Title: Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis

Date: 06.09.2006

Genre: Sports

Platform: Xbox 360

Developer: Rockstar San Diego

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Rockstar's Table Tennis offers us a glimpse at the seedy underbelly of the world of professional Ping Pong. It's a world full of sex, murder, drugs, and greed. It's a world unlike any you've ever seen. Actually, this is just a really good game of Ping Pong.

It's probably a bit of an understatement to say that the entire gaming community was surprised when Rockstar announced they were making Table Tennis. Okay, just about everyone was saying, "WTF?" But Rockstar has basically been making gamers, parents' groups, and congressmen say that for years. Probably some of the surprise stemmed not so much from the subject of the game, but rather the fact that Rockstar was taking such a huge departure from the type of huge, over-the-top style that they have become synonymous with. No gangsters, no ultra-violence, no obscure movie licenses, no convoluted stories or plotlines, no open-ended environments. This is Rockstar applying a laser-like focus to the gameplay of table tennis and adding much of the polish that many gamers demand of next-generation titles. It's essentially their way of saying, "Big or small. We can make a good game."

No, you don't have sex with her.
We're all familiar with or have, at one time or another, played ping pong. In fact, the first videogame for most us old-timers was Pong. The game is basically tennis condensed down to a more manageable size for those of us that may or may not have been...athletic enough or fortunate enough to play regular tennis. The game is also much more accessible and easy to pick up than actual tennis. The same holds true for Rockstar's version. Practically anyone can pick up the controller and in a short time find themselves exchanging intense volleys and looking for an opening to get the ball past their opponent. As stated earlier, the game is strictly focused on the gameplay. There are no stories, fancy cut-scenes, or anything else to distract you from what you're there to do...play ping pong. You may be surprised to see how deeply involved or even emotional you might get after winning or losing an over 100-shot volley lasting minutes for one single point. It's relatively simple, but elegant and engaging at the same time.

Having said that, let's take a look at the controls for this game. We'll take a look at their various applications when we talk about gameplay. If you've played Virtua Tennis or Top Spin before, this should be familiar territory for you. You will control both your player's position as well as aiming your shots using the left analog stick. The spins you can apply to your shots are logically mapped to both the face buttons and right analog stick. For example, X and B are for left and right spin while Y and A are for top and back spin. Pressing and holding your left bumper before your shot selection will make your shot soft, barely clearing the net. This is great for psyching out opponents that like to play back off the table. The right bumper will allow you to enter a John Woo slow-mo state for a "Focus Shot". And occasionally you will build up focus and be able to activate a Focus Mode with your triggers. The controls are very-well organized and easy to learn for any player at any skill level.

Table Tennis subscribes to my Hungry Hungry Hippos school of gameplay. It takes minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master. You simply position your player, pick your spin, and release the button when it's time to hit the ball. Easy right? Well mechanically, yes. But there's a lot more to it than that. How often in normal tennis do you see a 100, or even 50, hit volley? So needless to say, to be competitive either offline or online, you'll need to pick up and learn the subtle elements of spin, counterspin, focus, charging shots, serves, and placement. For spin you have left and right spin to try and curve into or away from your opponent. There's topspin for fast offensive shots while back spin slows down your shot and allows you time to reposition yourself. As a ball is struck, you'll see it surrounded by colored arrows indicating the type of spin applied.

You can then apply the same spin to counter their shot or just wail away with your topspin. As for aiming the ball, you do that as your selecting your shot and once the ball is hit. The rumble feature will begin if you've aimed your shot off the table and give you a chance to rein it back in. Charging your shot requires you to quickly select your return shot/spin and holding the button down as long as possible before you return. This will add the Focus to a meter next to your score. Once you have a full meter, you can enter a focus mode where your speed and accuracy will dramatically increase. One of the coolest things to see in the game is when you and your opponent both enter focus mode at the same time. The speed is intense and the game can take on the look and feel of a real professional ping pong match. One more feature to mention is that you can combine both top/back and right/left spins for added depth. Scared yet? Don't be. But you will need some serious practice time to become good at this game.

You don't beat him to death with a paddle. But you may want to.
As was mentioned before, there are no stories or cut-scenes. This game is completely free of frills. Some folks may have a problem with this, but the focus is on the gameplay so there's no reason to really expect much else. Offline, you have an exhibition mode and four tournaments you can play through to unlock characters, costumes, and venues. People have complained about the lack of a character creation tool, but honestly it's not needed. There are 11 players in total (several must be unlocked) and each one is varied or balanced enough in style for you to find the right type of player to suit you. My only complaint with the offline tournaments are the sudden leaps in difficulty when you reach the final matches. Where this game finds its replayability and lasting appeal is, of course, on Xbox Live. If anything, this game seems more geared to it. With the TrueSkill ratings, leader boards, and the addition of spectators, there's a lot of fun to be had online.

Here's a quick example with Live as to how easy this game is to pick up and play. A friend of mine bought the game and we played together on Live after he had only been through the tutorial. In the first match I practically shut him out. But by the second match he understood the basics and before you knew, it was a close match. We had some volleys going into the 80 — 100 shot range. It was pretty intense and it was only the second match he had ever played.

Graphically, this game is a as focused as the gameplay. There's very little to see other than the table and players, so there's an amazing level of detail applied to it. The characters have their own look and styles when it comes to their stances as well as their reactions. They do share much of the same animations, but you're going to be too busy to care. The graphics are wonderfully smooth and fluid. Probably the only time you'll ever run into any hitches will be a laggy game over Live. In those instances you would see some frame skips, but it most likely won't hurt the game too much. There are two other impressive elements to the graphics. The first is focus mode. Not the slow-mo mode, but when the players both enter this mode of play together. The lights will dim outside of the table as a spotlight focuses on the game. The graphics keep up with the action as the pace becomes insane. The other cool feature is sweat. Unlike some sports games where the player simply looks covered in glass as they sweat, the players here not only glisten a bit, but sweat starts to discolor their clothes. It heightens the intensity of the game and there are even sometimes noticeable signs of fatigue. Very nice touch.

Not much to say about the sound here. The effects are spot-on as are the characters' occasional bits of dialogue. The music is there but the only time you'll truly notice it is when it changes during a serious volley.

Rockstar's Table Tennis is about two things: focus and polish. They took a simple game of table tennis and gave it incredible levels of both accessibility and depth. You can easily pick up this game and learn to play, but will have to practice with it for a substantial amount of time if you plan to play online or through all of the offline tournaments. The polish is evident in the excellent graphical detail and refined mechanics. The features are sparse, but rarely missed. Offline play essentially boils down to learning how to play and unlocking characters while multiplayer is where the real heart and replayability of this game resides. A doubles feature would have been a nice touch and the AI difficulty can get a little sporadic, but those are about the only major faults to find here. But this is truly one of the best and most addicting sports titles for the 360 right now.

Game Score

8.9

Reviewed By: Contributed