It Seems There's a Good Tennis Video Game Again

23.04.2024 - 08:52 / gamerant.com / Dominik Bo / John Macenroe

TopSpin 2K25 reviews are out, and they're good news for tennis fans. Specifically, it would appear that the gaming industry has finally managed to deliver another good tennis sim, with TopSpin 2K25 managing to earn recommendations from the majority of critics that reviewed it.

Going over the list of titles commonly recognized as the best tennis video games of all time, one clear pattern emerges: all of them are fairly dated. The pickings get even slimmer if limiting the list to tennis sims, thus ignoring some fairly well-received arcade experiences such as the 2018 Switch exclusive Mario Tennis Aces.

But it would appear that a good contemporary tennis sim has finally emerged in the form of TopSpin 2K25, whose review embargo was lifted on April 22. Developed by 2K subsidiary Hangar 13, the game's Metacritic Metascore currently ranges between 75 and 79, depending on the platform. By that metric alone, this seems to be the best tennis sim since TopSpin 4 was released to critical acclaim 13 years ago. The OpenCritic rating system also casts the game in a highly favorable light, showing a Top Critic Average amounting to 77, as well as recommendations from 73% of reviewers.

Category

Rating

Review Count

PS5 (Metacritic)

79

18

Xbox Series X (Metacritic)

75

6

Top Critic Average (OpenCritic)

77

12

Digging into the actual contents of these impressions, many critics have praised TopSpin 2K25 for its feature-rich gameplay modes and realistic physics. Most appear to agree that points flow well, with the game almost always picking the correct, most realistic animation, no matter if that's a running cross-court forehand or an awe-inspiring tweener. And while its learning curve appears steep, TopSpin 2K25 has also been described as decently accessible, not least because of its robust Academy mode that sees tennis icon John McEnroe guide players through the entirety of the game's many mechanics at their own pace.

The game's production values have received fairly widespread praise as well, although some reviewers opined that its facial animations are a bit unrefined, to the point that they can slip into the uncanny valley territory. Besides that, the majority of the complaints are centered on the inclusion of a battle pass system, called Centre Court Passes in the game's jargon. While the extra content only includes cosmetics, currency used to get more cosmetics, and XP boosts, the fact that even things like player animations have been locked behind an additional paywall did not sit well with some critics.

Unlike the majority of 2K Sports' modern games, TopSpin 2K25 will resist the trend of launching at a $70 price point, with its base version being set to retail at $59.99. On the other hand, its Deluxe and Grand Slam