TopSpin 4 remains high on my list of favorite sports games, all these years later so when the prospect of a return to the court came around I was all for it. Some might even have described my state of mind as elated to hear the news. Better yet, a studio I had come to really enjoy, Hanger 13, was attached as a developer, even if given their one-game history it felt like a departure from their comfort zone.
The point is, that there was a lot to be excited about here and many questions. I mean, the last game in the series was released way back in 2011, 13 years ago. We had also received two additional tennis franchises in the interim, both boasting talents from the TopSpin games, and while both received backlash from critics, they were at least something. But now, TopSpin 2k25 has returned, and the truth is, like a player coming back from a bad injury a bit too soon this outing is not its best, far from it.
“the last game in the series was released way back in 2011, 13 years ago”
When it comes to sports games, I rarely go all in. I have friends who could tell you the best players in ultimate teams, or the best techniques… I am not that person. The first thing I do when joining a game is check if I can adjust the difficulty, and make sure the game has more character customization options than two. Both of which were yes by the way. I ended up playing mostly on normal, though the game does have a slightly challenging easy mode or a pretty much no challenge easier mode. Customizations were on par with the games peers, A.O. Tennis and World Tour Tennis, which is kinda a shame given this is a series with pedigree. I get why it doesn’t matter as much as say other games, but to see games like Black Desert, Dragons Dogma II, or hell even Rise of The Ronin having in-depth options while sports games where your character is pretty much the experience offer 10 heads and a few hairstyles with a large amount being hats.
Keeping in line with almost every sports game these days, TopSpin 2025 also has a streamlined menu system that I’m sure might be familiar to. You have a home, local play, and online. Home largely holds everything you usually do when you play, as well as the store which we will get to later. Local houses the single-player career mode or exhibitions, while online has a tournament mode, as well as an exhibition mode to play against tennis fans from around the world. Ultimately, after creating my character, I jumped into the career mode, since I usually spend most of my time there in most other tennis games.
In terms of gameplay, TopSpin 2k25 is a triumph, a perfect ace. Distances hit location are not controlled by the player, instead being based on how well you hit the ball on return. Both of the other tennis games also have you control ball placement when you hit it, meaning that a well-placed hit might go out since your eyes couldn’t maintain your eyes on two separate places on the screen. Since more accurate hits also control how powerful the hit is, you will probably find nailing this to be imperative. You can still control your shot of course, but hitting to the left of the court will go better or worse how well your timing for the shot is. This means only one metric besides footing requires absolute attention and you will quickly start to get the hang of the rhythm.
“In terms of gameplay, TopSpin 2025 is a triumph, a perfect ace.”
In terms of career, however, the game falls well short of the other games. Tennis is an odd sport to translate to gaming in that it doesn’t have specific seasons. There are major events, like the Australian Open and Wimbledon (both appear in here), but tennis players mostly go at their own pace. This is why career modes can so drastically vary from game to game. Here each month gives you three sections to participate in with you either do them in their order or you skip and event to do the following one. These involve doing training, exhibition matches, or participating in a tournament, and that’s it.
Players start at level 1, like most sports games, which I always find odd considering that most games open with you appearing on a professional level. I feel like the whole road to getting there should have made you a higher-tier player, and here you can expect opponents ranging from level 16 to 22 right from the first match. This might explain why they glide across the court while you wade. Experience is also extremely slow, with the larger tournaments only offering around 60 experience points against levels that might need 1000. The fastest way to level is training but even that might only offer 150 for a completed challenge, as training serves solely as a challenge mode. Bizarrely enough, exhibition matches work almost identically, needed to complete a challenge and win a match for an experience that is in the middle.
While leveling your character dictates points for states to level them up, unlocking events is such as Wimbledon involves increasing your status. This is not done by winning or climbing the rankings board but by completing objectives. Tournaments become the easiest (and most fun), others involve passing training and exhibition matches. These start easy enough but quickly become a lesson in perfection, which makes progression feel like wading through molasses.
As far as an experience is concerned, and given that 2K’s NBA is a great example of story immersion, there isn’t much here. Announcers only really pop up to tell you of injuries even though you know that, and the Dualsense controller is used only for character grunts. You do eventually unlock things like houses or coaches that serve more background roles to minimize character issues like fatigue. In the case of coaches, they can be leveled up as well but they also have their annoying perfectionist checklists.
“These start easy enough but quickly become a lesson in perfection, which makes progression feel like wading through molasses.”
I only take my game online a few times but I was happy that the experience doesn’t change much even against other players. Of course, I suck, I admit it. I won maybe one or two games in a net pool of around 20. What I wasn’t happy to find, is how filled to the brim with things you can spend real money on it is.
The first thing you see on the main menu under home is probably the shop and, honestly, all roads eventually lead to it. My issue with this isn’t even then want to sell you stuff, but that this isn’t the NBA, it’s Tennis. You must know you have a smaller audience, do you really want to turn them off with a 70 to 100-dollar game that then needs you to pay more to get your character just right?
The thing I will say though, is that the multiplayer is far more functioning than the other Tennis games that have recently been released. In the case of World Tour Tennis, in particular, I will add I largely played the career mode because multiple attempts to play online were met with glitch games or server issues. Of course, that was when the game was initially released so maybe that isn’t accurate anymore.
Verdict
TopSpin 2k25 had about 13 years of hype behind it for Tennis fans which, lets be honest, is unfair. Ultimately, it was not the return to form that many were probably hoping for. There are plenty of things that Hanger 13 got right with their first serve of the legendary franchise, the most important thing being that the gameplay is really good, and that matters most. The fact that its multiplayer is functioning is also a big positive.
In the case of other modes though it doesn’t meet the hype. The career mode honestly felt less polished than others in the space, even with a wider selection of licensed events. It also has a large number of microtransactions that affect every element of the game that they really want you to know are there. For a Tennis fan, you could go do worse than Topspin 2k25, it just goes to speak how we are still waiting on a developer to nail the experience.
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Review For PlayStation 5, also Available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC
Developer: Hanger 13
Publisher: 2k
Release Date: April 26th, 2024
Take up you racket and rise the ranks as you be come the best of the best that Tennis has ever seen.
Pros:
+ Great core gameplay
+ Multiplayer
Cons:
- MyCareer is lackluster
- Microtransactions
