POSTED 18/3/11


TOP SPIN 4

2K Sports
PS3/Move (also on Xbox 360, Wii)

We were binking and bonking when it hit us (ow!). Top Spin 4 is the latest evolution of one of videogaming’s year-zero players, Pong. Same concept – bats, ball, back, forth - just it looks a squizillion times acerer.

Yep, Top Spin 4 (which for some reason – likely inebriation - we keep typing as ‘Top Sin 4’) is tops. It looks scrumptious, and it’s no slouch play-wise, either.
 
Several real courts are included, including Smurf innards impersonator Melbourne Park and our good mate Roland Garros. There’s no Wimbledonny strawberries and cream though – sugar rush denied!

There’re several play modes. Pick a famous tennisy face from bovine-accumulator Federer to cubic Swede Borg, Serena Williams to, erm, several chicks we’ve never heard of... yep, we admit it, real tennis bores us more than bat shit. Give us a decent videogame incarnation though and we’re well keen.

Luckily, Top Spin 4 is decent. Back to modal thingies, you can play exhibition and first-to-five-wins, but the serious shit’s career mode. Create a player – and, unlike some, not everyone you craft looks related to Frankenstein’s monster, for the options are almost insanely optiony - then let him/her loose working through ranks. Earn XP points (no Windows 7 here, folks) for skillness and beefify stats to kick more racquetational arse.

Move’s supported, but it dumbs things to dribble level, and this ain’t basketball. The action’s with the DualShock, allowing amazing control over every serve and shot, should you invest time enough to suss it. Otherwise, you’ll hurl yourself at balls only to find them ignoring your button flailing. We’d blame the game, but we know it’s our fucktardedness.

When it comes to tennis games, Top Spin 4’s got Da Funk. Literally, because Daft Punk’s opus is on the eclectic soundtrack, and just because it’s (sorry) ace...

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