Top Spin 3 (Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS)

TOP SPIN 3 delivers many of the same features seen in Top Spin 2. Players can create a male or female character and take him or her through a multi-year career mode, upgrading skills such as forehand and serve while amassing an enormous wardrobe of clothing and equipment. Alternatively, you can play exhibition matches and one-off tournaments assuming the role of or going up against current and classic tennis stars, from Boris Becker to Maria Sharapova. Up to four players can play locally on one television, while individuals can enter ongoing tournaments online. New and more complex controls up game realism a notch, and a comprehensive tennis school tutorial helps teach amateurs a little more about the game's strategy.

Unlike previous Top Spin games, which incorporated video game conventions like power meters and employed relatively simple controls for making a variety of shots, Top Spin 3 brings a less intuitive interface that takes longer to master, but, in the end, provides a greater degree of control. Rather than simply holding down a button and watching players carry out amazing shots, you must now press an action button the moment the ball leaves your opponent's racquet, move to the ideal return location, then release the button the instant the ball touches down for its first bounce. Making things even trickier, power shots can be carried out if players press a shoulder button at the same time. But be careful; if your timing for a power shot is off even by a split second you'll almost certainly send the ball either into the net or out of bounds. Add to this a new stamina feature, which shows your player's heartrate between rallies -- the higher it climbs, the more likely unforced errors become -- and you have one extremely challenging game of tennis. It would have been nice had the game's makers incorporated an easier difficulty setting that allowed for more traditional controls, but, taken as is, it's a remarkably realistic recreation of tennis mechanics.

Top Spin 3 sports the best visuals of any tennis game to date. The players are photo realistic and animate splendidly. Don't be surprised if people walk into your living room and think for a moment that they're watching a televised match as opposed to a video game -- especially if you happen to be playing a match featuring one of the 20 beautifully rendered real-world players featured in the game. The attention to detail is marvelous. As matches progress you'll watch your players start to sweat, see their clothes grow dirtier, and marvel as their skin gets burned by the afternoon sun. Simply put, Top Spin 3's graphics are state of the art.

Available on: Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS
Available online
Genre: Sports
Developer: 2K Sports
Released on: June 23, 2008
Price: 30-60
ESRB Rating: E