Top Spin 3 (Wii)
alt="Image 1"/>I've been digging the Wii of late, largely thanks to the folks at 2K Sports. When I'm not working on my virtual hula-hooping and competitive yoga in Wii Fit, I'm cranking on 2K's MLB 2K8, the first game to do baseball right on the Wii. That game gave me a lot of faith that 2K's Top Spin 3 would follow suit for tennis. While the game does a reasonable job of putting you on the court, it doesn't have the depth you've come to expect from top sports titles.
Tennis is nothing new for Wii owners; the system shipped with a tennis game as part of Wii Sports, and if you'd always dreamed of seeing cute, Mii versions of you and your friends swinging away at doubles tennis, you were in heaven. Sega Superstars Tennis was a deeper take on the game, but because you were playing as characters from Sega's roster of characters -- complete with funky power-ups -- the game still wasn't something the serious tennis fan could get too excited about. Top Spin 3 is as close as gamers can now get to a real tennis sim on the Wii.
alt="Image 2" />It's a Wii game, though, so it isn't going to be as deep or as pretty-looking as its PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 brothers. That much should be obvious going in. What isn't so obvious is whether or not the Wii's motion controls work and if this game does a better job than Wii Sports at nailing down the action on the court. While I eventually got used to the controls, it took some doing and the game didn't help too much in the hand-holding department. While the PS3 and 360 games both include a very helpful "Top Spin School" mode that teaches the nuances of the game, there's nothing like that in the Wii version. The "tutorial mode" is really just a text-based instruction manual with some clunky animations thrown in.
The game is played with both the remote and the Nunchuk. Period. Unlike Sega Superstars which gave you three different controller options -- including two that used the remote by itself -- here, you have no choice but to use both hands. The 'chuk is used for player movement, ball movement, and some shot modification while the remote is used to hit the ball.
alt="Image 3"/>To its credit, the game forces you to actually swing the remote -- unlike Wii Sports, where you could get away with just flicking your wrist. This nod towards greater realism, though, isn't without its problems. First off, the cord connecting the Nunchuk to the remote is just too short. You will find yourself jerking the cord very tightly as you swing. I never managed to actually yank it out -- kudos to Nintendo for developing a strong connector port -- but the stretching does distract from the action -- I lost more than a few points because of it.
Also distracting is the odd motions required for some of the shots. The game does its best to make you simulate actual swings, so a top spin shot starts with the remote low in back of you ends with it up in front, for instance. The nod to realism is nice, but it's not nice getting whacked in the face every once in a while by the controller cord. It's cool to be able to put some extra zip on the ball, but doing so means looking like a bad lounge singer with subpar microphone-twirling skills.
alt="Image 4"/>While the controls are a kick once you finally get used to them, the game doesn't give you a lot to do with your new remote swinging skills. The mode selection in TS3 are as bare bones as you can get. You can play an exhibition match between any of the game's 15 pros, but Federer is the biggest name on the men's side. Classic players Boris Becker and Bj?rn Borg are only available in the PS3 and 360 games and Rafael Nadal is a PS3-exclusive. On the women's side, Maria Sharapova is the top player. Venus Williams, who was a part of Top Spin 2, isn't around this time.
The "Road to Glory" mode is as close as you're going to get to a career mode. Here, you take one of the pros and try to guide him or her through a small mess of tournaments. If you're looking for the type of career mode where you get to create a player from scratch and then guide them through a multi-year adventure -- complete with rankings, sponsorship deals and whatnot -- you will be bummed out.
alt="Image 5"/>The weakest way to play, though, may be the "Party Games" section. Remember the time your buddy invited you over for a party and it turned out he really just wanted you to help paint his apartment? That's kind of the "party" this mode is alluding to. The various party games are essentially just straight tennis matches with some quirky scoring or twists thrown in. When I think "party," I think more of hitting the undead with projectiles, as I did in Sega Superstars Tennis, not playing a tennis match with slightly different scoring.
Top Spin 3 is -- by default -- the closest thing you're going to get to real tennis on the Wii. The controls take some getting used to, but, other than some controller cord issues, they end up delivering a semi-realistic tennis experience. Where the game really suffers is in its lack of depth. There's just not enough here to justify its $50 price tag. Hopefully, 2K Sports will be able to offer a more thorough and complete feeling game next time around.
This review was based on a retail copy of the game that was purchased by the reviewer with a downward swing of the remote while holding down the B button.
