“Table tennis has its origins in England as an after dinner amusement for upper class Victorians in the 1880s. Mimicking the game of tennis in an indoor environment, everyday objects were originally enlisted to act as the equipment. A line of books would be the net, a rounded top of a Champagne cork or knot of string as the ball, and a cigar box lid as the paddle.” –Wikipedia.org
The concept of table tennis as a video game could probably be dated back to 1972 with the creation of Pong as a video game title. One could even stretch their imagination back to 1958 when Tennis for Two was developed on an oscilloscope. These historic games did not contain enough detail to determine if the game was truly on a “table” or a tennis court. By today’s standards we have come to realize just how truly awesome our video game systems have become.
Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis, an Olympic style table tennis simulation. Rockstar lives up to their abilities to create truly unique works of art and imagination. The game is simple, enjoyable, and cheaper than most Xbox 360 video games being released on the market. At a price of $39.99 USD it is hard to pass up a game packed with fun for twenty dollars less than most other Xbox 360 games.
Lacking Game Features – So?
The only criticism from the gaming community is the games lack of features. You cannot “create a player,” nor can you play doubles and there is no career mode. However, these features are often simply check mark criteria for a standard $60 game.
How many careers do most gamers create? Most gamers only need one career because they are, after all, just one person. Having a career mode for a single human player is pointless if the game itself is the career mode. The lack of career mode simply means that you cannot save the state of more then one game at a time. Career mode is really only useful for customers that have multiple people in the household playing the same game at different times throughout the day. A career mode, just to have one, is silly, and Table Tennis does not need one. Bottom line, career mode in this game is not a drastic loss of a feature. The game plays fine without it.
You cannot create a custom player in Table Tennis. This is an overrated feature where you can tweak your characters statistics to better them over time, and to create a unique look and feel to your character. Half of this feature is entertaining eye candy that adds no value to a forty dollar game. The fact that one cannot build better statistics over time is a missing addition, but considering that this often ruins online play (see Fight Night Round 3’s poor implementation on this) it is not a huge concern to gamers that want to take Table Tennis online and all players have equal stat’s.
The lack of doubles play is the only true missing feature. Singles play is enjoyable, but having four humans playing at the same time would be a great experience. Given the camera angles, and fast pace of this game, it is understandable why this feature did not make it. It is often better to have no feature at all, than a hard to use feature that takes away from the fast pace nature of the game.
Unlockables
A game with few goals will contain minimal hours of game play. Challenging a player with difficult match-ups, along with difficult secondary goals creates more value in the game. All eleven characters have a set of shirt “costumes” that the player can unlock over time. To unlock these shirts you must succeed in winning a match in several different ways. A soft shot, an ace serve, an abundance of wins, a focus shot, and others will unlock the outfits for the characters.
Characters themselves are locked when the game is initially played. You begin the game with four characters and there are an additional seven characters that you must unlock by defeating progressively harder tournaments or by simply winning a large number of matches.
New table locations are unlockable. The tables are one of the easier locked features that you can get by playing the character a few times in an exhibition match or tournament match. The hints that the game gives you to unlock items makes your goal clear, and all you must do is pull off the win as it states in the hint to receive your unlocked reward.
Focus
As in real life, your character will slowly build up focus while they play the match. The more time you spend trying to apply spin on the ball and scoring points the more focus your character will receive. Focus causes you to shoot more accurate, faster, and with harder spin. A player that has complete focus against a player that has minimal or no focus will find the match getting easier as their character “gets into the action.”
The focus idea is not overdone, and does not last forever. The ability is shared by both players and does not cause the balance to sway in either direction for long. However, when you are looking at a match point in your advantage then you would be much better off if you have more focus then your opponent.
Achievements
An Xbox 360 game is not complete without its number of possible achievements to increase your gamer score. Table Tennis contains twenty-nine unique achievements that you can obtain over hours of game play. Unlike some sports games Table Tennis does not give away all of its achievements in one or two sessions. The balance of online and offline achievements are done well, and the points obtained are big enough to make you happy, but small enough to make you strive for the next set of achievements.
An average achievement will net you 10 to 20 gamer points, and the extreme achievements can bring you 60+ gamer points. Each new character you unlock will bring you 5 to 20 gamer points with smaller point values for initial unlockables and higher point values for the ones that require more time and effort. No good game would be complete without at least one extremely difficult achievement. The achievement known as “The G.O.A.T” is a task which requires you to obtain the highest True Skill rating possible in an online game. This is for the hardcore ping-pong gamer extraordinaire.
The good news, no achievements exists which require constant extended periods of play (i.e. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warrior). Each achievement in question states “(non-consecutive)” in its description text to make this clear. You can gain achievements for ten hours of game play, but you do not (and should not) have to play it in one sitting.
Tournaments
The multiplayer and the single player modes of Table Tennis offer a bracket tournament system. The single player tournament is more complete and drawn out, with many levels of difficulty to achieve. The online tournaments are timed and are much shorter in length. Both methods offer a challenge to all levels of players. The human challenge is obviously the most difficult, and the computer challenge, at times, can make you want to snap your controller into small pieces and flush them down the toilet. The harder levels in Table Tennis are definitely for the strong willed persistent players.
Single player tournaments can be saved by simply quitting the match. You will lose state of that match and have to re-do it later, but you do not have to start the tournament at the first bracket again. This isn’t as obvious during game play as one might think. Most video games have a “save and quit” option. Table Tennis will notify you if you select the “quit” option. It is usually preferable, from a user interface standpoint, to label the option “save and quit” so that the user isn’t afraid of the repercussions of hitting “quit.”
Exhibitions
An exhibition, by default, is a two out of three game match-up with you and an opponent. This feature exists in both multiplayer and single player. The single player exhibitions against the computer can be boring at times, but are good for quick practice. These can also assist you in unlocking shirts and tables when you just do not have time to play through the tournaments.
Multiplayer exhibitions probably work, but when attempting a ranked exhibition the game said that there were no exhibitions available and that one could be created. Feeling like instant action this was not the route that was taken. However, a timed tournament was immediately available.
Game Play
On easy levels of difficulty the game plays gentle and predictable. As you increase your difficulty with harder tournament challenges you will find yourself hop, skipping and jumping around the floor to catch some of the most amazing shots on record. The gameplay is very similar to a real table tennis match and this game is labeled as a real simulation. The ball follows the rules of physics as you would expect in a real-life match and the characters exhibit many of the frustrating looks, paddle waves, and wiping their sweaty face with their shirt sleeve just like a real player.
Once you attempt more difficult challenges you will find your control over this game has not yet been mastered. Making good contact with the ball will call your real skills into question. As you try to hold down one or more of your buttons (or right-stick) to focus on a spin direction the chances are the ball is screaming towards you. You then move your left-stick to position the ball in a specific area of your opponent’s table section. If you perform the operations out of order you may find your player walking away from the table as if to go grab a soda when, in reality, you wanted to position the ball in that direction. After a few hours of play you learn how to apply spin types and then apply direction.
Some gamers say that the players appear a bit sluggish when returning difficult shots. This seems to be magnified by the slow sidestepping you find your character doing as you’re attempting to put direction on the ball rather then on the character themselves. After a few games of online play you will realize that most of the sluggish nature is the person holding the joystick and not the character representing an Olympic table tennis player. This game is less about running to return shots, and more about perfect placement with the correct spin and great timing to throw your opponent off center.
Graphics
This $40.00 game does not lack in the graphics department. The players act real, and although a bit stiff at times, seem to be modeled after real players from their oddities and taunts. Liu Ping will cool himself off using his paddle as a fan, while Haley will stomp off like a spoiled little girl.
The game environments are basic but look like a real table tennis arenas. Some recreation levels take place in gyms and other populated places. As you’re playing the match you may catch a glimpse of some random stranger walking down the hall or passing by a window. This makes you feel that you are not the only ones there in that building at the time of the match.
One standout feature is the environment changes that occur when both players are at peak performance and in focus. The lights dim around the stadium and light up around the table, leaving a circular spotlight on you, the table and your opponent. The sound fades off into the distance and all you will hear is the crack of the ball as you struggle to return every shot.
Like most sports games Table Tennis does not utilize graphical affects such as spells, explosions, burning buildings, and such, so graphic quality is really tested against realism of the match and your ability to feel like your one with the game. Table Tennis accomplishes this task easily.
The Sound
The game sounds are just what you would expect from a ping-pong match. The players occasional huffing and puffing, some retort from a few of the characters when they miss a shot, and the sound of the little white ball clicking off the table and paddles.
The sound track is simple yet affective. Unlike almost every Electronic Arts sports game, Rockstar Table Tennis does not contain a hip-hop rap score that sounds like nails grating down a chalk board. The music is good, unique, and has a beat that will stay with you throughout the day.
The character voices could have been a bit better. It seems the only characters that do any speaking are the English ones, although I believe I’ve heard some non-English character speaking English. Luc, the French player, should curse in French while Juergen, the German player, could mumble in German, but that does not seem to happen.
In Conclusion
If you enjoy entertaining games that do not make any guarantee on thousands of hours of game time by adding “busy work” than this might be the game for you. You can always avoid the risk and rent it first, but at its $40.00 price it’s a well loved addition to any gamer’s collection.
The game offers plenty of challenge, an Xbox Live online mode, a wide array of achievements and unlockable items. You receive two achievements for your dedication: The Veteran (10+ hours of offline play time) and The Net Veteran (10+ hour of online play). For hardcore gaming enthusiast that alone means twenty hours of gameplay for a $40.00 price. Where else can you spend $40.00 for twenty hours of entertainment?
For those that have no interest in table tennis as a sport, I doubt this game is going to change your mind. This is a great simulation for those that love table tennis but cannot fit a table in their house or have allergic reactions to real exercise. Buy it.
Graphics: 9
Sound: 6
Game play: 8
Replay value: 10
You will find this review, along with a review for Brain Age (for the Nintendo DS) and others in issue #4 of 2o2p Magazine
