Games WORLD: Top Spin 2 Free Download Full Version PC

Top Spin 2 picks up from the first Xbox game, Top Spin, which gleaned its magic from SEGA's Virtua Tennis series, and moves into well known territory. Virtua Tennis showed the world how to intuitively control players around the court while making hitting the ball just as simple and intuitive. SEGA's game started in the arcades, and its tight gameplay and addictive nature helped spark numerous tennis games from Namco and Konami, each with far less success than SEGA's game. Indie Built/PAM understood the game's arcade nature and has captured its quick and easy feel, but it's turned the screw tighter than Virtua Tennis ever did. Though the basic controls are generally easy to come to grips with, mastering them goes beyond simple arcade mechanics and it's in the fine tuning of some subtle mechanics that the game both achieves success and mingles with trouble.

First off, you should know that this is a game that simply demands you play it with a gamepad, and unsurprisingly, the Xbox 360 controller proves to be ideal. This necessity is driven by the fact that Top Spin has always offered a slightly more technical game of tennis than Sega's standard bearing Virtua Tennis franchise, though it's still quite easy to pick up. You've got four basic swings, including the aptly named safe swing, which will never go out of bounds, though the other three shot types require a bit more finesse to keep inside the lines. The slice shot flies low and fast and is great for crossing up your opponent; the topspin shot flies straight and bounces high but moves fast and can slip right past opponents who aren't on their toes; and the lob shot, which should be used sparingly, can be very potent against aggressive opponents apt to ride the net.

While the four basic shot types can be used at any time, eight additional swings require some portion of your momentum meter. Momentum is gained and lost naturally as you score points and are scored on and can be used for either risk shots, which take up big chunks of your momentum, or advanced shots, which eat up a more modest amount of momentum. The advanced shots are high powered versions of your standard swings. Risk shots are even more powerful, but as the name suggests, they're rather risky, too. Holding down the assigned modifier button before you start a swing will bring up a rising power meter, which you need to stop right at the top. If your timing is off, you'll botch the shot and likely give your opponent the upper hand. If you nail it, the ball moves hard and fast and can be difficult to return.

Top Spin 2 is a one to four player tennis game that fashions a simulation sensibility onto an arcade design. It comes complete with 24 licensed men and women professionals, 19 courts from across the globe, and four modes of play, exhibition, career, party games, and Xbox Live online play. Offline, the game is good standard fare. You can play singles or doubles with one or three other humans or you can vie online with three others. And you can mix sexes in both doubles and singles matches on and offline.