2K Sports Brings the Courts to Your Pockets, but Does it Manage to Stomp the DS Version?.
Since the release of the Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable handheld game consoles, the Game Boy Advanced has been somewhat overshadowed as of late, with intense competition competition from newer advanced handhelds, the Gameboy Advanced is slowly becoming obsolete. Yet, 2K sports has released Top Spin 2, of course we all know how great tennis can be on the GBA, with the latest Mario Tennis and THQs release of Virtua Tennis in 2002.
For the most part, Top Spin 2 on the Game Boy Advanced is a better version then it's DS relative, also both titles aren't technically the same game, they do share a bunch of aspects. The game menus, match options and create-a-player aspects all pretty much share a similar design to the DS version. One thing I should note is a smaller amount of actual player customization for the GBA player creation, also when you are in the character select screen there is a lack of modeled players, for the most part the overall feel is essentially the same.
The GBA version of Top Spin gives you access to 16 of the top world professional tennis players, this covers both the men's and women's tennis divisions. Somethings are annoying, like the fact players can't view character attributes unless you are playing career mode, and inter-gender matches aren't allowed.
2K Sports did manage to squeeze a large amount of options into Top Spin 2, before you enter into a match, you will be able to adjust the amount of games, and you can adjust difficulty of the computer adversaries. Also there are 10 different places you can play at, and each features different surfaces to play on, such as clay, hard or grass. Another thing I should mention is the controls, for the most part, all of the main controls are assigned to the A and B buttons, and the L and R are used as shift keys.
You can pull off skill shots by pressing the L button and then any face button simultaneously, once you master the controls you can drop shot, lob, slice or smash just like the console versions of Top Spin 2. There are also some serious timing issues in Top Spin 2, you will need to hit the stroke button instantly after your opponent hits the ball, you will need to anticipate the oncoming shot perfectly.
Once you get past the frustrating controls the career mode is very close to the console versions, the career mode is still similar to virtua tennis, players will need to travel around the globe using an overworld map then compete in various tournaments. When you complete training you will be awarded attribute points that can be used in any position, full customization is also allowed.
So aside from the shot timing, career mode is pretty solid, also the frame rate is solid at all times which is better then the DS version of Top Spin 2., also the sound is good and better sounding then virtua tennis on the game boy advance, Fortunately aside from the shot timing, Top Spin 2 is a very solid tennis game and manages to even out perform Mario Tennis, so if you want a quality Tennis game, then pick up Top Spin 2 today.
