2K Sports has released its new next-gen iteration of Top Spin, the game that takes the rudimentary game of tennis and breathes remarkable life into it. Tennis, as a video game, has been around in rudimentary forms since the dawn of the industry. It is one of those games that, whether in the variation known as Pong, or in the more advance format created by the Top Spin franchise, requires that you serve or return a ball delivered from a fixed location to another fixed location.

Sounds simple, but Top Spin 3 proves that anything sounding simple is simply not.

The game focuses on immersion right from the start with the career mode (in single player) and the ability to create a tennis player with the foundation template already in place. Once you pick the template, you can spend the next 30-45 minutes tweaking. There is even an editor that allows you to manipulate facial bones to create the player you would wish to resemble, if you wanted to take on the pro circuit.

After you create your player, you can move into the beginning stages of your career, which begins with a series of three tie-breaker matches. From there you advance to a small tourney, consisting of group qualifying matches that consist of a best-of-five type setting (win three games and you chalk up the victory). As you win, you earn points that can be used to upgrade your player. You start with an overall rating of 30, and can distribute points (they go in chunks) in areas such as volley, serve, forehand, backhand, stamina and speed.

The goal, at this point, is rather obvious – win matches, build up your player and advance to big-time tourneys.

Tantamount, though, to the success of a game like this has to be the control mechanics. If you were expecting an easy time on the court, driving your opponent nuts with lobs and drop-shots, or running them ragged by volleying from one side of the court to the next – yes, you can do that, but first you have to master the controls and that is easier said than done. For whatever reason, 2K has decided to toss out ease-of-use in favor of a more realistic approach. That means that you have to have several buttons working in concert if you hope to return a shot, or place a return, with any degree of success. The left thumbstick will angle your player to the ball, but somewhere along the way, you will need to load up the type of shot you want (the four hot buttons will determine the type of shot you perform). You have to stop when the angle is right, and make certain you hit the ball at the right moment in its upward trajectory. Re-involving the thumbstick seems to help direct the angle of the shot (if your timing on your swing is right), and you can also use the L2 and R2 shoulder buttons to either try to place the shot close to a line, or put more power in the return. Mess up on any of those things, and you will either look like an idiot, miss the return court, or just stand there and watch the ball bounce by you.

If the angle of your approach to the ball is off, it might hit you or be so far outside your reach that you end up flailing at the air.

Because you are on the low end of the speed scale to start, your player will have a sluggish time tracking to the ball. This can be rather frustrating.

Serving the ball also requires timing. You initiate the serve with a hot button or use the right thumbstick to load and release your stroke by pulling the stick in one direction and then reversing it, then use the left thumbstick to set the angle of the serve. Timing is, again, key.

(It should be noted that the disk sent for this review was not the retail with the instruction book, which would have been helpful – and yes, you can all gasp in shock at that bit of news … a gamer using a manual??? – to outlining everything that can be done. As it was, much of this was supplied by on-screen prompts – which flew past quickly – and trial-and-error methods.)

Two new features include the use of the left and right shoulder buttons. The left one will allow you to move a bit faster (sort of a spurt of motion) but it will tax your stamina and cost you if the match goes too long; the right shoulder button will automatically have you start to charge the net – which is a nice thing, but it can be a bad habit to get into, especially against the better players and their AI.

Fatigue can play into a match, and there is a heart-rate monitor that will measure how excited or nervous your player can be. Get that heart beating too fast and you may be a bit edgy and prone to more unforced errors.

In addition to gaining XP through victories, you also get unlock points, which are used in the virtual mall to buy new gear.

Graphically the game is very good. The physics are, for the most part, well represented and the animations look terrific. You might even be surprised a few times with a poor approach to a return and then a creative shot animation on the part of your player. The music has some techno stuff happening at times, and some other pop-rock rhythms – all in all, not terribly exciting but not totally annoying. The disk received did have an odd audio loop at times of a ball being rapidly bounced. That may have been eliminated in the retail release.

Top Spin 3 has its moments of frustration simply because this is not a game for the casual gamer. It has a steep learning curve, but once you find that rhythm, it can be a challenging and enjoyable time.

Gameplay: 8.0
If you want to pop in the game and have instant success, you may be disappointed with this game. The control scheme is well realized but the game AI is quite challenging.

Graphics: 8.7
The created players can be as detailed as you want them to be, and the physics are well done.

Sound: 7.8
The menu music is fine, but there is not much on-court effects in play. That is both a good thing and a bad thing. The grunting can get old, but the focus is purely on the tennis.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard

Concept: 8.4
If the idea was to sacrifice accessibility for realism, then 2K nailed it. The player creator is terrific and the PS3 version has Rafael Nadal included with the cast of pro players.

Multiplayer: N/A
This code was for the debug unit and at the time of the review, it was not possible to find players online to play against.

Overall: 8.0
There is a huge learning curve and some frustration when you, as the gamer, react but the controls are sluggish in responding. However, once you find that flow in the controls, and once you start to work up your player to the point where you can compete well, start getting a feel for the court, serving up aces or returning that power stroke inside the line, the game rewards will a real sense of achievement.