When word came around that Rockstar would be announcing an exclusive Xbox 360 title, I got pretty excited. I wondered what this game could be, coming from one of the most innovative developers in the entire gaming industry.  The game they announced was a ping pong title aptly named, Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis. I knew that even though this sounded like a mediocre title at first, that with the Rockstar touch, it would end up being excellent.

 
Gameplay
Table Tennis is a very popular sport around the world, and now Rockstar has brought this experience to the Xbox 360. The game includes a few different game modes which I will discuss in this review. Starting out, it is wise to do the tutorial mode. This mode teaches you how to play the game including serves, returns, and even moves like smashes. If you beat the tutorial mode with full completion, you even get an achievement. This tutorial teaches you the ropes to get into the game in the other modes.  The game is pretty simple to play, much like a tennis game. You have your buttons for different returns, and these buttons are also used for the serves and other more fancy returns including the smash.  The controls are extremely simple, so it is easy for a new player to jump in and still have fun from the get go.

The tournament mode is sort of the progression mode in the game. You play in bracket tournaments, and to move on, you have to win your bracket. It ranges in length depending on the level of the tournament depending on how many matches you will have to play.  The tournament mode is great, and allows you to unlock some different items depending on the player you choose. The tournaments differ on who you end up playing randomly.  The one problem I found with the tournaments is that the final match can become very difficult resulting in retry after retry.

The game includes a good assortment of characters with different strengths and different unlockable items. These can range from different outfits to new table tennis venues.  The venues range from a competition venue to simpler ones like found at a local hangout.  They work very well in this aspect as tournaments are held in the larger venues with fans cheering out your name as you play.  Another interesting aspect is the “Focus Mode”. This is a sort of heightened skill level that you can use for playing well. You can do skill shots and even stay in focus mode until the bar runs out. This slows down the game and allows you to perform amazing shots that can mean the difference between a point for you or a point against you.  This is not as sim like as the rest of the game is in how it gives you quite an advantage, but adds a great aspect to the game creating benefits for playing well.

This game is available to be played in both online and local multiplayer. The online portion over Xbox Live allows you to play against players from all over the world in different setups of gameplay, with different options for the games. You are able to play exhibition matches, and even timed online tournaments with up to 8 different players. This is a fun mode and allows you to compete in a tournament style compared to a regular match play style.  You are able to view all of the different ranked and unranked leader boards on Live to see how you stack up against the competition. The Table Tennis Network is one of the coolest online features, even though you don’t play to use it. This is sort of like Gotham TV on PGR3, and allows you to watch matches between various players on Xbox Live.  One hint here, try spectating a match online and you will be awarded with some achievement points. The online mode is a lot of fun, and if adds some good gameplay value to this game as it is quite an active game.

The gameplay is a lot more fun than I was expecting from a table tennis game. Rockstar has clearly put a good amount of work into the gameplay of this title, and it shows. The system of play is extremely simple and easy to learn for beginners. The simple control system is easy to remember, and still adds a great amount of depth with only a handful of buttons to remember and use. The online modes are excellent, especially the Table Tennis Network. The game is a great package, and it is even at a low price.

 
Graphics and Sound
Coming into this game, I knew that the graphics would be impressive. This game uses a new engine created by Rockstar called the RAGE engine. (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine).  The graphics in this game are astounding, and there are huge amounts of detail in the players and environments. Their clothes shift and move like actual cloth, and their movements and animations look extremely realistic. This is a good showcase of the current use of the Xbox 360s power, and less than a year into the Xbox 360s life, Rockstar is already pushing out visuals like this.  I was extremely impress with the visuals, the lighting, the camera angles, pretty much everything put into this game.

Two camera angles are available, a low and high camera angle, giving you two great views of the action allowing you to choose the camera angle which suits you best. The game includes replays after rallies that you can watch to see what went well, or what went wrong. The focus shots also slow down the time into a sort of bullet time style, where you can see the ball go spinning through the air towards the opponent’s side of the table. The next part of the game is the audio.

The audio in the game is excellent ranging from the bounce of the ball all the way to the cheers of the crowd for a participant. The sound effects are excellent, and the in game music is subtle, giving a more enhanced gameplay experience. You hear the bounce of the ball and the hit of the paddles. The sounds are distinct, and create a great audio experience, as like in most sports games where the audio is mostly concerned with bringing out the gameplay experience through the sounds of the action.

The audio and visuals in this game show a lot of commitment from Rockstar to support the Xbox 360. They are both outstanding and give an amazing experience of Table Tennis compared to your dingy basement atmosphere of the past. This really brings Table Tennis to the future, showing people that it is actually very fun. The visuals are outstanding for this early in the lifecycle, and I can only wait to see what GTA IV looks like utilizing the same engine as this game.

 
Overall
This game is outstanding, and is a good amount cheaper than most third party Xbox 360 titles. This is an excellent exclusive title from Rockstar and shows that Table Tennis can be a widely appreciated sport. The graphics are outstanding, and really show the power of the system already utilizing, bringing outstanding character models to the Xbox 360. The animations are outstanding, and the textures can just look crazy at times with shirts shifting as the player moves for a shot opposed to shirts melded to the character as in previous generation titles.  The game is a great amount of fun both online and off and of course offers the usual 1000 achievement points for various tasks including unlocking players and winning tournaments. Rockstar has put an impressive amount of work into this innovative title that nobody expected from them. This is an excellent Xbox 360 exclusive title, and hopefully we will see maybe one more game to bridge the gap of the wait of Fall 07’s Grand Theft Auto IV, which should be the finest showpiece piece of Rockstar’s work ever, and possibly one of the most anticipated titles in video game history.