Top Spin 4

The fourth installment in the Top Spin tennis game series is Top Spin 4. Users can choose from a roster of 25 real-world players, including active professionals and past glories, or create their players to play on real-world tournament courts and other fictional ones. Shots are divided into two types: controlled and power shots, performed by tapping or charging related buttons, respectively (if the charge is not complete, the resulting image will be a blend of the two types). Ball speed and trajectory are affected by shot type, player characteristics, position, shot characteristics, remaining stamina, and timing. Timing expresses a player’s ability to press the shot button at the appropriate time and ranges from Too Late to Perfect. Once the opponent has hit the ball, one’s player movement begins when the gamer pushes a direction and is determined by the CPU from then on. Flat, slice, topspin, lob, and drop shots are standard baseline image types; volley shots can be routine, controlled, power, and drop volleys; and serves can be flat, slice, and topspin, with a focus on precision (standard serve) or power (power serve) (advanced serve). Offline game modes include Exhibition, Career, King of the Court, and Top Spin Academy, a tutorial mode in which a coach explains the fundamentals of the game, and then the player practices them. In Exhibition, you can play a customizable single or doubles game against the computer or other human opponents, with up to four human players in a doubles game, by selecting the location, duration of the game and sets, and score rules (including percentage tennis). A career begins with creating a player, who can be either male or female. With branded racquets and sportswear, you can customize your body shape and complexion, facial appearance, and outfit. The created player begins their career in low-level tournaments and, in an RPG-like fashion, gains experience points to rise in level and attributes, to reach Majors and fame. Bonus special skills and additional statistic increases can be obtained by selecting from more than 30 coaches and fulfilling their requests (for example, playing 30 baseline winners or winning 20 points at the net). Players of any style can be created based on leveling choices; however, their complexion skills cannot match those of in-game real-world players. Players that have been made can be used in any customized match and the online World Tour. King of the Court is a party tennis match with few-points long matches: the loser leaves the court, and another player takes their place: the winner is the player who wins the final match. The online game modes are player Match, World Tour, and 2K Open. Like an offline exhibition, a player match consists of a single game. Playing doubles requires four players, with each pair physically playing together. World Tour is a competition that mimics the actual ATP pro circuit and allows only created players to compete. There is a weekly and an all-time ranking, male and female competitors are separate, and changing one’s player results in losing previous statistics. Matches in the 2K Open last three sets of three games each (the final set is a super tie-break, won at ten points); only pro players can be used. This mode has its all-time leaderboard. Forehand, backhand, serve, volley, power, stamina, speed, and reflexes are the parameters that determine player performance. All players have special abilities such as Diesel Serve (serve improves as the game progresses), Reach Swings Expert (hard-to-reach balls are returned better than other players), Poisoned Slice, No Mercy, and others. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Roddick, Davydenko, Simon, Blake, Wawrinka, Tomic, Agassi, Sampras, Borg, Becker, Courier, Rafter, Chang, and Lendl are the male professional players. Serena Williams, Wozniacki, Ivanovic, Safina, Jankovic, Zvonareva, and Bouchard are among the female professionals. The game is PlayStation Move compatible and supports stereoscopic 3D on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The controls on the Wii version have been rearranged to emphasize the motion-sensing feature of the Wii Remote.