Top Spin 3

Online Play

There are two online options for online play in Top Spin – Quick Match or Tournament Mode. Quick Match does exactly what it says on the tin, and allows you to play a quick one-set match using the pre-defined players.

Tournament mode is slightly more in-depth, and is effectively an online version of the offline Career mode.

In Tournament mode you play through tournament matches with other online players and proceed up the leaderboard, as with so many other online games.

Where things get clever is that the online game is also split up into "seasons" lasting a couple of weeks. At the end of each season, the champion is announced and the leaderboard starts from scratch.

Tournament mode then is actually quite a clever idea, since it allows latecomers to the game just as much chance to get to the top of the leaderboard as someone who has been playing the game since launch. It keeps a constant community around the game, supplies a competitive arena and, assuming support continues from 2K, should give the game some real longevity.


That said, we're still in the game's launch period, so we haven't even got to the end of the first season yet, but it'll be interesting to see how this system pans out and whether 2K will introduce a world ranking system based on previous seasons' performance.

Overall, online play is very smooth and easy to get into. There is the odd drop-out and glitch, but it’s never enough to interrupt gameplay or break a match and by and large the multiplayer side of Top Spin 3 feels polished and well rounded, with the thoughtful addition of Tournament Mode being an inspired touch.

Conclusion

It's important to realise that Top Spin 3 is more of a tennis simulator than a tennis game. There are no tennis-themed minigames in the career mode and no unlockable naked tennis modes either. Top Spin 3 is all about the game, pure and simple.

With that in mind, it's also important to realise that it isn't really possible to just pick up the game and start playing. It does take time and perseverance before you'll be winning games consistently. If you're willing to put in the time and effort, and play through hours of tournaments, you'll be rewarded with a very in-depth and involving game.

Online play is the icing on the cake and its polish and relatively glitch-free operation could show some other developers how it's done properly. The inclusion of seasons in the online leaderboards means that there'll still be an incentive to play online tournaments, even in months to come.

For me, I'm glad to say that my badminton wrists were up to the job, and I have just one final thing to add: move over Federer, there's a new boy on the tennis court.