Does this tennis sim serve up another ace?
The TopSpin franchise returns with TopSpin 2K25, featuring tennis legends Roger Federer, Serena Williams, and a cast of other playable pros, competitive single-player and multiplayer modes, all four historic Grand Slams®, and much more.
After a 13 year absence, TopSpin is back. I remember playing TopSpin 2 on the Xbox 360 and absolutely loving it, so much so that I managed to nab every achievement including the online ones. It had a great career mode and was just so addictive, so I couldn’t help wondering why the series vanished and why it’s resurfaced now. I couldn’t find the answers, but one I can answer is if the wait has been worth it…
This isn’t the TopSpin that I remember, though. This one is less arcade-based and more precision-based, which is unexpected but fine. You will need to register/sign-in to a 2K account to access the career and online modes, which is a bit of a pain but once done you get full access to the lot.
In Exhibition Mode, you can play as some of the tennis greats like John McEnroe (who acts as the game’s tutorial voice-over),Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu to name a few. There are so notable absentees though in the form of Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal who you would expect to be in a game like this, I also wonder why other classic tennis players like Jimmy Connors, Venus Williams and Bjorn Borg didn’t make the cut. Even Tim Henman would have been a nice addition.
You can also take these classics on as your own career built character, which is amusing when playing against retro John McEnroe complete with his 70s hairdo. The career mode itself is pretty in-depth as you play tournaments and complete training to gain skill points you can place on areas like power, serve and stamina and so on. The only downside is that there isn’t a lot of customisation options for your character in terms of visuals and while you can name your character whatever you like, there are only a few names that will be called out audibly by the umpire and they aren’t names that most will have, I can assure you that.
Like I said, the controls require more precision than in past TopSpin games and there is a big learning curve here, even the tutorial doesn’t make it easy on you, so be prepared. My main criticism is that sometimes your actual character tends to be slow in moving around the court itself in comparison to your opponent, it almost feels like swimming in treacle compared to The Flash on the other side of the line. It just seems inconsistent.
The visuals are also hit and miss. The courts are stunning, load times are short and the framerate is solid throughout, but the character models look surprisingly average and at times, a bit odd. The soundtrack in the menus contain modern tunes as you navigate the options which is a nice touch, but nothing that you wouldn’t expect.
The Verdict
TopSpin’s return after 13 years is a successful one with TopSpin 2K25. It may not be the same TopSpin that I remember, but it’s still one hell of a tennis sim. Let’s hope that TopSpin 2K26 improves the visuals and customisation options while sorting out the inconsistencies with the player movement…