Pros: I love it.
Cons: I hate it.
The bottom line: Best tennis game for Xbox.
Okay, we didn't date for a long time before we got hitched. It was simple. Top Spin was the only tennis game for Xbox, two years ago I think. So, I took the plunge and bought it the week it came out.

We were a happy couple for a while. I mean, there was no other. There was my old lover, Sega Sports Tennis, but Top Spin's graphixxx were so much better, it just blew it out of the water. Smash Court had really weird controls.

But two years into my relationship, I really think I want out. But she hooks me back in every time. See, Top Spin's so close to being perfect, except for one HUGE annoyance! Top Spin is one of the glitchiest games in existence.

Top Spin, this is why I want out. I am tired of...

1)The invisible wall! That's right, when you're playing tennis and someone hits a really angled shot, you'll chase it down and you're about to just reach it when the ball keeps moving but you stop somehow. You've reached the dreaded invisible wall! When I play multiplayer with my friends, we will run into this wall at least 4 or 5 times. So annoying!

2)Line calls! Sometimes a ball will look clearly in, but it will be called out, and vice versa. And you can't challenge the call, because this ain't football.

3)Sketchy movement! The movement of your player just isn't smooth at all! You'll be running to chase down a drop shot, and you'll press a button and instead of lunging forward to get the ball, you'll lunge sideways instead! Why? Why? WHY??? This happens at least 4 or 5 times a match as well.

4)Random weirdness! You'll hit everything in this game. Once when I had a perfect shot lined up and I hit the umpire's chair!

When these glitches get really bad, I throw down my controller and swear never to play this game again. But I come back time and time again. Why?

Multiplayer!

It's the coolest. You make your own custom player and can play against your friend's custom players. You create your face instead of just picking a face like you do in Sega Sports Tennis. In Top Spin, you can tweak how your player looks like, from the thickness of the lips, to your cheekbones, the size of your nose, earrings and accessories, and a bunch of clothes, equipment, etc.

Stats
Stats are simplified, as you get 14 stars to spend b/w serves, forehands, backhands, and volleys, with a few assorted skills like "topspin", "slice", "return serve". This is actually better than Sega Sports Tennis and its 2131 different attributes, because you can easily discuss your player with other people this way.

"What are you? I'm a 3,5,2,4." (meaning, a 3 in serves, 5 in forehands, 2 in backhands, and 4 in volleys). As opposed to saying "I'm a 12, 12, 31, 12, 1, 91, etc..." with Sega Sports Tennis. The fun of playing multiplayer, both doubles and singles, is the reason I keep playing this game.

Single Player
Single-player mode is actually kind of weak. You start out as an unknown player, and you train and get sponsored and play tournaments and stuff. Except that the computer A.I. is pretty weak, and you'll figure it out pretty easily. Also, a weird thing is that there is no sense of time. You can play the US Open and lose and then just play it again next year. Nuh-uh, that shouldn't be how it works. You should have to train hard so that you can win it next year.

Controls
Controls are pretty good. The A button is the regular safe shot, B is a topspin shot, X is for slice, and Y is for lob. The problem is that in real life, adding topspin to your shot makes it EASIER to control, but gives you less control in this game. Oh well. When you lob, the ball has a really annoying tail following it so it looks like one big blur. Good for the lobber. Bad for the opponent. To hit the ball hard in this game, you have to get to the ball early and hold down the button as long as you can. In Sega Sports Tennis, if you were in position early, you automatically hit the ball hard. In Top Spin, you can choose to hit it hard or soft as you wish.

The right trigger is the "Risk Shot" control. Press it and a meter comes up. Release it at the right time and you'll hit the hardest shot you can. If you release it at the wrong time, you will most likely hit it out. The left trigger is similar except you are trying to hit soft shots in this case that bounce twice before you opponent can get to it. This offers a nice bit of challenge to the game, except that the speed of the meter keeps changing. If you hit a lot of winners, your momentum or "In The Zone" meter will fill and your meters will slow down. This constant changing of the speed actually makes it HARDER to hit risk shots.

Graphixxx
Two years ago, this game was awesome graphically. The courts look really really nice, and the pro players look very much like their real life counterparts. Except they made Pete Sampras WAY too hairy in this game. They also modeled Pete's movements very well, as his serve and his forehand look exactly the way they do in real life. Very nice, except that they don't put nearly as much detail in the other players. The crowd still looks like paper people, but details like tennis racquets that look exactly like their real life counterparts and Sebastien Grosjean's serve that looks exactly like his real serve win me over.

Sound
Sound is somewhat lacking. The opening song is the Vines song "Get Free", but there is no music when you play. You just hear the crowd and the ref. While this is realistic, I felt this game definitely should've used the custom soundtrack feature of the Xbox. If I want to be quiet during a tennis match, I'd have gone to a real one.

Oh, so where was I? Yeah, Top Spin, I am THROUGH with you. Your glitches were cute at first, but now I see that they are fatal personality flaws. I guess this is goodbye...ah what the hell. I don't know anymore. If you ask me at any given time, I will tell you I either love or hate this game. It's the most fun game in ages, yet it makes me so frustrated. Y'know, it's been a messy relationship, but I think we can work all this out...

How To Make This Game Better

Dear Bill Gates,

This game could have been a lot deeper if it had more real pros in it. Now, I'm not suggesting that every tennis pro be included in the next Top Spin title, but games like Madden have just about every real player. If the game could include maybe the top 50 ranked pros male and female and a bunch of created players, it could be so much better. Stars like Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi, the Williams sisters (as much as I personally dislike them), Maria Sharpapova must be included for the casual fan to be interested in the game. No casual fan wants to play as Tommy Robredo...

Fix the AI! Also, like the ESPN Football 2K5 "VIP" Profiles, there should be something similar in this game. How much does a certain player approach the net? How often does he go for risk serves on second serves? Average 1st serve mph? Does he adjust on different surfaces? Then you could practice against your friends even when they're not there.

Make the differences between surfaces more extreme. Force the user to adjust to different surfaces. There's no current player who's truly dominant on ALL surfaces...force the player to make a one-surface specialist (i.e. the Spanish clay-courters) or an all-around player (i.e. Roger Federer)...and the all-around player should take more time to develop.

You need to institute some kind of calendar system and fatigue meter to make a semi-realistic career sim. Why not have a real-life ATP or WTA tour calendar? Make Wimbledon 2 weeks after the French Open and make it incredibly tough to win those back to back.

Include some "Legends of the Game" or something. I'd love to play against McEnroe or Bjorn Borg...

Soup up the women's game! It's so boring in this game.