Rockstar Does Table Tennis for 360

This is so not what we were expecting from Rockstar for its first game on a next-generation console.

When you think Rockstar, you think violence, profanity and controversy, thanks to the runaway success of the Grand Theft Auto series and the brouhaha surrounding games such as Manhunt. What you do not think is table tennis, and yet that's exactly what the company's debut Xbox 360 game will deal with.

Once you look past the ping-pong facade of Table Tennis, there's more Rockstar to this game than you would think, as Rockstar's Sam Houser explained:

"We wanted to use the power of the new hardware and the resolution of new televisions to give the game an immediacy, an intensity and a sense of physicality and reality, resulting in a purer, more visceral experience that simply was not possible previously."

In development for Xbox 360 at Rockstar San Diego [and, yes, that means Rockstar Grand Theft Auto North is working on...something else], the studio responsible for the Midnight Club games, Table Tennis is focussed on bringing the fast-paced world of table tennis to glorious, high-resolution life.

"Our goal was to create a game that is perfectly addictive in its focused simplicity," said Houser, "A game that showcases the true possibilities of a next gen experience, not just in looks but in feel and pace."

Table Tennis carries a budget price and will be out for Xbox 360 on 22 May in North America and 26 May across Europe.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games