TopSpin 2K25
Review
A polished return
by Jordan Helsley
reviewed on PC
A polished return
My primary memory of the Top Spin franchise is the original timed exclusive for the original Xbox. I thought I was viewing it with rose-colored glasses, as I remembered stellar graphics with smooth and forgiving gameplay. In returning to it in preparation for the release of TopSpin 2K25 I found that my memory was just as solid as the original game is. Over the years, between sporadic releases, the series has come to what feels like a near ultimate version of the original tennis sim(light).
Practice makes perfect
Tennis makes for a compelling game, and TopSpin 2K25 highlights why: practice makes perfect. Where other sports titles rely, to a certain degree, on AI teammates to achieve success, your performance on the court depends solely on you. To achieve this feel, you need tight gameplay, impactful skill-based mechanics, and a level of strategy to overcome your opponent, all of which are present here.
With mechanics based on your personal skill comes a degree of difficulty that can be off-putting at first. Firstly, I found myself constantly caught out of position, and subsequently ripped apart by my foes, because I got caught up in watching the ball sail to the other side of the court. Foregoing a critical aspect of the game cost me dearly, and learning how to direct a volley while simultaneously positioning myself for a follow up was both satisfying and impactful. The animation system at first felt like it was fighting against me, preventing me from moving efficiently, but it was in fact more intentional, and required more forethought than I was used to. Getting this down, and feeling competent in said ability, was the first eureka moment among many.
Grasstop boot camp
No matter your experience level, you're likely to benefit from the in-depth tutorial mode. It's demanding but rewarding. Reminiscent of fighting games, more than anything, progress through the mechanics is heavily gated. Can't get down the timing on your power shots? How about doing it an infinite number of times, because you have to get it right or you don't move on. It felt frustrating in parts, but I appreciated it in the end, because each of these lessons comes into play regularly, and if you want to be the best you're going to need the whole bag of tricks.
The most difficult of these skills is probably the timing on your hits. It's counter to a lot of gaming muscle-memory: you control your player into position but they appear to start acting on a hit before you make any input. In practice, once you're familiar with it, winding up the animation automatically means you really only need to focus on the point of contact. This is accompanied by a timing meter by default, but turning that off is the goal. It's just too easy to fall into a meter-watching trap, like trying to time notes on a Guitar Hero highway without listening to the beat, which results in a lot of early or late hits. Getting the rhythm of the hits, through watching the action and animations on the court, will lead to higher success rates, and requires a bit of practice to nail consistently. It could very well be the closest a game mechanic can get to emulating the real thing, right on par with a simulation golf swing. It feels good, and getting good at it feels great.
Two sides of the net
The on-court action feels tight, and looks just about as good, in animation and general graphics. With a few exceptions, the character models represent high-fidelity versions of real-world stars, but that makes the bad models stand out even more. Some players were a bit too busy to get into the studio, I guess. Still, the grass looks like grass, the clay feels like clay, and even the crowd is convincing enough.
TopSpin 2K25 can hang its hat on its on-court presence, but off-court offerings are lacking. Creating your own character is serviceable, but feels a bit standard. Even the baseline offerings for serve, idle, and other animations leave a lot to be desired, especially considering so many customization options are locked behind their version of a battle pass. Conceptually, I think battle passes have their place, and even though I think the inclusion here hints that this will be something more than another annualized sports franchise, it feels out of place and too exclusionary for the general player.
The career mode, too, feels content light. There are a few breaks from real-world tennis structure to make moving your way up the ladder a bit more involved, but outside of tournament matches the action is broken up with practice (tutorial drills), and challenges (standard tennis matches with missions to complete inside of them). It continues to feel good to get better at playing the game and taking down tougher opponents, but some of the RPG-like mechanics from previous entries have been stripped. Even some simple sponsor interactions or interviews to add a little more character to your experience would have been nice, but all ancillary activities appear to be variations of "more tennis."
Aiming for an ace
TopSpin 2K25 comes in a polished package. Both single-player and online matches feel good (though a ping differential can cause havoc), and feel lovingly crafted. A few presentational flourishes heighten the experience, but most importantly it's a game that rewards your efforts to improve at playing it. While it would have been nice to see a simulation-type focus on the life of a professional tennis player to flesh out the experience, the truth is, it doesn't need it to feel like a great package. It caters to those who want to continually improve and take on the world after conquering the tournament circuit, and also to those that just want a solid tennis game to play against AI or friends.
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9.0
fun score
Pros
Gameplay feels great, rewards dedication to improve, and is largely visually impressive
Cons
Career mode lacks supplemental mechanics, some players look nothing like their counterparts, and the included battle pass system feels out of place.
