Let it be noted that my tennis gaming experience has been very limited to mainly Nintendo tennis games. Also, games that were on the Dreamcast. These games were built to be easy and fun, and not built for serious fans. True story, bro.
Now, having said that I might be the perfect reviewer for TopSpin 2K25, as I’m coming into this review blind and inexperienced. Sometimes it’s good to see a game with fresh eyes and no expectations. It means no bias and I’m about as new as new gets for a consumer in this series. Trust me, you want that when you’re reading a review about a game you haven’t played before.
So, what did I find out in my romp with the TopSpin 2K25? Firstly, it is built for the serious tennis fanatic out there. Someone who needs an experience so precise that they’re going to be cursing the heavens with how difficult it is. Secondly, the game is probably one of the more beautiful tennis games I’ve seen in some time, sans when the fans are in the stands. Lastly, while microtransactions are limited to game passes, it does feel like a slow climb up a leveling hill for players wanting quick progression.
So, check the strings on your racquet, tighten up those shoelaces, and let the rich people know you don’t care for their comments from the stands because we’re about to backhand this review.
Block time out, train hard
My time with TopSpin 2K25 has been an uphill battle from the get-go. I went into this game knowing that it was going to be difficult, but I wasn’t fully prepared for how difficult it was from the start. While the controls of the game are simplified enough for the player to dive right into the experience, the opponents in the game show no mercy, even for novice players.
When you start the game, and after you customize your player (and plenty of kudos to Hangar 13 for its inclusive list of attributes), it gets you right into the mix of things with understanding the controls of the game. You learn how to topspin, how to lob, and how to serve properly, as well as a bevy of other buttons. Controlling the direction of the ball while hitting it is super easy, as Hangar 13 seemed to hit right on the nose while keeping the controls as simple as possible. It was simple enough for a newbie like me to pick up on it. I appreciated this immensely and felt like the game was going to be easy-peasy on the control side. The only uphill learning curve to the control scheme was knowing when to use a certain hit type during a match. For example, if you have an opponent that likes being an ass and hogging the front of the net, then lobbing it over their head is an easy choice. If you want to run your opponent to death, then you backhand the shit out of the ball sending it left and right at sharp angles until they get tired. Achieving these motions and shots was a breeze…then the hit meter appeared. That meter changed my entire emotional well-being about this game.
Metering
The hit meter is interesting. It works in tandem with the hit type and direction. Picture the kicker meter in any Madden NFL game, minimize it, and randomize how it works…that’s the meter in TopSpin 2K25. The meter works by pressing down the hit type button of your choice and quickly releasing the button in a designated green area of the meter to get the most accurate hit of the ball. If you don’t hit within the green area and aren’t close to it, you are either late on the hit or you are too soon. The further away, the closer to late you become. Trust me when I say this, dear readers, I was later on that ball than I was accurate.
What made this gatekeeper of fun particularly frustrating is how fast the line moved. Its movement on the meter was based on distance from the net, how the opponent was hitting it towards you, and in what direction/angle it was heading. This was some major math calculating in an instance with this meter. I respect that tremendously, as I couldn’t put that equation down on paper nor could I ever solve it. It was impressive to watch as it was frustrating to play. It was so frustrating that it took me about six hours to get used to that meter. Yes, you read that right, six hours to get used to how that meter worked. Never in my reviewing career have I ever taken six hours to train on any game. ANY GAME. INCLUDING DARK SOULS.
This meter was demanding. It was frustrating. It seemed to work against me and have no sympathy. I had more sympathy from my opponent than I did from this meter. That’s sad, especially when the NPC can see you struggling after every single loss. Just thinking about it now makes me want to shun all meters in the future.
But as a reviewer, I cannot shun things that are important to talk about. So, I pressed on with this meter. Then a miracle happened, it all clicked into place. The meter, which had a year’s worth of cursing thrown at it, suddenly became a weapon of choice. It dictated how well I hit it, and how I could torture my opponent. It became a thing of beauty. Where did this click happen and how did it create a miracle? It happened with training.
Modes making the meters work
Unbeknownst to me, as I kept losing tournaments and matches repeatedly, the game would send me back to training to throw me back into the scrum and repeat what I knew. And it repeated it. And it repeated it. AND. IT. REPEATED. IT. The training began to feel like a chore during my session and it was starting to get tedious.
At first, it was training within the MyCareer mode, where you build up your player from scratch and show them the ropes of how to become a better tennis player. Then the game offered John McEnroe as my trainer with TopSpin Academy mode, where he served an honest-to-God purpose in my personal development with the game. Training, training, and more training, then back to the first. That was the repeated pattern for hours. I didn’t know it was doing anything to my gameplay until it was, especially with McEnroe.
The good folks at Hangar 13 put together something magical in this TopSpin Academy mode featuring McEnroe, as the tennis lessons were broken down into basics, advanced, and play style. The lessons broke down the game into simple steps and pushed me patiently until I got things right. McEnroe’s calm demeanor in this mode was encouraging, and his explanation of what I needed to do to become a better tennis player made sense. This was more than just pomp and circumstance, rather this was legit training. The biggest improvement, right out of the gate, was needing to stay in the middle of the court during play, which includes running back to the middle when not chasing a ball. It was simple, it was thoughtless, and it was invaluable, as it improved my accuracy and my reaction time.
The meter lessons came into play later and were helped by the training sessions within MyCareer mode. As I went back and forth between the training sessions and McEnroe, the meter started to click. While my accuracy was still off, it improved as the game went on. I mixed strategy with the meter and found it to be a wonderful companion when it came to keeping my opponent continuously hustling around the court. Six hours after beginning this crazy tennis game, I finally understood how it worked and appreciated how it was made especially that evil meter. That meter is accurate, and wonky at times, but certainly a powerful tool to enjoy the game.
MyCareer
Speaking of enjoying the game, my first big step into this game was MyCareer mode. This mode is structured the same way every career mode in every recent sports game is these days. You pick a player, customize them to your liking, name them, and then start from the bottom of the barrel to build them up.
The build-up part is done through earning XP from training, challenges, and tournaments. Win or lose (with some exceptions), you gain XP through these modes of play which improve your player and help them slowly start becoming a star. I can’t tell you how many times I failed at training, challenges, and tournaments. At hour three of this review experience, I was certain that I was never going to win a tournament, but once that meter started clicking, I started turning the tides of tournaments in my favor, and I never looked back.
I kept building “Here Comes the Boom” (player name) and kept leveling their skills up through XP. They became more and more recognized, and even the fancy announcers mentioned at some point how I was improving (which I appreciated). But as you would expect from a career mode in a sports game, the stakes got higher, the competition got better, and cakewalks weren’t as easy. It’s proper progression and it made sense during my time with this mode.
Out of all the modes, this was probably the strongest. Now, that said, a few things did fall short in the mode. The first were challenges, where I had to get a tennis ball in a certain spot on the court a certain number of times. The same challenges usually came with the caveat of having to beat the opponent as well. If I did the latter before the former, I would fail the challenge and receive no points. If I did the former and not the latter, yep, you guessed it, no points. The stakes in challenges were high, and you were only allowed to repeat the challenge a certain number of times before complete failure. It seemed a bit much at times, especially if you’re spending 15-20 minutes per challenge. To walk away from it without much to show or nothing at all is a bit frustrating. It felt like it was asking the player for too much with so much to lose.
Anyway, overall, MyCareer mode was solid. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sure, it had a steep learning curve, and most people may not give it as much time as I did, but it’s worth it.
Before we move on, it should be noted that MyCareer mode is completely online. There are some folks unhappy about this now, hopefully, 2K will clear this up soon, and it’s reasonable to be unhappy about playing a perceived offline mode that requires online connectivity to servers. On one hand, it does make sense that servers would need to keep track of gamer’s MyPlayer, as it is used in online modes. On the other hand, it also seems reasonable that there should be a solely offline mode of MyCareer, especially if servers are shut down sometime in the future which could affect the very existence of this mode. If you’re interested in knowing more about this, please check out Ed Nightingale’s article on Eurogamer’s website. It has some interesting details and some very unhappy gamers.
Moving on!
Online
In full transparency, I avoided this mode most of the time. The online mode for TopSpin 2K25 is split into a few types of games. The first is the World Tour, the second is the 2K Tour, and the last is the exhibition. I thought it was neat that the World Tour allowed you to import your MyPlayer and play against the best of the best to prove you belong on a leaderboard. I also thought it was neat that you could play online with 2K Tour using stars from the present and past to go against other players. The online modes and the structure of how they were executed seem well thought out. Hangar 13 did a superb job with this aspect of the game, and it worked out well.
For those looking for a strong online component, and I’m sure everyone who buys the game is thinking about this right out of the box, then you’re going to be happy. For me, it’s not my cup of tea. I think players are incredibly competitive, especially on the tennis side of the tracks, so I won’t be visiting this mode too much after this review period. For me, gaming shouldn’t be work, rather it should be play. I get why people love it, though, as it is their playtime.
Exhibition
This mode is as traditional as traditional gets with sports games. Exhibition mode allows you to play actual players and compete locally against your best bud, spouse, or child. There are a lot of different faces to choose from, including some more recent people, such as Serena Williams, whose stats are filled to the brim so that they can compete in an exhibition match at the highest possible level. This is a mode that is typical for a sports game and I’m glad it was fun. The players are also spec’d out with power and separate themselves from the MyPlayer side of the tracks. They certainly don’t feel as frustrating or loosey-goosey.
Anyway, good stuff.
Presentation that does more and sometimes too much
Okay. Hear me out for a second. I’m going to tell you that TopSpin 2K25 is both gorgeous and sometimes too gorgeous. How is that possible, right? Well, it’s gorgeous in the fact that player models, animation, and sounds that come with them are top-notch. I mean, they’re very well done. They look real, they react real, and they help bridge a connection with the gaming experience. I love how the players look and feel.
Now, on the too-gorgeous side of the tracks, sometimes realism needs to be pulled back a bit, especially with lighting and shadows. This is the first sports game where I lost the ball in the lights…during the day. While I can appreciate a well-represented, realistic lighting scheme for an environment, I don’t want it to affect gameplay. That damn meter was difficult enough to overcome during a match, I didn’t need the lighting on the court to make the ball disappear. It did this on a few courts, and I understand why Hangar 13 did this, as they probably wanted to represent an accurate depiction of said court, but it hurt the gameplay a little bit. Frustration on top of frustration equals frustration. Anyway, they needed to pull the lighting back just a bit in some daytime court situations.
Going back to the good, the game did feature some of the best audio effects I have heard from a sports title. When the ball hits the net or bounces violently off a racquet, it sounds magical. Equally as magical was the way the room was filled full of FAULT when I misplayed a ball on a serve. There was some person on the FAULT recording that screamed like they were trying to replicate a megaphone. It scared the shit out of my cat sitting on my lap. It was that good and that loud. She did a superb job. The lady, not the cat.
All in all, the game was pretty, and it sounded great. It just needs to tone down lighting a smidge.
On that note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
TopSpin 2K25 from Hangar 13 and 2K is a superb tennis game that looks and feels like you would expect tennis to feel, even down to the frustration and learning curve. It certainly is made for hardcore tennis fans but has enough space for those looking to dip into the series for the first time.
