Video Game of the Week /‘Top Spin 3’
Tennis, anyone? Here’s a demanding game with subtlety
If you’re not a tennis fan, “Top Spin 3” for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 might make you one. It’s a true sports simulation in that it’s deep, demanding, exacting and all the more rewarding for it.
The game features 40 pro players such as Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova, a few retirees like Boris Becker and Monica Seles, and Rafael Nadal, who is exclusively available on the PS3 version.
Being of the high-def generation, “Top Spin 3” does a magnificent job of capturing players’ likenesses with digital representations of real athletes that look, well, real and less (but not completely) like those creepy, soulless animated corpses with vacuous eyes and wooden faces that usually pass for “realism.”
Players even sweat realistically, which is also a fatigue indicator. Beyond mere aesthetics, the individual swing types and other nuanced mannerisms are superbly attended to.
All the modes you’d expect in a sophisticated tennis simulation are also resolutely present — this is no snack-sized “Wii Sports” Mii-whack game — there is a Wii version of “Top Spin 3,” but it’s not in the same ballpark, to mix metaphors.
Fleshed out with exhibition, tournament and online multiplayer components for singles or doubles (but only off two systems, not four), it’s the career mode of “Top Spin 3” that truly stands out.
You can rocket up to the pro levels if you know what you’re doing, but it’s also gentle and slow if you’re a newbie: Create a player, run all the tutorials and then take him or her through the amateur-to-pro paces.
You need to dedicate a significant amount of time wrapping your head and hands around control subtleties, but it’s nice to find a game that doesn’t throw you to the wolves from the get go, expecting a high level of skill just because you have a high level of devotion to the sport.
Even if you’ve played and mastered “Top Spin” or “Top Spin 2,” be warned that controls are drastically different for “Top Spin 3.” They’re more realistic now, but also more exacting and frustrating if you’re used to earlier versions.
The old control scheme allowed you to simply press the button corresponding to the shot you wanted to hit, for example, but now it’s more delicate than that, reliant on good timing, as releasing a button — not just pressing — is what initiates the forward swing of the racket.
You also can use the right thumbstick for serves, which is likewise hard to get a handle on but thereafter crucial for delivering a deceiving slice or top spin.
Master all that and 2K Sports’ “Top Spin 3” is bang-on realistic; a terrific tennis sim.
‘Top Spin 3’
‘Top Spin 3’ 2K Sports; PlayStation 3, Xbox 360; $49.99 ESRB Rating: Everyone (6+) Score: ★★★★ out of 5
2K Sports; Wii; $49.99 ESRB Rating: Everyone (6+) Score: ★★ out of 5 Though based on the frightfully exacting PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version of the game, “Top Spin 3” for Wii has been noticeably dumbed down for play in Nintendo’s fun-for-all system — all for the worse.
First off, the standard-definition graphics of the Wii don’t do the game any favors. Even by Wii standards, the game looks GameCube-ish; downright terrible by new-generation comparison. Likenesses of real pros are merely vaguely similar.
Speaking of pro likenesses,there are only 16 of them in the Wii version, as opposed to 40 in the high-def versions. It also lacks career and create-a-player personalizations. It’s just really, really basic, but costing the same $50 as the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions for no good reason other than blind market forces.
On the upside, marginal that it may be, “Top Spin 3” for Wii is easier to pick up and play and comes complete with goofy multiplayer mini-games that Wii owners have rightfully come to expect and enjoy (presumably, anyway).
Not “Wii Sports” easy, not whack-and-guffaw goofball tennis-for-dummies, but with a similar Wii remote control (Wiimote) with swing-like-a-racket sensibilities. It just expects you to position your player and time your swing with much more exactitude.
To position your player, however, you use the thumbstick on an attached nunchuck, which means you’re tethered to the Wii-mote. That means your swing is either hampered by the cord or you’re smacking yourself in the chin with it. Good luck with that.
Worst of all, what “Top Spin 3” for Wii doesn’t strip down is the viciousness of computer-controlled opponents. They’ll play seemingly as hard and fast and ornery as their PS3 and Xbox 360 counterparts, despite the fact that you’re basically armed with something akin to a Nerf racket at Wimbledon. Just brutal.
Midway offers titles via direct distribution
The new-generation consoles are doing it with online stores and marketplaces, and the likes of Valve Software’s “Steam” have offered digital downloads of complete games for years. Now, Midway has launched MidwayArcade.com, which offers direct downloads of many Midway classics like “Defender,” “Joust” and “Spy Hunter,” all on the cheap. Three-game theme packs start as low as $5 for direct download and installation on one’s PC.
A new Midway digital storefront, meanwhile (www.midway.com), offers direct purchase of current Midway titles, including “Unreal Tournament 3,” “Stranglehold” and “Psi Ops.” Digital storefront titles range from $9.99 to $29.95, but offer no savings over their retail counterparts, save for the fact that you can buy them in your underwear.
Midwayarcade.com and the storefront at midway.com were built by Digital River Inc., a prevalent provider of global e-commerce solutions.
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