Strawberries & Cream, Cliff Richard, sunlit lush tennis greens quickly drowned in a torrential downpour, Pat Cash's mullet and a sense of futile despair. These are the fine British traditions that we all associate with the sport of tennis. However, over recent years our dreams of a Brit lifting the trophy on home soil has faded away like my own dreams of Maria Sharapova claiming that she is looking to settle down with a quiet games reviewer from the UK. Nevertheless, 2K Sports have ignored a slightly reduced interest in the sport to release Top Spin, the latest in tennis simulation.

If this release was hoping to rekindle interest in tennis, then it has to be said that it is not far off achieving its aim. As you will all get to know from reading my reviews, I crave customisation in game environments. Anything that I can attach a 'rags to riches' story to can play a major part in my enjoyment of a game. One great feature of this game is that through use of an Eye-Toy you can quickly manifest the perfect digital incarnation of yourself. This instantly adds an extra dimension when playing the career mode, in which your aim is to become the world number one by beating the best tennis pros and winning tournaments all round the games seven continents.

As tennis games go, the gameplay is a refreshing change. Those who have experienced this sport virtually may recall that previous developers have struggled with making the rudimentary principles of tennis achievable with a degree of simplicity. In this field, Top Spin is revolutionary. There are four types of shot: safe, slice, lob and top spin. Winning a game, as Rusedski and Henman would do well to remember, is decided by a combination of shot timing, body positioning and shot placement. On top of these is the risk shot. A click of the R1 button sees a power meter appear on the screen; release the shoulder button at the right time and your player will send an often unreturnable ball across the net, but release at the wrong time and expect to live with the guilt of ridding a ball boy or line judge of their front teeth.

This intuitive shot system means that before long you'll be hitting winners worthy of Roger Federer himself. Coupled with overwhelmingly accurate animations for a player's movement, this makes the match play itself quite addictive, while travelling round the world thrashing opponents gives you a real sense of world domination (as much world domination as you can achieve in tennis). Within each continent is a sponsor, who pays you money in exchange for completing challenges or starring in TV commercials. This money can be spent at the various salons or sports shops scattered around, but is best utilised in the coaching areas that allow you to gain some coaching and add career stars to your serve, forehand, backhand, or volley. Be warned, there is a maximum of fourteen stars on offer throughout your career, so have a good idea of the kind of player you want to be before acquiring any coaching. Personally, I felt that tennis bad boy Rob Byron would perform on the court just as he would in most aspects of his life - all power and no grace. Therefore, I ignored the technical aspects of the game and piled attention on a powerful serve and devastating forehand (and my girlfriend says I get too involved in these games!)

It's the graphics involving the matches themselves that kept me playing. The movement of the players as they swing through the ball is more than impressive. Although occasionally you may find that you swing for a ball on the wrong side of the court, a little training is all that's required before being able to cope with most shots played at you. The stadiums that host each tournament are varied, with every court surface represented. Each surface is unique in the way the ball bounces and how the players negotiate their way around it. There is a clear attention to detail here, in particular on the clay courts when every trail of movement or bounce of the ball throws up dust from the surface. This attention could have been added to the crowd, who although a little simplistic, are in good voice whenever something impresses them. Not enough Sharapova style grunts, or McEnroe-like outbursts from the players for my tastes though.

For a while, I saw a real addictive quality to this title. The matches are shortened to three games per set and three sets per match, which almost makes up for the somewhat lengthy load screens. However, like my virtual representation, Top Spin is a big hitter with a lot of potential; beyond that it lacks the elements that could make it a monumental tennis smash. The career mode is always a successful aspect of any sports title, but it's shy of a few features and seems a little half-hearted. Within two hours of playing the game I had assigned all of my career stars, leaving no more room for progression of my character's abilities. Two hours later I had won a few amateur tournaments and triumphed at a couple of pro events - unbelievably I was ranked seventh in the world! I'm all for fast tracking to the top, but the game assumes no artificial intelligence away from the tennis court. Consequently, the rankings of the other players stays constant, a trick that would looking dated on the PSOne - we've moved on since then.

So the shelf-life isn't great. There is the saving grace of many an amusing night spent arguing with your teammate during a four-player doubles match, or chastising an opponent online after they blinked and missed your 150mph serve. But these qualities only cover some of the game's failings. Despite the presence of such sponsor names as Reebok and Adidas, there is a disappointing lack of authenticity. With the exception of Federer, Hewitt, Sharapova and a few others, opponents are made up of cheesy cartoon-like characters with imaginative names such as Qlang Wang, Bobby Moore and my personal favourite Don Funk.

Various omissions and the deficiency in true tournament titles has taken something away from what would otherwise have been a real hit. However, the gameplay has broken new boundaries into tennis simulation and with a few well-oiled changes and maybe a more appropriate release date, Top Spin's next instalment could see it stepping forward as a leading sports series.

Reviewed by Rob Byron for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).