Top Spin 2K25 Review

There has been a huge absence of Tennis games over the last decade and it has been notable. I love a good bit of back and forth with a racket and besides the recent Matchpoint – Tennis Championships which was pretty average at best, we haven’t seen a decent title since Top Spin 4. Before I move on you can read my review for Matchpoint HERE, if you want to gauge a comparison between both games. The lack of Tennis in a video game is similar to Boxing and it’s a bit strange as FIFA, NHL, NBA, WWE and UFC all seem to fare well in the sales department. After seeing the footage of Top Spin 2K25 I was happy to see the franchise returning to the court, but I had some early concerns from what I had seen.

For those still on the last generation with Xbox One, you’ll be happy to know that Top Spin 2K25 is available to you too. I want to put to bed that my concerns with what I had seen prior to playing were quickly put to bed within minutes. If you’re looking for a decent Tennis game that will keep you coming back for more, look no further.

Start With TopSpin Academy Mode!

Don’t make the same mistake I did and dive straight into an online multiplayer match. I highly recommend that you check out and spend an hour or two in TopSpin academy mode. This is essentially a plethora of tutorials that will coach and fine tune your skills. Voiced by Tennis legend John McEnroe, he will guide you through everything from serves, volleys, power shots and much more. If anything I found myself going back to this section repeated times to try and practice, be warned that there is a fairly steep learning curve.

MyCareer Mode Is The Meat Of The Game

Strangely even though MyCareer is purely offline gameplay against AI, you are required to always be online to be within the mode. Why is a mystery and I have seen many grumbles across the web stating frustrations. So if you’re offline you are restricted to the academy and exhibition selections. During your career you’ll be able to create your own professional tennis player with a fairly decent editing suite similar to creating a pro like in FIFA.

Like anything in life you’ll start from the bottom of the ladder and work your way to the top. Career is played month by month in segments of training, exhibition events and tournaments. You have to keep a close eye on your stamina as playing Tennis and travelling the globe will cause fatigue. Resting by skipping certain parts will replenish your stamina. If you continue to play flat out when tired it will cause injury which will scupper certain skills until you heal. It allows you to plan ahead for those all important prestigious tournaments later down the line.

You can level up your pro to a max rank of 30 and it starts to get pretty repetitive as you tend to just cycle through the same motions from month to month. It feels fun to plough through and attempt to win all you can, but once you’ve won everything and levelled up your player there feels like no need to keep going back. With experience comes currency which can be spent on cosmetic items along the way.

2K World Tour & Online Matchmaking

World Tour allows you take your created player online and try your hand at real life opponents and their characters. I would only recommend doing so when you have hit max rank or you’ll really struggle to compete. If you want to use a real life professional player then you can play onlne singles matches against randoms. Sadly there appears to be no feature at launch to have a match against friends and also no option for online doubles matches. This is poor and hopefully will be introduced in a future update.

That said, I really enjoyed playing online and it feels intensely different to playing against the computer. There were many matches I had where the match point was really either player. I’ll happily admit I’ll never be great at Top Spin 2K25 online and I lost much more than I won, but despite this I always enjoyed trying to better myself. There is a progressive leaderboard that will allow you to climb the rankings with success and if you’re an above average player, I could see this being a very addictive prospect.

Monetisation Is Present

Unfortunately you don’t steer clear from monetisation in Top Spin 2K25 and whilst you can grab lots of authetic cosmetics with in-game currency, progression on that is slow. The Centre Court Pass is essentially a battle pass system which grants cosmetic items, XP boosts and more. There are some free tiers here but the majority require a purchase of the pass to play and obtain them. For the casual player who doesn’t want to invest anymore than the standard copy of the game, may feel their progress with Career and World Tour players come slower without gaining boosts for them. It may leave a sour taste to some.

Visuals & Audio

Visually Top Spin 2K25 is a bit hit and miss but what matters most is that it looks great in the right places. The menu system is crisp and very well presented with everything simplistic and straightforward to navigate. Arenas and courts are extremely well designed and look true to life. On the court itself the game looks fantastic but cutscenes between gameplay segments leave a lot to be desired. Cuts to crowd sees a fair few identical twins and some of the character modelling on professional players is questionable.

Overall though, outside of the ropey bits it hits the mark when you’re actually engaging with the game and that I love for a first entry into the series in 13 years. Hopefully in future updates or later entries into the franchise we see improvements. When it comes to the audio we have a decent soundtrack with some well known tunes.

Final Thoughts

I went into Top Spin 2K25 expecting a mediocre experience since we haven’t seen a Top Spin game in so long and nothing has come close to the glory days of the previous entries. My time with the game has been a really enjoyable and whilst I found there to be a fairly steep learning curve, my 30 or so hours have been addictively moreish. There is much more skill required than just pressing buttons and returning the ball. You have to gauge positioning, response, stamina and how to outwit your opponent.

Whilst the monetisation aspect of the game bugs me a little, what we do have is a solid re-entry into the Top Spin catalogue. If they can build on the foundations of the fantastic gameplay loop and work on player animations and crowd integration then we would be sitting on one of the best sports games out there. Is it worth it though? If you love Tennis games then this takes the crown as the best one out there since Top Spin 4. The Grand Slam Edition asking price of 105 English pounds is a huge ask though unless you want everything the game has to offer. Future tennis star additions are coming for free though.