Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Xbox 360) > Reviews > The Grand Theft Auto of sports simulation

Author's product rating:   

Playability & Enjoyment	Excellent - very playable game
Addictiveness	Very hard to stop playing
Graphics	Excellent
Difficulty & Complexity	A difficult game - needs a lot of patience
Value for money	Excellent value

Advantages:	Innovative gameplay, great visuals and an excellent price
Disadvantages:	limited by the fact it is essentially a table tennis game .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

When you think of rockstar games you think GTA. This means violence and blowing stuff up. However, it also means innovative gameplay and groundbreaking ideas. This is where Table Tennis comes in. I was a bit sceptical about buying a table tennis game and did cnsider it for a long time. I hope this review makes you make a quicker decision.

Of all the games I have played for xbox 360 this has perhaps the best visuals. The framerate is consistently smooth throughout offline play and only on occasion do you experience a drop in frame rate in online play. The character viewer is a bit of a show off feature and has no real function but is worh looking at just to show how smooth the textures really are.

Now to the gameplay. The gameplay appears very simple at first and seems to have little complexity. A glorified version of Pong perhaps. The left stick moves the player around the back line of the table and speed of movement depends on the character used. The four buttons A, B, X, Y correspond to the spins topspin (the deafult spin and the easiest to control), right spin, left spin, and backspin (a more defensive shot) respectively. You hold the button to get more spin and can use a combination of buttons for combination spins.

So far it sounds like your every day tennis game right ? It is the small features that make the difference though. For instance the pace of the game is far superior to tennis this fast-paced gameplay gives an arcade feel and makes the experience more enjoyable. The most innovative feature of all though is the vibration system. As you direct your shot and apply power the vibration increases to tell you your shot will be close to the edge of the table allowing you to reduce your angle as not to hit the shot out. Also the colour of the tail on the ball corresponds to the spin your opponent has applied allowing you to adapt your play. There is also a soft shot function to allow you to drop the ball short. Then we come to the focus metre. As you apply power to the ball you accumulate focus. When the focus bar reaches the maximum you go into focus mode meaning all of your spins are more powerful. You can also perform focus shots at any time using the RB button. These slow the motion of the game and allow you to perform more difficult shots. A nice feature is also the soundtrack. The music kicks in at important points in a long rally to signify the tension involved.

These helpful features in no way make the game easy. The first tournament can be sailed through using only the topspin button but the AI increases rapidly and the hard and expert modes display some of the best AI in modern gaming. If you step out of position you will be nine times out of ten punished for it. This can get frustrating and the game will take a long time to master but with frustration comes a sense of achievement when you suceed.

That brings me ncely onto the achievements available for this game. There is 1000 points available and they are split into easy to achieve to next to impossible to achieve. Most achievements are simply for unlocking various game items and completing tournaments however some, namely the online achievemnts are not so easy. The hall of famer achievement requires you to win 50 timed touraments and the G.O.A.T requires you to get the highest truSkill ranking which is not an easy task.

Online play is very enjoyable and is split into two sections exhibition lets you play a single opponent under any settings and timed tournament lets you compete in timed matches between three other players in a round robin style competition. As I have mentioned previously frame rate drops in online play are inconsistent and all other parts function the same except there is a time limit on the serve.

Table Tennis is a great sports sim with innovative gameplay and great visuals that comes at a good price. The only negative for the forseeable future is the novelety may wear off quite quickly (It has not yet worn off as far as I am concerned but we shall see). If you like tennis or table tennis and want an addictive and enjoyable game this is definitely for you. I hope this review has been helpful and not too long winded.