This product is in good condition. At NexWave Games, good means:
Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
Top Spin for PlayStation 2
Top Spin for PlayStation 2 combines tennis matches with developing your own player. You choose how to hit the ball, create space with a slice or lob and decide when a harder attacking shot is worth the risk. Grass, clay and hard courts have different properties, so you do not move and hit in the same way on every surface. The roster includes sixteen well-known professionals, among them Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. You can play an individual match with them or meet them as opponents during your own career.
In Career, you start as an amateur and try to climb the rankings through training and tournaments. Coaches help improve your skills, while sponsors become part of your growing sporting career. The world map links matches and training locations. You choose which aspects of your game to work on and which events to enter. Each subsequent match therefore builds on earlier decisions instead of starting again with a new tennis player. Outside that career, you can also organise a tournament of your own.
Exhibition offers singles and doubles with up to four simultaneous local participants. Three or four players use a PS2 Multitap and a controller each; two players can play without an expansion. The optional face feature uses a separately sold EyeToy camera. That camera is not needed for ordinary tennis matches. Original online features belong to the history of this edition; their current operation is not promised.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 2 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
Top Spin for PlayStation 2 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Top Spin
Top Spin appeared for the European PlayStation 2 in 2005, after the name had first appeared on Xbox. 2K Sports published this PS2 edition. PAM Development developed the game and Indie Built acted as producer, as the original announcement explains. It was a conversion of the first Top Spin, not a PS2 version of Top Spin 2. The combination of real professionals, different court surfaces and a personal player career remained the foundation of this tennis game.
The PS2 roster placed Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova alongside other familiar names from the period. Career let an amateur rise to a higher ranking through training, matches and sponsorship agreements. That structure gave the sport a personal starting point: you did not merely choose an established champion but could also shape a tennis player yourself. Coaches and different locations connected practising shots to decisions about the further course of a career across the world map.
The PS2's own capabilities also had a place. The optional EyeToy face feature connected a custom player to a separate camera accessory. Local doubles used ordinary controllers; three or four participants needed a Multitap. The original presentation also emphasised network tennis. That last point does not guarantee that an old service still works today. This edition's significance lies in bringing Top Spin to Sony's console, with a self-contained career and matches on the same television as separate parts of the game.
Similar games for PlayStation 2
Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament for PS2 shares real tennis professionals, different court surfaces and the choice between singles and doubles with Top Spin. In its longer tournament series, Namco lets you control an established professional and complete objectives within matches. Top Spin's Career instead starts with a custom amateur whom you develop through training and matches. Both call for placed shots and good positioning, but progression between matches has a different starting point and different rewards.
Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2 for PS2 shares with Top Spin the option to create a tennis player and climb a ranking. Both link individual rallies to a longer sporting career and also feature real professionals. Namco places its Pro Tour within a series of recognisable tournaments and combines it with separate tennis lessons. Top Spin works with elements including coaches, sponsorship agreements and a world map. The organisation of that personal career in particular gives the shared tennis foundations a different shape.
SEGA Superstars Tennis for PS2 shares different shot types and cooperation in doubles with Top Spin. Its participants and objectives, however, create a very different atmosphere. SEGA uses Sonic and other game characters, temporary special powers and challenges in their own worlds. Top Spin uses real tennis professionals and lets a custom amateur work towards the top. You practise placement and timing in both, but choose between a professional player's career and a collection of themed challenges around familiar game characters.
Everybody's Tennis for PS2 shares direct control over tennis rallies and local doubles with Top Spin. Sony uses its own colourful cast and lets you unlock new characters and courts. Top Spin chooses real tennis names and a Career in which you help an amateur progress through coaches and tournaments. The difference is therefore not merely visual. Longer-term progress in Top Spin revolves around developing one custom athlete, while Everybody's Tennis puts its own characters and settings at the centre.
Virtua Tennis 2 for PS2 offers real tennis professionals, doubles and a longer route with custom players, just like Top Spin. In World Tour, you train those players and enter tournaments. Top Spin gives its Career a structure of its own, with coaches, sponsors and locations on a world map. Both link practice and matches to progress, but their organisation of the career and their rosters from different tennis periods provide different opponents and choices between matches.
