ping pong table: One night stand: Table Tennis

Here's a quickie review from a one-night stand with Rockstar Presents: Table Tennis.


Yes, this is a Rockstar game -- the same folks that brought you Grand Theft Auto. Yes their are ping pong balls. No, there are no hookers or strippers that use said ping pong balls in a creative manner.

So, with one evening of play under my belt, I thought I'd share my first impressions on this $39 game.

Graphics: Let's get the eye candy out of the way first because in this game it really doesn't matter as much. This is a pretty game. On an HD monitor in 720P it is a really convincing, fun thing to look at. Basically all there is to look at are the character models. You have a ping pong table, the ball and the folks hitting the ball. Sure there are "stadiums" or other settings but generally it's only the player models you're going to be looking at. And looking at them is a pretty satisfying experience. Take three things as an example of the quality level: hair, shirts and grimmaces.

Have you been a bit let down with what you thought the next gen of DOA4 would look like and what you got? Maybe just a little? If you've noticed the hair, in that game you get these rather blocky looking things that represent hair. In Table Tennis, when you move the Sweedish dude to the side rather abruptly, you can see the individual strands on his head move, like you would expect them to in real life. The shirts hang like shirts should hang. You're convinced that the shirt is a real thing, not something painted over a model. And I swear that the folks playing the game sweat and start to darken the shirts.

Lastly, there's the expression of disgust on the opposing players face when you make them look bad. Just a really subtle thing, a curl of the lip that I seriously doubt it would have been possible last generation.

Gameplay: Like any really good game, this one is simple to pick up and difficult to truly master. Unlike tennis you don't really need to run all over the place to hit the ball. You can stand in one spot and time your button hits or your right thumbstick and just go back and forth for sometime. This is how my 5 year old beat me 4 matches to nil when we first started. Mind you, not 4 games but 4 sets of best of 3 games. The turkey just stayed in one spot and kept pounding the buttons while I was being "smart" by trying to aim my shots to different parts of the table. The deal was that when you do this (or when I did this) I also tended to move around a bit and would end up where the ball wasn't. Funny, but the AI I played after the 5 year old was a bit more forgiving.

There are some reviews out complaining about the lack of a really deep single player "campaign". I don't know if that's really an issue, at least for me. You can pick a character and go through a set of tournaments. As you do that, you unlock outfits, venues, etc. It's a bit like DOA4 without all the cheesy cutscenes or crazy "story". Honestly, I'm there to play the game, I don't care about a lot of the extraneous stuff. I'm currently playing Top Spin2 at the moment as well, and I gladly do away with the cheesy "messages" and stuff in that game.

There is also an exhibition mode for you to just pick a character and go. Now a cool benefit is that you can fire up a second controller and do multiplayer in this mode. Now with a 5 year old (and two 3 year olds) there aren't a lot of things I can play coop on the 360. We've done Joust but that got old. They're addicted to Feeding Frenzy but that's single player. I think, at least with the 5 year old, that Table Tennis might just work out (especially after he cleaned my clock).

Multiplayer: Sadly, with one evening (with an American Idol break in the middle, go Soul Patrol) I got to watch someone else play on the Table Tennis network but I didn't play anyone on Live. The watching is a weird novelty but something I doubt most of us will do much of. If you played a bit last night, chime in.

Rent, Buy or Ignore: Definitely a Rent. Maybe a Buy. I'm glad I bought it. My only question is on the Live front. If enough Geezers get it and the online tourney's for eight folks work out, I think this could be a good addition the the rotation. If you loved Top Spin, you should look into this. And if nothing else, it's a $40 game in a month with really nothing else coming out. So, if you need to help keep your local game store happy, just go for it.





Posted on Wednesday, May 24 @ 13:19:28 EDT by JameyT_admin