skills of real life pursuits to a 6 button joypad. But only occasionally do videogames try to make their recreation of real life activities as difficult as the real thing.

Gran Turismo’s professional mode, for example, offers a compelling argument for why most of us should never be allowed behind the wheel of a real Ferrari at the Nurburgring. Likewise, Top Spin 3 is effortlessly the most realistic recreation of Tennis realised as a videogame, not only in its good looks but also in the intricacies of its control system. Yes, it offers the chance to serve against Boris Becker at Wimbledon – something nobody in the world can do in real life nowadays – but doing so with competence is far from easy.

As with the real sport, Top Spin 3 is a game built around timing and positioning. While this is true of all tennis videogames, from Virtua Tennis to the recent and excellent Sega Superstars Tennis, Top Spin 3 requires a different level of concentration and precision. Placing your character in the correct position to return a shot is of paramount importance and if you put a foot wrong you’ll lose all power and directional control. The timing of shots is also key to success, and you’ll need to hold down the appropriate button for the type of shot you want to make, move into position, and finally release the button to trigger your swing. The longer you hold down the button the more powerful the shot but, get your position wrong, and you’ll be knocking the ball into the net or stands.

Serving the ball is similarly tricky to master. You use the right analogue stick as if it were the swing of your racquet, sliding it back to toss the ball, and flicking it forward to hit the ball. Moving the analogue stick off to the sides during this movement will spin and slice the ball and other movements produce other precise effects. Again, this is difficult to get to grips with at first but once you’ve built up the appropriate muscle memory, you can place the ball almost anywhere you want with ease.

Wii Sports Tennis it most definitely isn't, and players used to the more forgiving Virtua Tennis will initially flounder with this new system. However, in time it pays rich dividends giving an acute sense of control, power and recreating the nuance and intricacy of the real life sport. Every single shot must be planned and well-executed, so the sense of achievement when you win points and take games and sets is truly palpable.

Holding either one of the trigger buttons during a rally will prompt your character to take a ‘risk’ shot, a more powerful delivery that can win a point in an instant. However, the timing required to get this right is so stringent as to make it a useless addition for all but the most super-capable players. As the single player game progresses and your character’s stats increase these risk shots become easier to use, but often the risk is too high to introduce during a key match.

The game becomes easier in career mode as you progress and level up your character, a shame as it would have worked better the other way around, easing players in at first and then becoming harder at the later stages. For many, the sumptuous graphics, robust online play and well-orchestrated career mode won’t be enough to push them up the learning curve towards real proficiency. However, for those who are willing to put the time, effort and practice in, much like the real sport, Top Spin 3 can be an extremely rewarding experience.

4 out of 5