Traditionally, when you think of Rockstar Games titles such as the illegal street racing series Midnight Club or the illicitly violent Grand Theft Auto anthology come to mind, but all of that is about to change. In a bizarre twist, Rockstar decided to release a game about the relatively new Olympic sport entitled Table Tennis. Instead of running from the police and killing hookers, this time around gamers everywhere can play one of the most accurate tennis games to date. With eleven diversified characters and an unprecedented amount of shot control, Rockstar’s Table Tennis is an amazing experience despite all of the skepticism it received in the past.

Smashing Appearance

To start off, Table Tennis features some fantastic looking character models and environments to help enhance the authentic ping pong experience. From the towering strength of Jesper to the nimble Carmen, each player is intricately detailed down to the last strand of hair. Beads of sweat can be seen dripping from their faces, and the animations are always smooth and fluid. There are plenty of unlockable arenas and outfits to help keep the game feeling fresh as well. Although there really isn’t a whole lot to focus on when you’re playing a simple round of table tennis, it’s hard not to be able to appreciate the almost lifelike appearance.

Aced Audio

The sound effects in Table Tennis are carefully implemented in order to emphasize the feeling of the game. At the beginning of a rally, the crowd is dead silent so you can only hear the ping pong ball being battered back in forth along with an occasional grunt. If a rally continues for long enough, the stark silence is contrasted with a roaring crowd and a fast-paced techno track to help build up the tension. Hearing the crowd “ohh’ and “ahh” as they chant your name throughout a heated match makes Table Tennis even more enjoyable than it would be otherwise.

Serves Up!

Although you might think that it would make more sense to get an actual tennis game instead of a ping pong title, Table Tennis does a lot to say otherwise. The sheer amount of shot control is enough to make it a recommendable title; this game goes beyond the basics to make it one of the best sports games on the Xbox 360.

When serving, you can control how much spin and power you put on the 40mm ball. You can hold down the corresponding face buttons or hold the right analog stick in the proper direction to choose what direction the ball will spin, and holding it down longer will increase power. You can also use move the left analog stick to aim your serve in a different direction. You can combine either topspin or backspin with left sidespin or right sidespin to create a variety of shots, so you can mix up your technique to keep your foe on their toes. Sometimes a powerful serve will blast by your rival, but you could also try barely tapping the ball over the net to catch them off guard.

Once the actually rallying begins, you’ll be presented with even more shot options. Building upon the aiming and spin techniques already mentioned, you can utilize several different shot types. Holding down the right bumper will perform a focus shot, which will add extra power and spin to your shot. Holding down the left bumper will allow you to do a soft shot. Using a soft shot while aiming down and hitting the ball with backspin can create a shot that is nearly impossible to return perfectly. If your opponent is completely caught off guard but somehow manages to return the ball, there’s a good chance that a smash opportunity will become available. There isn’t a more rewarding feeling then pounding the ball in someone’s face after a heated rally. Holding down the left or right trigger will activate a full focus in which time slows down, allowing you to have complete control over your shot. The focus meter is slowly filled up during each rally, and once you fill it up all the way you can hit powerful and accurate shots.

Furthermore, each character has their own set of stats with strengths and weaknesses that appeal to different play styles. Although there aren’t custom characters here, eventually you can find someone within the set of eleven characters that works best for you. As you play against various pros, it’s clear that no two players are alike. Because of this, you need to develop specific strategies to combat each character. Fighting back with soft shots can help take down Jesper’s powerful shots, while laying unrelenting topspin barrages at Haley will simply blow her away. As you progress through the game’s tournament mode you’ll have plenty of time to try out every character to see which one fits you best.

After the very first hit, a colored halo will appear around the ball showing what type of spin is on it. By looking at the color, which corresponds to one of the face buttons, you can try to perform a counterspin. If you can react fast enough and press the button that matches the halo, you can retaliate with an even more powerful shot that can certainly shake them up a bit. The best of features of all is the vibration feedback. If you’re aiming a shot off of the table, the controller will vibrate subtly to give you a heads up, but the ball will probably still land safely anyway. If the controller vibrates even more, then your shot will definitely go out so you’ll have to adjust your aim before it’s too late.

Online Gaming

Once you make your way through the tournament mode and have had enough playing against CPU opponents, there will always be an online gaming community just waiting for you to join. Online matches can range from simple one-on-one matches up to eight player tournaments, all of which can be customized by choosing different environments and match options. The serve meter can get a little jumpy at times, but for the most part the game was just as smooth as and even more intense than the single player modes. Like always, you can play in either unranked or ranked matches, the latter of which will impact your standings on the international leaderboards. Although it would probably help to unlock all of the character before you venture into the online world of Table Tennis, anyone can enjoy this authentic ping pong game over Xbox Live.

Conclusion

When Rockstar announced that their next title would revolve around ping pong, the media as a whole didn’t exactly embrace this idea with open arms. However, after seeing the final product that those great minds came up with, it’s hard to believe that anybody doubted them in the first place. Table Tennis recreates the fast paced professional table tennis experience by delivering an all around enjoyable Xbox 360 gaming experience.