Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis: Xbox 360 Game Reviews


	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Sports Publisher Rockstar Developer Rockstar ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q2 2006

- Solid, fast paced action - Decent graphics and excellent animation

- Lacks in depth or extra modes - $40 for ping pong? Seriously?

Review: Top Spin (Xbox) Review: Perfect Ace Pro Tournament Tennis (PC) Review: Tennis Masters Series 2003 (PC)
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Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis

Score: 6.5 / 10

Rockstar Games Present Table Tennis. Say that out loud and ponder it a bit. Rockstar is the company responsible for publishing the likes of Max Payne, State of Emergency, and Grand Theft Auto - their name is synonymous with edgy, violent material, and they’ve made a ping pong game? It almost seems like penance for all of the bad karma they’ve built up. The surprising part is that it’s actually not too bad.

Ping Pong isn’t exactly the most glamorous of sports - most Americans are probably only aware that a professional circuit exists through Forrest Gump - but Table Tennis seeks to emulate the thrill of batting a tiny ball back and forth. It plays much like a junior version of...well, tennis. Two players enter a dimly lit room, with a single large spotlight centered on the playing field, and only one leaves victorious. The left analog stick controls your character, as well as the aim of your shots. If you pay attention to the vibration on the controller, it will indicate whether a shot is going to go out of bound. You can either use the right analog stick or the face buttons to execute one of four types of hits - topspin, backspin, left spin, and right spin. As it flies across the court, the ball leaves faint color trails, which correspond to what kind of hit is most suitable for returning. The strength of your hits is controlled by hammering away at the buttons, and you can combine types of shots by pressing two buttons at the same time. There’s also a focus meter that builds up over time, that allows you to take power shots by holding down the right bumper. Holding down the left button will execute soft shots that aim low. Certain moves or close calls which are executed with slow motion close-ups, which tends to ruin the pacing but amp up the drama.

And that’s pretty much the gist of it. The controls are easy enough that you can essentially just run back and forth and keep wailing on a single button, but tactics like these won’t work against some of the more difficult AI opponents, who can get pretty brutal on Hard difficulty. If you’re sick of CPU opponents, there’s full online play as well.

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Despite all of the subtle ways you can control the ball, Table Tennis still feels simplistic but pretty fun. Once the rally hits over ten shots, the techno music pumps, and a counter in the corner slowly builds up until one of the players screws up. Moments like these are table tennis at it’s most intense, especially when it’s amplified by some impressive sound effects and the cheering and/or taunting voices from the crowd.

At the beginning, there are four players to select, each hailing from different countries. As you progress, you unlock several more characters, along with different outfits for them. This isn’t exactly Dead or Alive

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Xtreme Beach Volleyball, so the uniforms are all pretty conservative and not really a great incentive to keep playing. There are a whole lot of achievements, although the game really makes you work for some of them - trying to beat some of the tournaments in a short time limit is pretty challenging. At a distance, the character models look astounding, especially in a motion, although they begin to lose a bit of luster when viewed up close. Most impressive is the realistic clothes animation, especially when the characters jump or move around quickly. The amount of effort put into little details like this is pretty substantial. Since it’s a simple game, it’s not meant to look overly spectacular, and it’s not exactly “next-gen” but the graphics designers at Rockstar San Diego have pulled off a decent effort. The courts look crisp (even if they’re basically all the same), and the action keeps up at a smooth frame rate almost all of the time.

While Table Tennis is undoubtedly a solid game, it ultimately lacks depth or staying power. Even though there are lots of buttons to press and indicators to watch or feel for, ultimately, you’re just hitting the ball in slightly different ways. There’s really only bare bones exhibition and tournament modes. Once you’ve played through the brief tutorial, you’ve essentially seen everything there is to see. Some kind of mode to customize your player, or a basic career option, would’ve gone a long ways to adding something else to work for.

But then again, it’s a pretty simplistic sport, so it’s hard to fault it’s shallowness. The problem lies not with the actual game, but with the cost. Rockstar is asking $40US for Table Tennis, which is budget by Xbox 360 standards but not compared to everything else. As a $20 game, this would be a great party game, but there’s not nearly enough meat to justify the cost. As it stands, it’s a casual game at a serious price point.

Still, if the idea of a well-made, fast paced ping pong game excites you - and you don’t have regular access to a real ping pong table - this is about the best around. Once it drops in price a bit, go ahead and add another point or two to the score, because it’s really a victim of poor pricing than poor gameplay.

- Kurt Kalata

(June 6, 2006)