Top Spin 3
Put Russian bombshell Maria Sharapova and the faultless machine Roger Federer on the cover of a tennis game and you're on your way to selling lots of copies to people who want to emulate them. Top Spin 3 goes beyond that. Once you fire up the game, you instantly get the feeling that you are on the clay courts of Roland Garros, for example. The French Open venue is just one of several locations that you play at. You get to play as current champions like Federer and Rafael Nadal (who appears exclusively on the PS3) or legends like Bjorn Borg, with the 40 or so licensed players. The experience is like watching your favorite players in a Grand Slam tournament on TV - except you get to control how they play. Developer Pam Development has nailed down the details to every pumped fist from Nadal's muscular arms and noisy grunt coming from Sharapova.
Okay, maybe they toned down the sharp-pitched grunts from the princess of women's tennis a little but she still gives out a familiar shriek when she struggles to reach a shot. It is this attention to detail that grips you from the start at a stretch. Let's start with the graphics. On the PS3 version I tested, skid marks you make while retrieving the last shot stay on a clay court as the match progresses. The red clay, as in real French Open matches, also soils the skirts and shorts of players as the game wears on. The gameplay itself is realistic - if a little too much for casual players.
Anyone who has swung a tennis racket at a ball knows that timing is all important. You have to run up to the ball, firm up your posture and hit the ball with your racket's sweet spot. That combination of reflexes and aim translates itself realistically in Top Spin 3. For example, to hit a cross-court shot from the left, you have to push the D-pad on the controller left, then, at the last moment, as your player is near the ball, release a button and move the D-pad in the opposite direction. Sounds complicated? That's similar to what goes through your head as you hit a ball in the real court. I started playing the game in Normal mode and was whacked out of the court in the first few tries. Yup, even when I pitted the men's top two of Nadal Federer against Sharapova.
I eventually tried out the tutorial and played the game in Easy mode, which made the learning curve a little gentler. I realize I could vary my shots - from flat but fast ones down the line, to top spins that pushed the opponent back because the ball spins away from the court. There are also the intricate lobs and drop shots but they are even harder to get right. My favorite, however, are the risky shots. These are the winning moves that you can employ to decide a long rally, for example, by fizzing a low one straight down the line or letting rip that cross-court forehand. Employ this "risky shot" and you get Nadal leaping up to whack a double backhand across court. With Federer, you see his trademark backhand whipping well across the body. All said, Top Spin 3 deserves your time when you are not swinging a real racket on the court.
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