by: Billy Kirk

January 15, 2008

Sound in Table Tennis is quite good. Gamers might first be surprised by the quirky techno music that pervades the title, but it oddly matches up to the feel of the gameplay well, and players will never consciously think that it’s out of place. Grunts and taunts by the pong participants are suitable, and Rockstar managed to catch and replicate the sound of a bouncing ping pong ball uncannily well.
With all this going for the game, what’s wrong with it? Well, its ultimate downside lies in the gameplay. There are many things the title gets dead right. The speed and trajectory of the ping pong ball always seems spot on, and the four kinds of spin the gamer can produce on the ball – left spin, right spin, top spin (forward spin), and backspin – are all authentically replicated. When the ball is hit, a small colored swirling effect is produced around it that lets both players know the kind of spin that has been put on the ball by their opponent and allows them to prepare accordingly, which is a smart and useful inclusion. Serving the ball also works well, and maximizing both power and spin on the serve at the same time is never a daunting experience and is easily grasped from the get-go. The “focus” plays – moments when the player decides to utilize the momentum they’ve obtained thus far in the match by unleashing a particularly nasty blast – are excellent additions which deepen the experience. The cut scene that occurs during these segments is also fun, and it never gets in the way of the action or confuses the gamer when it happens. Lights get lowered during particularly brutal rallies as well, which is a brilliant effect and one which really heightens and intensifies the match.
The problem arises in how Rockstar decided to handle character movement. While the sidestepping of the characters often works well and proves appropriate for the earlier matches in the game, in later bouts it becomes troublesome. Many times your character will seem to respond slowly and refuse to lunge for balls, and their sidestepping can at times look awkward. Worse, as the difficulty ramps up, the sidestepping goes from looking awkward to actually being awkward in practice, as your character will never simply turn and run to a spot, no matter how hard or angled the return from your opponent – they will simply sidestep and not respond, or do a possibly unsuccessful lunge. In addition, on occasion your player character won’t even take a swing at a swiftly moving ball, even if it is within his range and you have inputted the command in time for a return. I’ve played some fast paced (granted, not organized or professional) ping pong in real life, and no one actually reacts as stiffly as the characters can at times in Table Tennis. This ends up being a huge problem, as it can lead to numerous lost matches, an inability to advance, and general frustration.



If you aren’t being hung up by the inaccurate player lateral movement, the game can unfortunately be over quite fast if you are not utilizing Live. Fortunately, there are a number of costumes, ping pong venues, and a surprising number of hidden characters to enjoy, all of which become available once you complete certain milestones and all of which add to the replay value. This fortunately keeps the game from being merely a one week affair for the solo gamer.

*The price has since been dropped to $19.99

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Table Tennis is a well-constructed budget title with a tangible addictive element, pretty graphics and an amazing dedication to the virtual portrayal of the sport – with the exception of crucial character movement issues. If not for this fact, the title may have been the truest conversion of a sport to a video game yet; as it is, it still definitely falls short, and despite Rockstar’s small-budget overachievement the title can’t be recommended to all. For the ping pong and tennis fan, this twenty dollar value is a no-brainer, but for anyone else nothing more than a rental can be suggested.

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