Top-Spin-4There’s only once in my life that I’ve come close to being labelled ‘world class’.

Back at University, in those hazy days full of Neighbours addiction, shopping trolley ‘borrowing’, and drinking my own weight in Snakebite, my housemate and I were once ranked 3rd – globally – at Top Spin.

Alas the snakebite took its inevitable toll and one fateful evening’s drunken playaround meant we awoke having slipped a few places down the international pecking order.

362 places, to be precise.

So I was more than a little excited (and more importantly ‘sober’) at the prospect of the latest sequel from 2K Czech.

For what is essentially two men hitting a ball back and forth over a net, Top Spin 3 was so chock full of intricate control nuances and elaborate attempts at emphasising the sport’s realism that it lost a large chunk of its accessibility and fun along the way.

Top Spin 4 dials that back to create what is arguably the greatest tennis game yet, but is clever enough to ensure there’s still more than enough variety and depth to reward its more hardcore fans.

The Top Spin Academy is 2K’s accomplished attempt at introducing you to the basics, whilst tutoring you with on-screen prompts on the variable skillshots and tennis’ most crucial art of all – the timing. Helpfully enough, the control system works beautifully in sync, and has everything it needs to suck you in – it’s immediately pick up and playable, but deceivingly complex to master.

Which is something you’ll have a lot of time to experiment with in the game’s mammoth Career Mode which allows you to progress all the way from ballboy (well, almost) to playing Grand Slams against intricately crafted versions of the real tennis stars we all know and love (so that’s no Henman then).

If the addictive, fluid gameplay alone wasn’t enough to suck in the true tennis fan, the 7 licensed tournaments and over 25 licensed players should be.

While there’s a World of Warcraft-ian replayability in ‘levelling up’ your player, there’s a frustrating lack of customisation when it comes to designing and training them. There’s also little beyond the straight tennis matches and training to explore, but then again maybe it’s fitting that for what’s striving to become the most genuine off-court tennis experience you’ll ever have that there aren’t all number of diverting (and contextually irrelevant) mini-games.

Still, with significant and reassuringly addictive online support (the ranking is back with a vengeance – and this time I’m steering clear of Snakebite), and some truly life-like visuals (courtesy of a graphical and animation overhaul), there’s more than enough to keep you sucked in and engaged weeks and months down the line.

While SEGA’s back with yet another addition to their classic Virtua Tennis series in coming weeks, for now it’s undoubtedly Game, Set and Match to Top Spin.

[Rating:4/5]

Top Spin 4 is on General Release now, and available on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.