Top Spin
Platform: PlayStation 2
Manufacturer: 2K Sports
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail
These days custom character creation is about as common as an Old Navy ensemble. Why is it, then, that very few of the games I love offer the feature? Narrative games like Shadow of the Colossus and The Legend of Zelda are locked down, as they should be, with one character. Even World of Warcraft offers only the most minimal selection of facial features and hair styles. Could deep customization be the last resort of the hopelessly mediocre game? Take Top Spin for example. It's a completely workable tennis sim with simple controls that peel away into layers of complexity. It's got none of the spark or spot-on responsiveness of Virtua Tennis -- the gold standard as far as I'm concerened.
Top Spin's character customization did pass the test I always like to perform when cooking up a new avatar. The system is very capable of creating a "pretty" character. Quite often the face tweaking slider bars and color selectors in games only serve to make virtual chicks look more and more like a transsexual. When the random settings generated by Top Spin presented my player with a horribly disfigured and broken nose, I figured I was in for more of the same. But a bit of digital fine tuning allowed me to make my own tennis pro inadvertantly forged from the DNA of Franka Potente and, oddly enough, Laura Foy.
I need to get out more.
Manufacturer: 2K Sports
Review Type: Touchy
Version: Retail
These days custom character creation is about as common as an Old Navy ensemble. Why is it, then, that very few of the games I love offer the feature? Narrative games like Shadow of the Colossus and The Legend of Zelda are locked down, as they should be, with one character. Even World of Warcraft offers only the most minimal selection of facial features and hair styles. Could deep customization be the last resort of the hopelessly mediocre game? Take Top Spin for example. It's a completely workable tennis sim with simple controls that peel away into layers of complexity. It's got none of the spark or spot-on responsiveness of Virtua Tennis -- the gold standard as far as I'm concerened.Top Spin's character customization did pass the test I always like to perform when cooking up a new avatar. The system is very capable of creating a "pretty" character. Quite often the face tweaking slider bars and color selectors in games only serve to make virtual chicks look more and more like a transsexual. When the random settings generated by Top Spin presented my player with a horribly disfigured and broken nose, I figured I was in for more of the same. But a bit of digital fine tuning allowed me to make my own tennis pro inadvertantly forged from the DNA of Franka Potente and, oddly enough, Laura Foy.
I need to get out more.
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