Tennis Anyone? Maria Sharapova Plays New Wii Game

MIAMI--Tennis star Maria Sharapova didn't partake in the on-court action at the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open, but she did spend some time playing 2K Sports Top Spin 3 on Wii. The game, which ships May 20 for Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, was on display at the Four Seasons Hotel for press from around the globe to get some hands-on playing time. Sharipova held a videogame press conference at the Four Seasons to talk about the new game--she's one of the cover athletes along with Roger Federer and Andy Roddick--and then went next door to the tennis courts on the roof of the Conrad Hotel to take on tennis stars James Blake, Gaël Monfils and Svetlana Kuznetsova

Sharapova was one of the first to get her hands on the new Top Spin 3 Wii game, which was unveiled for the first time and marks a first for the best-selling franchise on Nintendo's new console. Watching a real tennis pro play as herself against a male tennis pro playing as himself was very entertaining. Both players got into the Wii controls. Sharapova said she actually had played Wii Sports Tennis last year while staying at someone's house in London and loved the interaction with the game.

Unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360 games, which sport high definition visuals and realistic tennis action (which has been redone from the ground up for this year's iteration), the Wii game is clearly aimed at the family audience. In fact, the game has a trio of party-style multiplayer games for anyone to jump onto the court and engage in like The Invincible Man and The Keys Singles and The Keys Doubles. While the graphics aren't nearly as impressive on Nintendo's console, the interaction with the ball and players is much more immersive--and a lot more fun to play.

On the next generation side, the 20 licensed tennis pros look like themselves thanks to real actors' expressions, which replaced the animated faces of last year's game. In addition, the new game sports the realistic cloth that gamers have seen in 2K's NBA 2K8, NHL 2K8 and MLB 2K8 games. The tennis players also get progressively hotter, sweatier and dirtier as they play through grueling matches. The ability to create yourself in the game through an intense create-a-player editor adds an endless array of new tennis stars to the game's roster. Playing around with this deep tool resulted in some very bizarre looking characters.

And that's just the visual department, which also includes authentic stadiums and tournaments. One of the key new features isthe expansion of online gameplay to include a World Tour. Every two weeks, a new champion is crowned online and the leaderboards are swiped clean and the tournament starts fresh. Whether playing offline or online, the new gameplay offers greater accuracy with placing your player and aiming the ball (and choosing your swing type). While there's still some work for developers PAM and 2K Shanghai to finalize, the game is shaping up nicely.