Table Tennis
$39.99
For those of you in the 30-plus crowd who remember the addictive nature of Pong on the Atari 2600, Rockstar Games’ Table Tennis will seem like a much-welcomed flashback, although it includes a slight graphical improvement, to put it mildly. One thing that makes Table Tennis so enjoyable is it doesn’t require the month-long training session one usually has to endure to play titles like Madden or NBA Live. From the time you put the game into the Xbox 360, you can be playing with confidence inside of 10 minutes. And if you really want to improve your skills, there’s a training mode that will take you step-by-step through the various skills you can learn. Speaking of the Xbox 360, this game looks stunning on it, filling the screen with sharp colors, while not overpowering the player with extraneous details such as crowd shots and coaches screaming at their players. Since the game is produced by Rockstar, I kept half-expecting to discover a code that would transform my paddle into a machine gun to take out my opponent but none was to be found. It’s quite refreshing what a departure Table Tennis is from that kind of game. After playing Hitman Blood Money (see E-Gear, August) for a few weeks, this was just what we needed. It’s really you, your opponent and a ping pong table. Although, there is the occasional, violent, overhead smash.
www.rockstargames.com
