What's more, the academy imparts strategy suggestions that come very close to mimicking the real game: you can choose to defend or attack, serve and volley or work on precise takedowns, and the game will teach you – both in these training sessions and proper match play – how and when to execute what you've learnt. There are two basic types of shot play – control and power shots – and which you use is defined by how you choose to play a point. But pretty soon its control system – in which basic shot types, flat, slice, lob, and top spin, are assigned to the four coloured buttons – starts to feel more comfortable, and you're able to start attempting a couple of the modifiers on offer via the shoulder buttons. The learning curve is steep at first, and on-screen helpers rather aggressively chastise you for button-mashing panic as you start in the deep end of player control. There are more than trophies and achievements to be earned in the game's Top Spin Academy – it's a smart introduction to the new control system on offer. In that arena, Top Spin 4 still rewards practice. The simple act of suggesting the game you're playing is worthy of TV broadcast ups the ante just enough to provide a base for a much more focused style of gameplay. The game's camera defaults to the style of a TV broadcast, complete with slow motion replays and locker room pre-game atmosphere shots, and it really can't be underestimated how much this sells the sense of spectacle. So the emphasis in the franchise's fourth part is on paring that experience back a touch, and focussing on slightly grander details to make the match play all the more exciting. It was a nice effort, and it rewarded long hours of practice mastering its nuances, but it didn't quite work. The basics of play work fine, but by 2008's Top Spin 3, the series had mired itself in over-complex control systems and overzealous gameplay touches. Three Top Spin titles have tried and failed to match that mood. But nothing quite compares to the atmosphere of a US Open final, in its last game in its last set, as a season's work comes down to one split second of point play. There's plenty of joy to be mined from the arcade exuberance of Sega's Virtua Tennis or even the wrist-wrecking simplicity of Wii Sports Tennis. Play And that's something no tennis game has ever quite managed to master.
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