Make no mistake about it, Top Spin is Pong on crack, a truly next-gen game with truly classic gameplay. If you’ve played older titles like Pong, Virtua Tennis and even Breakout, you know how addictive this genre can be. Whether it’s the simple learning curve or the never-the-same gameplay, there’s something intangible that keeps people coming back to angle the ball down a competitor’s (or brick’s) throat.

The basic gameplay of Top Spin is truly that: basic. There’s a button for "safe hit," one for "slice," one for "top spin" and one for "lob." With those four buttons and a thumbstick to move, that’s all you need to hold your own. A blind monkey could play this game. As a result, Top Spin is hands-down the most approachable and "mass market" game on Xbox.

Yet Top Spin also allows you to use the other thumbstick to determine where your shot will go, and the sliding "risk shot" meter adds an additional challenge, especially if the momentum isn’t going your way. What this means is that as approachable as Top Spin may be for the masses, it’s also got more than enough complexity and depth to satiate gamers who want to master every aspect of digital tennis. In that sense, it’s one of the best Xbox games when it comes to appealing to a wide audience.

As classic as the controls and gameplay are, Top Spin predictably breaks the old-school mold in two aspects: Career Mode, which is expected in any sports game today, and online play via XSN Sports.

The Career Mode starts out with you selecting a default player or creating your own using the surprisingly detailed player-creation tool. Ranked 100^th in the world, you begin your journey to the top by playing through Pro-Am tournaments around the world and unlocking progressively more-challenging meets, culminating in Grand Slam events. Along the way you can pursue sponsorships, which give you new clothes, more accessories, more money and the chance to star in TV commercials. You can also use your tournament winnings to pay for serve, backhand, forehand and volley training.

Although the gameplay and controls are quite simple, this training is essential if you want to have any success in later tournaments. Think of it as "leveling up" your character, and you’ve got the basic gist. You may be adequate with your serve, for example, but learning to be more precise or deliver a curved serve can mean the difference between an Ace and Love-15. Training is presented like a timed mini-game, and as you advance in your career, the sessions become more and more difficult. The serve training modules are especially brutal, but that’s also the most difficult aspect of "real life" tennis, so you’ll just have to buck up and deal.

After boosting your character’s proficiencies and winning a few tournaments, you’ll inevitably want to play against a human opponent. For just such an occasion, Top Spin supports head-to-head doubles, cooperative doubles, head-to-head singles, System Link and Xbox Live. That’s a lot of multiplayer options. And Top Spin in multiplayer, regardless of the mode, is an absolute blast.

Ironically, the online play actually makes Top Spin even closer to Pong than you’d initially expect. After all, head-to-head bouncing balls via Xbox Live is essentially a technology-enabled throwback to smoky arcades and late nights in front of the old TV. It’s the same competition, the same approachable gameplay, the same strategic aiming, but a completely inter-room experience.

Unfortunately, at times Top Spin also seems like a throwback graphically, and I doubt it was intentional. The player models themselves are fantastic. Self-shadowing, detailed accessories, moving eyes, animated faces…it’s all there. The animations are also fantastic, particularly when you unleash a two-handed, in-the-air backhand or dink the ball from between your legs.

Outside of the player models, though, the graphics in leave much to be desired. The courts are solid, with detailed surfaces and a clear difference between clay and grass, but everything else is extremely blasé. What’s odd about that is that everything you’d expect to see on and around a tennis court is included, but not in a very detailed manner. For example, the line judges are there and call out faults, but they’re darn near two-dimensional and almost never move. Sort of a "wallpaper ref," if you will.

The crowds are also disappointing, unless you’re supposed to be playing in a "Clone Wars" setting. Two fans, three shirts and one animation later, and you’ve pretty much seen all that Top Spin’s crowds have to offer. At least they clap - in unison.

Of course, that’s just about all you’re going to hear in Top Spin: applause. Well, that and the requisite racket-hitting-the-ball and grunting-player sounds. Yes, the playground settings include chirping birds, but how about a soundtrack? Or play-by-play in the professional tournaments? Or commentary between games and sets? Heck, this is the Xbox; how about support for custom soundtracks, even if the developers didn’t want to distract from their tennis "sim" by creating their own?

I understand that "real" tennis doesn’t have much commentary. I respect that "real" tennis matches aren’t subject to background music. But "real" tennis also doesn’t have an introductory video with loud music that sets the stage for an impressive and up-tempo aural experience. The audio that’s there is done well; heck, one lonely middle-aged man even calls out for Anna’s attention from time to time. It’s just that there’s not enough audio to begin with.

Maybe it’s just Top Spin’s homage to Pong, in that sense. After all, the elder game was certainly no graphical or audio stalwart, and gamers still revere it like gaming’s Holy Grail. It was basic. It was fun. It was easily approachable but strategic if you wanted it to be. In effect, it was Top Spin 20 years ago.

Top Spin is an incredibly fun game that oozes mass-market appeal yet spices things up for hardcore players. The fantastic gameplay compensates where the graphics and audio sometimes fall short, but it can’t swing the game into Editors Choice status. Every Xbox owner needs to play this game, but not every one needs to necessarily buy it.

See more screens on the Top Spin media page