TopSpin 2K25 Review – The Best Tennis Game in a Long While

TopSpin 2K25 Review – I’ve always loved playing a game of tennis on the console with friends. My go-to tennis game before was the Virtua Tennis 2 on the PS2 back in the days and then I switched to Mario Tennis on the Nintendo Switch (without the power ups turned on). I remember trying a TopSpin game once many years ago but it didn’t click for some reason.

Now that I’ve started playing tennis with my wife, I’ve been eager to play newer tennis games made for the latest generation of consoles – and that timing is just so perfect. TopSpin 2K25, developed by Hangar 13, was shortly announced and I still can’t believe that the time is finally here. Looking at the trailers and information coming from 2K, it ‘s becoming very clear that this would probably be the best tennis game on the console for a long while.

And guess what, TopSpin 2K25 delivers the best tennis game experience in terms of visual, gameplay, details, and mechanics.

TOPSPIN 2K25 REVIEW – OVERVIEW

TopSpin 2K25 features up-to-date tennis players like Iga Świątek, Emma Raducanu. Daniel Medvedev, and Calros Alcaraz, along with popular players like Serena Williams and Roger Federrer. Classic legends like Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf are also available for players to play. There will be more playable Pros coming as free updates for everyone too in the near future.

The game also showcases officially-licensed tournaments (from the four Grand Slam tournaments, to all nine ATP Masters 1000 venues) and venues, including Australia’s Rod Laver arena and larger-than-life international arenas like Indian Wells (BNP Paribas Open), La Caja Mágica (Mutua Madrid Open), and Foro Italico (Internazionali BNL d’Italia).

In total, there are 48 unique courts including hard courts, grass, and clay for you to select and step on. Also note that these courts are really close to the live counterparts so they look awesome and iconic at the same time in game.

TOPSPIN 2K25 REVIEW – GAME MODES

There are many available game modes in TopSpin 2K25.

TopSpin Academy is basically guide-through tutorials for both new and old TopSpin players,  guided by the voice of tennis icon John McEnroe. I was actually quite surprised with the wealth amount of information contained in the tutorials because they are not just there to teach you how to play the game, but actually contain real-life tennis tips and tricks. Whether you are actually playing tennis in the real life or not, you’ll gain more knowledge about tennis than you ever before such as players positioning or why certain shots will benefit more at different situations, and other tennis strategies.

Exhibition is a quick offline mode that allows you to play singles or doubles with AI or actual friends. If you have four PS5 controllers at home, you’ll be able to play TopSpin 2K25 together on the couch with four players. There is also an online option (multiplayer) with skill-based matchmaking that supports cross-platform play. An upcoming feature where you can play with your friends online is definitely on the horizon and will be available through a game update in the future (before the end of May 2024).

With 2KTour, you can select one of the licensed tennis players and go online to challenger another player with their selected pro tennis player. Each day, certain featured pros and objectives offer players the opportunity to earn points and climb the 2K Tour leaderboard

If you just want to play at your own pace and enjoy alone, the MyCAREER mode is definitely for you. It’s basically a single-player campaign where you can create your own character (MyPLAYER) from scratch and climb the ranks through the Men’s or Women’s Tour rankings. The character creation is pretty extensive for a tennis game and there are quite a number of options to fully customise your character like hairstyles, skin tones, and more.

In MyCAREER, you will level up your character as they gain XP points by training, joining events, and tournaments. You’ll then use these to increase your attribute points such as your Forehand, Backhand, Serve, Volley, Stamina, and more. You can use the preset play style (like being a Baseline Offense player) or fully distribute these points yourself as you see fit. There is also some management involved like hiring coaches and managing your fatigue levels.

And then, there’s the cool part. You can take your MyPLAYER online to fight against others MyPLAYER. You can earn Tournament Points by winning matches and climb the leaderboard (similar to the real-world UTR system, if you are familiar with it). Players earn XP and VC that can be used improve MyPLAYER attributes and unlock coaches, animations, apparel, and fittings to define play style.

If you don’t have a PS5 subscription to play online, MyCAREER will keep you busy to enjoy Top2K25 and when friends are coming over (or have family members at home), the Exhibition is definitely the way to go for some fun, party time.

TOPSPIN 2K25 REVIEW – VISUALS

TopSpin 2K25 has great visuals and really good animations. Not to mention the team puts so much detail into this game that it makes me feel like playing the real tennis. For example, players will slide as they are playing on Clay courts, players grunt when they are executing difficult shots, and even the linesmen/lineswomen shouts “Fault” like in real life. Sure, the graphics might look outdated for a 2024 game (if you compare it to the FIFA and NBA series), but it still looks great, in my opinion.

The players are very well animated with custom (Signature Style) animations based on their real life movements. Roger Federer was even directly involved during the motion capture of himself in the game. The fluidity of the motion, the physics, and the little details when players are executing their different shot types are just superb.

TOPSPIN 2K25 REVIEW – MECHANICS

TopSpin 2K25 isn’t the easiest tennis game but it’s very rewarding when you can execute things properly. To execute the best shot, the timing of when you press the button is everything. There is a small bar hovering your player for guidance but executing a perfect shot isn’t that easy. You can also use a Power Shot (by holding the button and releasing it at the right time) and it offers more deadly shots if executed correctly (when you get the timing perfect) but also can contribute to a fault if not.

And then, all these also depend on the attributes of the player you are playing as, how tired they are (there’s a green stamina bar at the bottom of your player), and whether they are trying to achieve a difficult shot (based on position and the speed of the incoming ball). There are certainly more factors in play, but you don’t really have to worry about all the details.

TOPSPIN 2K25 REVIEW CONCLUSION

TopSpin 2K25 is definitely the best tennis game you can get right now on any gaming devices. It’s pure tennis (so no super powers here) that has great visuals, a non-forgiving but satisfying mechanics when executed properly, and has that details of everything you love about tennis (or when you are watching a tennis match on TV). You get a lot of the recent pro players to play as, as well as classic ones. It has all the game modes one would want when they are playing a tennis game, including both online and offline multiplayer.

The game also has daily and weekly challenges that give you Season Points (SP) so you can unlock more stuff like clothing, outfit, player animations, titles, etc on the Season Pass. Premium Rewards can only be unlocked if you purchase the Premium Season Pass on that Season. If you really like the game and want to spend all of your time into it, there is also the All Access Pass that gives you Premium versions of Season 1-6 plus 8 Cosmetics.

TopSpin 2K25 is a tennis game that’s done right and that tennis game you’d want to buy and play right now. You can pre-order now as the game will launch officially in a few more days.

Disclosure: TopSpin 2K25 review licence was supplied for reviewing