Hands-On: Rockstar Table Tennis
We went to Rockstar for a quick hands-on with Table Tennis - but stayed for five hours and played all through the evening too. Detailed report!
"Surprisingly, quite a few of us are table tennis fans" explains Rockstar's Hamish Brown. "There have been some great racket sports games over the last twenty years, but we felt a table tennis game hadn't been done properly. And with it being the fastest racket sport, one people play recreationally and identify with..." but then, as would happen many times throughout our marathon hands-on with Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis, the talking was cut short and it was all eyes on the screen, as another gripping battle heated up.
A ferociously fast and engrossing sports title, Table Tennis has the depth, pace and learning curve of a solid fighting game.
We were still curious as to where the idea came from though. "We battle each other regularly," confirms Brown, "Right up to the higher ranks of the company, people are obsessed. The guys at Rockstar San Diego compete in leagues. It's something that a lot of us have played for many years, not just since we decided to make a video game of it."
We'll take their word for it, but really, it's not like it matters. We're simply in love with this Xbox 360 title, and here we're going to try and explain why.
Instantly appealing, Table Tennis engages the player with instinctive flow, control and speed, while exuding a visceral realism that's a lot more reflex-based than many sports titles. It's a far removed, much smaller world than Rockstar endeavours like San Andreas, yet no less innovative. It just focuses on doing one thing, but doing it really well.
There are eleven characters to choose from with both ladies and gents represented, and each player has their own personal attributes, facial animations, outfits and so on. The graphical detail is lovely to look at. Players are well-defined, with realtime shadows and facial animations that look the part, their clothes actually move nicely - the best cloth animation we've seen on Xbox 360 to date - and they're animated to a standard you'd expect from a title like this.
"A coloured trail represents what spin was used so you can respond accordingly"
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The arenas have a modest smattering of known brands dotted around - big table tennis names like Butterfly, Joola, Donic and Adidas are all in there - but there are no real players, since Rockstar "didn't think anyone would really identify with them, nobody really knows who some of the big stars are, so it would have been a little pointless."
You can't change your bats, but really, who cares. Players do, however, have a particular grip, with Liu Ping for example using a 'penhold' grip (tending to be more popular with some eastern players), and a couple of girls using it too. Girls. Are there any hot girls by the way? Yes, but "one has been changed a bit in the newest build" says someone at Rockstar who isn't Hamish Brown, "which I was mortified about." A lot of the girls are slightly faster around the table and they use spin a lot more - so there are some subtle differences between the guy and girl matches. You can't have mixed matches in professional table tennis, but apparently it can be quite fun to play with your girlfriend (if you have one). "That's all me and my girlfriend do when we're on holiday," says our rival website friend. "Well, not all we do." Quite.
Aaaanyway. The thing is, we expect it to look and sound nice; it's Xbox 360 goddammit. This game, we found, is truly all about just playing.
Every shot you can do in real-world table tennis you can do in the game, thanks to incredibly good ball physics, whether it's crushing smashes, defensive lobs, crazy lunges or little dinks. The left analog stick moves your player around and also controls the direction you want ball to go. Obviously 'spin' plays an important part in table tennis; the four different face buttons on the controller are for the different types of spin. A is your regular topspin shot, blue and red buttons and left are right spin, and Y is back spin. You can also use the right analog to hit a 'direction' to get one of the four shots, and also have the choice of using the analog triggers to do left and right spin, but we just stuck to the face buttons. Left and right spins are a little more difficult to execute, but can be used to sweep the player out wide, to get them out of position.
What about those videos on the web, where players do the craziest shots imaginable from opposite ends of the room? "There's some stuff on the net that's been seriously fiddled with," claims Hamish, "and stuff that's impossible to do in real life, we're not going to allow people to do it in the game, but if it's physically possible to do in real life, you can do it in the game - even if you're seven yards behind the table and doing these crazy, lunging leaps."
A coloured trail behind the moving ball represents what kind of spin is on it; yellow shows that backspin is being played, for example. The point is that the opponent can then counteract the spin that's being dealt to them. And the stronger the spin, the more prominent the colour of the trail will be, so if there's not much of a coloured trail then there's hardly any spin, and you can respond accordingly.
"If you over- charge your shot, you'll get a joypad rumble ... recovering from the rumble of doom is a rare feat"
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Serving is tight and offers a lot of flexibility; the further out you are, the more risk is attached to the serve, and the further out of position you'll be, but it gives the advantage of a pretty acute angle on the serve. To position player, you press to lock your player into position, the serve meter will go up and down, and you release at the point you want depending on the desired power and spin on the serve. Some characters have good serving abilities, while some aren't so good - for the weaker servers, the meter moves up and down a lot faster, making it more difficult to get a good serve.
Fortunately, it doesn't really matter if you're playing from top or (serving) bottom, even for players who may usually be bothered by their on-screen position, as the visibility is good and the play area is smaller. There's a lovely clean HUD, too - no 'respect points' lurking in the corner here. All you have on screen is the score (games are played to eleven points - serve for two points then switch - and best of three matches) and there are also two bars under each players' name, called focus bars.
You increase your focus bar whenever you 'charge' your shots by holding the spin buttons down just a little longer to generate more spin, or whenever you make good returns or execute good smashes. The bar goes through three phases as you play lots of successful shots and starts to blink, until you're at an intense stage where everything your player does gets a bit more aggressive. You can then 'use' focus by holding down the R shoulder button when hitting the ball for a more powerful, superior and attacking shot. With the Event Camera switched, on a cool dynamic is added, a very brief slow-motion zoom-on effect on the focus shot. It doesn't disrupt the rhythm and really lets a player show off, and it's especially fun with a rally of successive focus shots between players.
However, if you overcharge your shot, you'll get a rumble in the controller. That means you're going to have a shitload of spin on it, and you should think about easing off and changing your planned direction, otherwise it will most likely go wide or out, from too much power or curl. Recovering from the vibration of doom is a rare feat - and if it clips the edge of the table it can be incredibly fluky.
Whether you're rallying up 150 shots, keeping the flow going for a couple of intense minutes, or owning each other in quick, aggressive point scorchers, Rockstar's Table Tennis is a consistently ace experience. The pace, control scheme, focus bar and counter-attack 'mentality' are all exceptionally beat-em-up-like, and similarly, this is a game that will really separate the amateurs from the pros. But one thing we're convinced of is that this will be a game for pretty much everyone. At least, everyone with an Xbox 360; is it going to be perpetually 360 exclusive, we ask? "We've only heard 360" offers Brown.
With just a few loading screens to be finalised and some minor gameplay balancing to go before the title goes gold, there's not much of a wait for Table Tennis, which is out on May 22 in North America and May 26 in the UK. With E3 out of the way by then, we'll all be able to wind down and just play Table Tennis. That's our plan, anyway.
Director, Kikizo.com| Video Coverage (Latest Videos & Video FAQ) | |||
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| Description | Dur. | Size | Details |
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Rockstar Table Tennis Direct feed gameplay: Back spin - With a backspin shot, the basic defensive move, the bottom of the ball is moving in the same direction that the ball is traveling. This shot can cause the opponent to shoot the ball into the net, so to return a back spin you should avoid lower shots such as a sidespin or counter spin with a back spin shot right back. When you 'chop' or 'push' the ball, you produce backspin. The backhand shot is as above with the paddle on the opposite side of the player. (HD quality) |
0.17m | 9MB | HD, DF, 60 1280x720 6Mbps |
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Rockstar Table Tennis Direct feed gameplay: Crosscourt - Make your player run with the crosscourt shot which hits the ball diagonally from one corner of the table to another. Be cautious to centre yourself quickly after this shot as you can leave yourself wide open for your opponent to place the ball out of your reach on the other side of the table. (HD quality) |
0.21m | 12MB | HD, DF, 60 1280x720 6Mbps |
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Rockstar Table Tennis Direct feed gameplay: Down-the-line - The down the line shot puts the ball along the side of the table parallel to the side lines. The perfect shot to counter your opponent's crosscourt maneuver. (HD quality) |
0.26m | 14MB | HD, DF, 60 1280x720 6Mbps |
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Rockstar Table Tennis Direct feed gameplay: Forhand Backspin (HD quality) |
0.21m | 12MB | HD, DF, 60 1280x720 6Mbps |
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Rockstar Table Tennis Direct feed gameplay: Forehand Top spin - With a top spin shot, the basic offensive move, the top of the ball is moving in the same direction that the ball is traveling. The difficulty in returning a top spin shot is that the ball will easily pop up high or go off the table, so make sure you're in a position to keep the ball low or counter spin with a top spin shot. The backhand shot is as above with the paddle on the opposite side of the player. (HD quality) |
0.17m | 9MB | HD, DF, 60 1280x720 6Mbps |
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Rockstar Table Tennis Direct feed gameplay: Penholder - This is a type of grip mostly used by players in Asia. It gives the best possible forehand and a great range of motion in your serves, but is the most awkward backhand of the conventional grips. (HD quality) |
0.17m | 9MB | HD, DF, 60 1280x720 6Mbps |
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Rockstar Table Tennis Direct feed gameplay: Side spin - The side spin shot causes the ball to spin on its vertical axis and curves the ball left or right. This shot is going to cause the ball to go off the paddle in an unexpected direction so the opponent needs to stay focused and ready to reach out left or right to return this shot. (HD quality) |
0.22m | 12MB | HD, DF, 60 1280x720 6Mbps |
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Rockstar Table Tennis Direct feed gameplay: Smash - The ultimate in attack shots. This shot is easy to place when the ball has been 'popped up' by your opponent, perhaps in a poor response to a top spin shot. This shot gives the ball so much speed and elevation it is very difficult for the opponent to make a return and is also known as a 'kill shot'. (HD quality) |
0.16m | 8MB | HD, DF, 60 1280x720 6Mbps |
| Previous Videos | |||
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Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis First trailer (HD 720p) |
0.53m | 37MB | HD, DF, 30 1280x720 7Mbps |
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Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis First trailer (SD) |
0.53m | 7MB | HD, DF, 30 640x360 1.8Mbps |
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