Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis
The game's cover art. The words "TABLE TENNIS" (with the smaller "ROCKSTAR GAMES PRESENTS" above) are written inside a table tennis ball.

Developer(s) Rockstar San Diego[lower-alpha 1]
Publisher(s) Rockstar Games
Distributor(s) Take-Two Interactive
Producer(s) Darion Lowenstein
Designer(s) Benjamin Johnson
Programmer(s) Wil Paredes
Artist(s) Joseph Pileski,
Ted Bradshaw
Engine RAGE
Platform(s) Xbox 360, Wii
Release date(s) Xbox 360
  • NA May 23, 2006
  • EU May 26, 2006
Wii
  • NA October 17, 2007
  • PAL October 19, 2007
Genre(s) Sports
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis is a table tennis simulation video game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on May 23, 2006 for the Xbox 360, and on October 15, 2007 for the Wii.[2] The game was the first to be developed using Rockstar's proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, later used in games such as Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption.[3][4]

Gameplay

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis is a realistic simulation of the sport of table tennis. Two players hit a ball back and forth from one another, with the goal of trying to make the opposing player 'miss' the return through the use of various 'spinning' maneuvers. For example, if one's opponent were at the far left of the table, he would 'spin' the ball to the right of the table. The game also features a drop shot, as well as a 'focus shot' where the game goes into slow motion to allow the player to return hard-hit balls more accurately.

Wii version

A Wii port of Table Tennis was released by Rockstar Games on October 16, 2007. The game fully utilizes the Wii Remote.[2] The Wii version offers 3 different control schemes:

Development

Preliminary work on Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis began in 2005, prior to the announcement of the Xbox 360, which the game was developed for.[5] Rockstar San Diego, the core team behind the game, found that the hardware allowed them to develop games at a faster pace than with the previous hardware. Rockstar president Sam Houser said that, though the game's physics were achievable on the old hardware, the team waited for the possibility to develop for the Xbox 360 due to the "different level of production and technology" that it allowed. In developing the game's concept, the team was fascinated with concentrating the entire power of a particular hardware into one activity.[6] The game runs off the proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE), and is the first game to do so;[7] the engine was later used for other projects such as Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) and Red Dead Redemption (2010).[8]

Network programmer John Gierach found the development of the online multiplayer mode challenging, due to the level of realism the development team attempted to create. In addition, the speed and accuracy required for the game was also a challenge for the team, due to the fast pace of the matches.[9]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings(X360) 82.48%[10]
(Wii) 69.61%[11]
Metacritic(X360) 81/100[12]
(Wii) 68/100[13]

The game has been praised[14] for its simplicity, its "pick-up-and-play" style and its detailed visuals. The average rating of the game is 83% from the review aggregator gamerankings.com.[15] The game also includes numerous unlockable achievements that increase the longevity of the single player game. However, the difficulty of obtaining some of the multiplayer achievements (such as one requiring the maximum TrueSkill rating possible - only achievable by the top few players on the world leaderboard) - was one of the criticisms of the game. Another problem exclusive to the Wii version is the lack of a left-handed player amongst the characters lessening the controllability for left-handed users.

The multiplayer mode (available through Xbox Live only) allows for exhibition and tournament play with up to 12 other players.

Some reviewers[14] have criticized its lack of features, such as a career mode, the ability to create your own player, and other elements available in many other modern sports games. Table Tennis features only exhibition and tournament play (for both single and multiplayer). Most reviewers,[14] however, were able to overlook the omission of these features owing to the game's budget price (Table Tennis was priced new at $40/£30, $20/£10 cheaper than most Xbox 360 games).

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Additional work by Rockstar NYC and Rockstar London.[1]
Footnotes
  1. ↑ Rockstar San Diego (May 23, 2006). "Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis". Xbox 360 and Wii (v1.0). Rockstar Games. Level/area: Credits.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Rockstar Presents Table Tennis Review". IGN. 2007-10-15. Retrieved 2007-11-10.
  3. ↑ Totilo, Stephen (2006-05-04). "The First Rule Of Ping-Pong Club: Talk About Rockstar's Table Tennis Game". MTV News. Viacom. Retrieved 2007-04-10. The Rockstar reps explained that the game [Table Tennis] was running on RAGE, the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine. This is the graphics technology gamers are to expect from future Rockstar games, including the next "GTA."
  4. ↑ Thorsen, Tor (2006-06-15). "Grand Theft Auto IV powered by Table Tennis engine?". GameSpot. CNET. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
  5. ↑ Perry, Douglass C. (March 3, 2006). "And Now for Something Completely Different...". IGN. Ziff Davis. p. 1. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  6. ↑ Perry, Douglass C. (March 3, 2006). "And Now for Something Completely Different...". IGN. Ziff Davis. p. 2. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  7. ↑ Staff (July 18, 2007). "Rockstar presents Wii Table Tennis". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  8. ↑ Boyer, Brandon (June 29, 2007). "Product: Grand Theft Auto IV Using NaturalMotion's Euphoria". Gamasutra. UBM plc. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
  9. ↑ Miller, Jonathan (May 17, 2006). "Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis Interview". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis for Xbox 360". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis for Wii". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  12. ↑ "Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis for Wii Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 IGN: Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis Review
  15. ↑ Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis Reviews

External links