Quite a bit of time has ed since the last TopSpin game came out, but after spending a few hours with TopSpin 2K25 it's amazing how quickly old reflexes can come back. The interposing 13 years between releases have given players tennis titles like Mario Tennis Aces, Tennis World Tour, and Matchpoint - Tennis Championships, but nothing has really topped TopSpin 4 as the best go-to tennis game. Any sequel after so many years obviously comes pre-loaded with big expectations, but thankfully 2K Games and Hanger 13 seem poised to meet them.

Last week, Screen Rant was invited to preview TopSpin 2K25 at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, CA, which also happens to be one of the playable courts in the game. In addition to getting some hands-on playtime with TopSpin 2K25, I was also able to speak briefly with Remi Ercolani, 2K25's Game Director who also worked on TopSpin 2, TopSpin 3, TopSpin 4, and Mafia III, about what's returning, what's new, and what players can expect from the first TopSpin game in over a decade.

The Serve

TopSpin 2K25 is built upon the basic framework of TopSpin 4, but has added many new animations, gameplay improvements, and visual upgrades. New signature animations have been created to make the game's characters look and feel more like their real-world counterparts, and extra attention has been paid to ensure movement and body language differences in male and female athletes are rendered as realistically as possible. It's easily the best-looking TopSpin game to date, but given the fact that we're two console generations into the future now this is to be expected, and unfortunately some of the facial animations (especially when the camera cuts to people in the stands) are a little on the uncanny valley side.

Like all the best 2K sports games, TopSpin 2K25 contains what promises to be an expansive character creator and MyPlayer mode, but neither were available to test in this preview session. Thankfully, before our time with the game Ercolani walked the press group through some of the features that will be available in the full release, which includes base designs along with more detailed options like the ability to adjust the character's eyes, nose, ears, etc. Characters can be given prosthetic limbs, and the in-game audio announcer may even say the created character's name if it is in the game's database.

...playing TopSpin 2K25 scratches an itch that has been left unscratched for over a decade.

TopSpin Academy makes its return in TopSpin 2K25, which (for the uninitiated) is basically an in-depth tutorial mode, hosted by tennis legend John McEnroe, that teaches players all the ins and outs of TopSpin's controls. This is pretty much required playing for both new and returning tennis enthusiasts - while TopSpin 2K25 does offer some intuitive controls for basic things like serving and moving around the court, it has many subtle, specific quirks which need to be paid attention to if players want to be able to compete with high-level opponents. I tried a few rounds in Exhibition mode first before hopping into TopSpin Academy, and after learning more of the basics it was clear I should have familiarized myself with them first.

Match, Set, Game

TopSpin 2K25 is not an easy game to pick up and master. This is mostly due to the small window the player is given to react, aim, and execute a shot against their opponent, something they need to be ready to do again immediately, over and over and over. The game sports seven different difficulty settings ranging from very easy to expert and legend (these latter two only being unlocked by completing certain prerequisites) but after experimenting with very easy, normal, and very hard it seems like the only thing that changes is how often the AI opponent makes a mistake, like hitting the net or going out of bounds, rather than making the response time window players have any bigger.

One of the many adjustments which has been made to TopSpin 2K25 when compared to previous TopSpin games is the length of rallies. Previous games could see skilled players hitting the ball back and forth for exceedingly long stretches of time, so changes have been made to ensure unavoidable errors or extremely powerful hits happen a bit more often, leading to shorter rally lengths overall.

There are dozens of different real-world locations in TopSpin 2K25, although only five of them (the BNP Paribas Open and four classic Grand Slam venues) were playable in this preview build. The tennis court you choose has a lot of impact on the match itself - running back and forth trying to return serves is fairly easy on a solid, hard floor, but changing directions suddenly on the clay of the Court Philippe Chatrier in Paris is going to cause your tennis pro to slide clumsily. There are multiple times of day (bright & sunny, sunset, and night) but no weather effects to be concerned with. When I asked if players would have to worry about rain or mud as well, Ercolani said "Typically in tennis [when it rains] play stops, so it doesn't really affect the surfaces anymore."

Ace, Rally On

As someone who put an unhealthy amount of hours into TopSpins 3 and 4 on both the Wii and the Xbox 360, playing TopSpin 2K25 scratches an itch that has been left unscratched for over a decade. Doubles matches are especially fun - putting your own partner's AI up to maximum and dropping your two opponents down to very easy makes for quite a cathartic release after being shut out by Serena Williams four times in a row. The characters are fairly responsive but feel just a bit sluggish when moving them left and right across the court, which can make scrambling to reach the ball after running too far in the wrong direction a tense experience. Serving has been revamped from previous entries but remains easy to perform, with power serves being fairly intuitive to execute, and the different face buttons each dictate whether your return will be a lob, slice, volley, etc.

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I was a much better player at the end of my two hours with TopSpin 2K25 than I was at the start of it, so much so that I was somewhat bummed I couldn't keep playing then and there. To me, tennis games have always been perfect pick-up-and-play titles; it's much easier to commit to 15 minutes of tennis than it is to four 12-minute quarters of Madden, and I can absolutely see myself using TopSpin 2K25 in this fashion once the game releases. It's by no means the easiest tennis game out there, but it is one that left me with the feeling that I wanted to keep playing, to master it, to unlock those higher difficulties and actually have a chance of beating them. 2K's normal form of games like NBA 2K24.

You don't have to be a fan of tennis to enjoy TopSpin 2K25, although I'm sure it helps. I'm no expert - Wii Sports and TopSpin have stolen more hours of my life than any tangible tennis court ever will, barring any drastic and unforeseen changes in my personality - but even I can see the amount of care and dedication to representing the sport properly on display here. This was clear when I spoke to Ercolani about what he was able to apply from his experiences on Mafia III to TopSpin. "I think one of the knowledges that we were able to bring from Mafia - because a majority of the team comes from the Mafia franchise - is the attention to everything that speaks to the authenticity of the sport," he said. "The cameras, for example, when you see the players enter the court, and all the cutscenes and things like that, that really contributes to make the game feel like it's a TV broadcast, and that's something we wanted to achieve right from the beginning."

TopSpin 2K25 launches on Friday, April 26, 2024 (with an early access period starting Tuesday, April 23, 2024 for Deluxe Edition and Grand Slam Edition holders) and is available for pre-order now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. Screen Rant was invited to a preview event at the BNP Paribas Open for the purposes of this preview.