Top Spin 3

After the Annual British Disappointment at Wimbledon, you might want to show the pros how it’s done in digital-land by mastering Top Spin 3. Only you may suffer your own first-round defeat at the hands of the rock-hard AI. We weren’t keen on the Wii version of this because of its wonky controls. Here, the controls are fine but the CPU-controlled players use them way better than you can.

There are a few quick-play modes and a standard Career mode, plus tennis celebs to play as. There are plenty of minigames but most need to be unlocked and the initial selection isn’t that inspiring – dropping robots down holes? Eh? We also spotted some frame-rate stutters and some of the animation’s a bit ropey. Two-player multiplayer levels the playing field, and accomplished tennis game fans should be kept busy for a while, but newcomers should steer clear.

Aug 13, 2008