When it comes to tennis games, there’s nothing quite like Top Spin. The series originally created as an Xbox exclusive by PAM Development has historically delivered gameplay of unmatched depth combined with solid licensing and strong online features, making it the tennis game to love for true fans of the sport.

However, franchise aficionados have long been yearning for a comeback. Top Spin 4 launched in 2011 (only on consoles) and seemed left in the dust by 2K until journalist Jason Schreier reported two years ago that Hangar 13, a studio composed of former 2K Czech employees who worked on Top Spin 4, was developing a new installment.

The official announcement came only three months ago when the Australian Open was in full swing. Thankfully, the wait is already over – Top Spin 2K25 launches this week, and I’ve had the opportunity to play the final build for several days now.

As someone who spent countless hours climbing the online rankings of the first entry in the series, I have to say that, after some initial adjustments, I felt right at home in this new game. It’s clear that its roots are strongly placed in the previous games, and even the developers admitted the core gameplay is based on Top Spin 4. That’s a great thing, as those titles already offered an excellent foundation for an exciting tennis game.

There are a few key additions that succeed in further improving the formula. The first is the timing meter, which determines whether you’ve hit the ball too early, too late, decently, or perfectly. The latter is obviously what you should aspire to, but it’s easier said than done. On top of that, you also have the ability to hit a controlled shot by charging and releasing the button right away or take a power shot by holding the button. This works with any type of shot: slice, top spin, power shot, lob, and drop shot. You’ll have to be mindful of both timing meter and power meter if you want to hit winners. The service system is also much deeper than before, and it will likely be one of the defining factors of the best players in the online modes. I’ve only managed to hit a couple of aces so far, so I have a lot of improvement left in this area.

Ahead of the launch, the developers also claimed they made a number of under-the-hood changes to shorten the rallies. However, this is something where they couldn’t quite hit the mark. Even against the AI at normal difficulty, some rallies can easily go into the 30 or 40 exchanges, and it will obviously be even worse against real players. I believe the best way to fix this issue is to increase the fatigue rate during rallies, making it harder and harder for players with less stamina to avoid unforced errors as the rally drags on. Hopefully, Hangar 13 will take this feedback to heart for the post-launch updates.

Even with this caveat, the gameplay of Top Spin 2K25 is supremely satisfying once you master its many different techniques. To do that, you’ll need to spend some time in the Top Spin Academy, the equivalent of the training room in this game. Here, tennis legend John McEnroe (who’s also playable in the game) walks players through the various types of shots and offers many tips and tricks, such as hitting a ball inside out at the right time. I’d heartily advise completing all of these lessons sooner rather than later; when you’re attempting to improve in a game like this, there’s no such thing as cutting corners. You simply have to take the time to learn.

The Exhibition Mode is where you can customize a singles match in various ways and also the only place where you can set up a doubles match in the game (more on that later). Here, you’ll be able to select various active pro players as well as legends like Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, and Roger Federer. However, the list of pro players is absolutely too short right now, which means you’ll often be playing against made-up players in the MyCAREER mode. Hangar 13 promised to add more for free post-launch; for now, though, Top Spin 2K25 is at a disadvantage compared to competitors like TIEBREAK (which just announced over 100+ pro players) in this area.

Your next stop after finishing up at the Academy should be the MyCAREER mode, where you get to create your own player. Top Spin 2K25 offers a decent character creator, although we’ve seen better in other genres. Once you’ve crafted your MyPLAYER, you’ll begin at the very bottom of the ranking with low stats (30 in every attribute: forehand, backhand, serve, volley, power, speed, stamina, and reflexes). Each match you play or training exercise you complete will provide experience points; gather enough and you’ll be able to level up, just like in any RPG, giving you six points to distribute however you see fit. There are playstyle presets to choose from, such as serve and volley, but I would recommend allocating the points manually.

You’ll go through the tournaments just like in a real tennis season, from January to December, and then begin anew the following year. At first, you’ll only be able to join Top Spin 250 tournaments, whose matches only consist of a tiebreak (best of 7). The game actually gates access to tournaments based on the player’s status rather than global rank or even race rank. Once, I managed to stay in the Top 8 for the race rank, which means I would have had access to the Nitto ATP Finals in the real sport. However, I hadn’t completed enough objectives to reach the required player status and, as such, could not actually join the tournament.

The objectives needed to advance to the next status include winning enough tournaments of various categories, completing enough sponsor events, and performing enough training exercises, among others. As your status increases, you’ll be able to join Top Spin 500 tournaments (whose matches run on a super tiebreak at the best of 10), ATP 1000 Tournaments, and finally, Grand Slams. These two types of events run on a single-set, three-game rule.

During my recent interview with Game Director Remi Ercolani, we learned it would take around 20 hours to max out a MyPLAYER. That might be a conservative estimate; I’ve spent nearly 18 hours in Top Spin 2K25 to date, almost all in the MyCAREER mode, and my character still hasn’t reached level 21 (the cap is 30). As your in-game attributes as well as your real-life skills improve, you’ll find it hard to lose games or even points. The difficulty of the MyCAREER mode is admittedly not very high, even when you finally face those few licensed players currently in the game like Daniil Medvedev, Carlos Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, and Matteo Berrettini.

That’s fine while you’re still leveling your MyPLAYER and improving your own skill, but it would certainly be a great idea if Hangar 13 added a difficulty selection option to this mode, making it more compelling long-term for those who aren’t that interested in the online modes. So far, it feels more like an extension of the Top Spin Academy.

There are a few more details that you should keep in mind about MyCAREER. Firstly, always keep an eye on your energy level. It decreases a little when you travel around the world (more if the location is very distant, like in another continent) and a lot more whenever you play a match. Beginning a match with 35% or lower energy means risking an injury after the match. This could take you out of the tour for a month or more, depending on the severity of the injury.

To avoid such an occurrence, you should rest every once in a while, which inevitably means skipping at least a month of tournaments. Eventually, you will unlock new features like purchasable homes, which allow you to recover energy more quickly if you’re joining a tournament in that area. There are various homes scattered throughout the globe, and they’re purchased with VC Points that you accumulate while completing objectives and winning tournaments.

Later, you’ll also unlock the ability to hire a proper staff. The medical team focuses on reducing your MyPLAYER’s recovery time, the travel team helps with fatigue generated from travel, the energy team restores your energy after certain tournaments, and the merchandise team boosts your VC earnings. Hiring staff members also costs VC Points; they can be hired for contracts of three to twelve months, with the latter option being more cost-effective.

Of course, that is in addition to your main coach, who can be selected from a relatively long list. The coach can be upgraded up to level 4 and can boost some of your attributes in a significant way, provided that you can complete his or her objectives. For example, Mikolaj Karczewski will reward you with an attribute bonus of +10 forehand, +10 backhand, and +2 speed if you play enough games with a Quality of Play of 70% or higher. This is another system introduced later in MyCAREER when you have leveled your coach. During a match, each point will be judged by your coach, and you won’t necessarily get a good rating by scoring a point if you’ve played badly (e.g., missed a few timings). However, it’s important to note you won’t need to keep up the Quality of Play indefinitely – once you’ve unlocked the bonus, it’s yours for good.

Lastly, your playstyle can be further customized with the fittings. These are racquet slots you unlock during the mode and can be equipped or unequipped at any time, giving you bonuses for certain attributes. There are three fittings, and if you equip three fittings with the same Skill Set, you’ll also get access to an Active Skill. These are like talents in an RPG: a few examples are Diesel Server, which lets your player perform more efficient servers during your service games, or Amazing 1st Volley, which makes your first volley in any rally more efficient. Fittings aren’t the only way to unlock Active Skills, though, as your fully leveled-up coach can also provide you with two.

The online mode includes the unranked Exhibition Matches and the ranked 2K Tour and World Tour. The former is for pro players and the latter is for MyPLAYERs. However, I only checked out Exhibition Matches, as I was unable to join the only session dedicated to 2K Tour/World Tour pre-release matches between press members and influencers. This is also why the review is presently unscored, as I want to first dive into these two modes, arguably the most important for the game’s longevity. I can already confirm, though, that there is no online doubles feature at launch. We had relayed as much from the interview, but I had a sliver of hope that Hangar 13 meant four players each on different systems rather than four players on two systems. The latter option was present in the very first Top Spin from over twenty years ago; how can it be missing now? I had some of the best fun when playing with a friend of mine back then. I hope the developers add the feature before long, but for now, it is a glaring omission, just like the lack of custom matches (though this should be added before the end of May).

Visually, Top Spin 2K25 looks good, though not outstanding. The biggest improvement over previous entries is the lighting, which can look great at times, especially when you’re playing a match at sunset. The official venues are also quite accurate and detailed. However, the same cannot be said for the likeness of pro players, leaving much to be desired when the camera closes in.

There aren’t many available graphics options, either. Top Spin 2K25 doesn’t support upscalers, though it doesn’t really need them, as it performs nearly flawlessly and almost always ran near my refresh rate cap of 120 frames per second. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support HDR either, but NVIDIA RTX HDR does a decent job if you’ve got an RTX GPU on PC.

The sounds are great, though, and so is the soundtrack (the latter being more subjective). The implementation of rumble also adds a lot to the gameplay; this is one of those games that you absolutely want to play with a controller. The PS5 version also supports Haptic Feedback with a DualSense controller, and I hope PC can get it too when using the DualSense.

So far, I’m having a lot of fun with Top Spin 2K25, though there are some obvious shortcomings, like the lack of online doubles and custom matches, the very limited roster of pro players, and the too-long rallies. I’ll reserve final judgment after proper testing of the 2K and World Tour modes when they go live.

Reviewed on PC (code provided by the publisher).