Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis
Author: Brian Ehlert
If there were one game that would potentially benefit more from a port to Wii than any other, it would be Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis. While Wii Play featured a ping-pong mini-game, Table Tennis will be Wii's first full-featured ping-pong title.
The controls have seen a significant change from Xbox 360 original. The game now features three control settings that range from simple swinging to controlling every aspect of your maneuvers. The most basic setup has players swinging the Wii Remote to hit the ball over the net. Players can add spin to the ball by holding down a direction on the d-pad while swinging. Holding the A button during a shot will execute a soft-shot, and by holding B players will enter into focus mode, which increases the athlete's accuracy and power.
The controls are fairly simple, and the game is easy to pick up and play. The Rockstar Games representative noted that the direction in your swing will affect where the paddle strikes the ball. However, in our short demo I was unable to determine if changing the placement of my shot using that method was successful. Regardless, the normal setup makes the game very friendly to casual gamers who are just looking for fun, remote-swinging action.
Players looking for more depth can opt for the the Control Freak setup. With this, players use the Nunchuk to move their character on the screen. As it is easy to find yourself out of position quite often, notice players may want to avoid this setting until they are comfortable with the other elements of gameplay. For even more control, players can jump up to the Sharpshooter setting, which will be familiar to anyone who has played the Xbox 360 version. In Sharpshooter, players use the Nunchuk while swinging to choose the position of their shot. The longer the analog stick is held in a direction, the farther the ball will go. When you are about to go off the table, the controller rumbles to give you a chance to quickly move it back on.
Unfortunately, Sharpshoot does not seem as successfully executed on Wii. I often found myself confused when using the Nunchuk to aim my shot and then felt the rumble in my other hand from the Wii Remote. Another issue with the controls was adding power to the shots. Just as in the Xbox 360 version, the earlier you press and hold the shot "button", the stronger the shot will be. The inherent problem with Wii lies in the need to swing the Wii Remote. For a power shot, players have to swing the Wii Remote before the ball reaches their character in order for him or her to charge up and eventually make the shot on-screen. The swinging of a tennis racket is a natural motion, and trying to break years worth of developing hand-eye coordination was very difficult to do.
The only other change to gameplay I saw was during the serves. There is no longer a spin meter when serving in the Wii version, only a power meter. The colors of the ball indicating spin direction still match the Xbox 360 controller: green for back-spin, blue for left-spin, yellow for top-spin, and red for right-spin. Those aspects aside, the game features all of the same characters and arenas as the Xbox 360 version. Graphically, the game has received a slight downgrade from the high-definition visuals on Xbox 360, which is expected. Players not familiar with the game may be a little disappointed in the overall presentation. Rockstar chose a minimalist presentation for the Table Tennis, making a table and two characters the highlights of an otherwise empty room.
While playing Table Tennis was an enjoyable experience, I felt the title played better on Xbox 360. The issues I experienced with the controls, while few, were enough to ruin the natural feel of playing a match of ping-pong. The Wii version also does not feature online play like the Xbox 360 edition and will cost nearly double the price of the original, now 18-month-old game when it releases this October for $39.99. Hopefully spending more time with the final version will do away with the control issues, but either way, people who own a Wii and Xbox 360 may want to think twice about which version they choose to purchase.
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