Rockstar's Table Tennis is the first time that the sport has gotten any true recognition from the video game industry. Lots of times companies have discussed using whats widely known as ping pong as a mini game but Rockstar San Diego decided to give the sport a full out game that stands alone.

The game allows you to be one of 11 different characters and go through a single-player circuit tournament game ranking from Amateur, Rookie, Pro, and All-Star or to play an Exhibition game. Outside of the training for the game that is all there is single player wise. The game focused more on the Xbox Live enabled feature allowing multiple things to be done online. Of course what good would the Single Player game be if it didn't allow you to do something? So the good folks at Rockstar San Diego give you the power of unlocking different shirts for the players or courts or other players through the Tournaments. It also took advantage of the Xbox 360 users wanting to get all of the Achievements for a game and made it where if you wanted to take the time you could get a reward for beating the All-Star circuit with every character or ranking 10+ hours in offline play and online play. The basic options are your exhibition or your tournaments. So why with a game that seems so bare would anyone care about playing it? Because in actually the game is quite fun, for a period of time.

Graphically the game stands out from most of the other games for the 360. It's really sharp and crisp looking whether your in HD or not and is one of the few games on the 360 that has lived up to the hype of being next gen graphically. The animations on the screen are very solid as is the framerate throughout the game. Online you experience little lag and its where the game truly excels at which is not surprising considering the lack of single player depth. One of the greatest things Table Tennis offers is the spectator mode where you can sit and watch two people play and allowing you to create your own little tournament if you want.

The most impressive thing about Table Tennis is how easy the concept and control is. Simple control scheme makes the game easy to pick up and instantly learn. The training mode on the game is the easiest training mode i have ever seen. Gameplay on it is astoundingly good and smooth but the control fluctuates at time thanks to certain cameras that are set in the default mode. Level of difficulty is actually nice being as you can beat the Amateur tournament in about 10 minutes.

The horrors of Rockstar's Table Tennis are very slim as there's little to the game. One of the big pains to this particular game is the lack of depth. The gameplay depth, while good, leaves the overall game depth lacking. Theres no actual Career mode, you can't create your own player, and theres no option to extend any of the single player mode past an exhibition. Online seems to be where the game is focused at and no matter how fun the gameplay is theres only so much you can do. Which leads to perhaps the largest horror I've ever seen in a game; how fast you can become bored with the game. Unless you completely get swallowed in the game and have Xbox Live, the pace of Table Tennis becomes redundant in a hurry. Which is sad considering how well the game is put together and how fun it is. Other issues are all small and minor and only experienced online like the glitches. I ran into one of these the very first game i played online and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you hit the ball in the other direction it bounces off the table in a direction your opponent has no chance of hitting or so you think only for it to magically fly back to your side of the table bounce off of the table and land on the floor where you can't see it. Unless you swing, it stays there, however if you don't swing you're stuck standing looking at the screen until you do swing which makes you lose the point you should have had. Continued on page 2 »